Utah school district using fees to discourage truancy
Feb 24, 2025, 2:14 PM | Updated: 2:15 pm
FILE: Granite School District offices are pictured in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
(Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Granite School District is using truancy fees to prevent chronic absenteeism in its classrooms.
“To be clear, we don’t want their money. We want them in class,” Granite School District Superintendent Ben Horsley told Dave & Dujanovic.
The fee applies when students are caught in the hallway during class time. Horsley said those students are checked in by an administrator who then sends an email to the teacher. The students are then given about 10 to 15 minutes to get to class.
If students don’t show up to class after that, they’ll be charged a $5 fee.
Related: Utah schools working to address chronic absenteeism
“If you’re just hanging out on school property without any good reason for not being in class, then you’re given the opportunity and the choice to go to class,” Horsley said. “And then, and only then, if you don’t show up after that, is this truancy ticket enforced.”
Horsley said this doesn’t apply to students who may be out of class due to an emotional or mental health problem.
“That would be a referral to the social worker at the school to get in touch with family (and) provide some additional support.”
Increases in truancy in Utah
Horsley said truancy has been on the rise since a 2017 law barred law enforcement from issuing citations for repeat offenders.
“We’ve seen an increase since 2017 of truancy on school property… because kids know they can’t get referred to court anymore.”
The Utah School Board of Education reported a 12.5% chronic absenteeism rate in 2017. In 2024, that rate was 23.8%.
Horsley said the truancy fee is just one way the district is trying to fight chronic absenteeism. If students are showing a pattern of not showing up to class, the school will look at other ways to intervene.
“There’s a lot of other interventions that go into this, once it’s been escalated beyond a handful of instances of truancy. And most of those include trying to get with parents to find out what the core root of the truancy is,” Horsley said.
For students who have been given truancy tickets, Horsley said administrators can help them work it off or come to an agreement involving their parents.
“We’re just looking to get kids to go to class. And if they’re willing to do so, most of those times with behavior contracts, we’ll wave the fee.”
