The Oak Grove Board of Aldermen on Aug. 18 directed city staff to work with the Oak Grove School District and the city attorney to draft an amendment to Section 210.18 — “Endangering the Welfare of a Child” — to give the city a mechanism to hold parents or guardians responsible when compulsory-attendance efforts fail.

Board members said the measure is intended as a tool of last resort to address chronic truancy after school- and district-level interventions have been exhausted.

Police Chief told the board that other jurisdictions have adopted similar provisions and that the city has struggled to get some children back to school: “Just looking back over the course of the last few years, we’ve had around 30 to 40 kids who have parents assign them out to homeschool,” the chief said, describing the pathway used when district efforts to re-enroll or return students fail. City Attorney Jackson cautioned that a citation under such an ordinance would be treated as an infraction requiring a court appearance and could escalate if a respondent fails to cooperate. “Think of a nuisance abatement citation,” Jackson said; he added the office would examine state statute language and could propose guardrails for successive citations.

Board members raised concerns about possible impacts on low-income families. One alderman asked whether criminalizing or citing parents would worsen hardships without clear evidence of benefit: “Slapping a citation on top of maybe a single parent that works shift work … does that actually solve anything or does that exacerbate the problem?” the alderman asked. Several members said they wanted explicit, step-by-step procedures and data before the policy is finalized.

Mayor Dana Webb and other aldermen emphasized that the direction passed is only to draft language and that implementing the policy would require a future ordinance vote. The board voted unanimously to direct staff and the city attorney to draft the amendment and to work with the school district on wording; aldermen asked staff to return with recommended guardrails and a plan to review results after a trial period. The mayor said the measure would return to the agenda as an ordinance at a later meeting.

Next steps: city staff and the city attorney will prepare draft ordinance language in consultation with Oak Grove School District officials; the board requested that staff collect implementing data and report back — with the mayor and members specifying they expect a review of outcomes before any rescission or further amendment.