The Appleton Area School District has been taking steps to try to get a truancy ordinance passed in the City of Appleton. One of the drivers behind this push is that there are around 20 AASD high school students who have sever attendance problems. Per AASD Attendance Coordinator Stephanie Marta, school staff has attempted interventions, attempted home visits, attempted to engage the students and families but they cannot get any engagement, and “Most have not stepped foot in a school building this year.”
As posted earlier, these students are considered enrolled under state rules regarding enrollment, but the District is not receiving funding for them. Additionally, even if they started attending school, the District would not receive funding for them unless they attended on specific days that would allow them to be included in either of the two enrollment counts that take place during the school year. (https://allthingsappleton.com/2025/05/02/students-who-never-attend-class-considered-enrolled-but-do-not-bring-in-funding-aasd-does-not-clarify-if-it-has-confirmed-that-20-non-attending-students-are-still-living-in-appleton/)
I asked Superintendent Greg Hartjes whether AASD had confirmed that these students were actually still living in the District or if they had potentially moved. He eventually responded, “In talking with our two Attendance Coordinators, they are 99% certain the students continue to reside in Appleton. When students are not attending school, letters, emails, and texts are sent. If no response is received, we will make home visits. If there is no answer, we may ask a neighbor, check with a landlord, talks to school friends…essentially anyway we can find out the living situation of the student.”
Additionally, a popular understanding of the purpose of Wisconsin’s school enrollment rules which require evidence of enrollment in a new school before a student is formally disenrolled from their previous school is that this is a measure to prevent students who are being abused from falling off the radar. That does not, however, appear to be the case in practice.
In line with this understanding of the purpose of enrollment/disenrollment rules, I asked Superintendent Hartjes if, separate from truancy enforcement, AASD contacted the police about students who never attended class and asked the police to perform a welfare check. Per Superintendent Hartjes, “As for welfare checks, they are only done when there is abuse or neglect suspected…school attendance is not considered either of these so does not qualify for a welfare check.”
Finally, it is possible that some of these 20 high school students driving the push for a truancy ordinance are homeless, although it was not clear how many may be. Superintendent Hartjes stated, “We have over 700 students that were considered homeless at some point during the year, so it is entirely likely that some of the 20 students could have been homeless. “
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