The Truancy Mutiny
The county seat of Malheur is Vale, population 2,000. Located 12 miles west of the Idaho border, the Vale School District has 865 students and, according to OJP’s analysis, enjoys an attendance rate other districts dream of—83%. That’s 18.5 points above the state average.
The start of its attendance recovery began in the 2021–22 school year, when McBride, the Vale superintendent, received an email from a local court official that floored her:
School districts across the state could no longer issue citations to parents for truancy violations.
This change occurred because, a few months earlier, lawmakers from both parties passed Senate Bill 817. Coming in the wake of George Floyd Jr.’s murder in Minneapolis, the bill wiped out juvenile justice fines, costs for court-assigned lawyers, probation fees, and other “aggressive and racially discriminatory fees,” according to the advocacy group Our Children Oregon.
But the bill also eliminated using the court system to enforce attendance laws, specifically the use of citations and fines. In doing so, according to a recent survey by Attendance Works, Oregon became one of only two states with this specific prohibition.
McBride and other superintendents thought the change was crazy. “[Now] there wasn’t a lever to say, no, you must send your child to school,” McBride said
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