MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — The Morgan County District Attorney’s Office is taking proactive steps to keep juveniles out of the prison pipeline.
According to DA Scott Anderson, truancy in Decatur City Schools has been excessive. He noticed that the excessive absenteeism from school has led to greater challenges.
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“A large majority of the people who are in prison for the omission of a murder, their first crime was truancy,” Anderson said.
Since November Anderson told News 19 that to alert the families of the absences, the DA’s office sent out over 200 letters to parents and caregivers of students who had more than two unexcused absences from school.
“Unfortunately, they had another unexcused absence and wound up on the third unexcused absence list again, but it did have an impact, so we are expecting that to grow,” Anderson explained.
To combat the growing truancy issue, Anderson announced a partnership with community agencies that are aimed at reducing the incidence of truancy, school suspension and crime through a program called the Helping Families Initiative (HFI).