Derby parent says district wrongly referred her child to county DA over attendance

A Derby parent told the Derby Board of Education on Aug. 18 that a district truancy referral to the Sedgwick County District Attorney27s Office wrongly accused her family of educational neglect, citing district attendance records and an attached staff comment that she called an opinion rather than evidence.

"In January, our family received a letter from the district stating that my daughter had 10 excused absences and 0 unexcused absences," Elizabeth Stanton said during the meeting27s public-comment period. "And yet just 3 months later, this district submitted a truancy referral to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office and attached that very same letter as evidence against us."

Stanton said the DA27s office followed with a notice threatening that her daughter could be declared a child in need of care and directing the family to attend a courthouse workshop or face formal court proceedings. Stanton said many absences listed on the district record were actually district errors logged while her daughter participated in school-sponsored activities.

"My grave mistake was that instead of challenging every 1 of your errors, I simply excused them in the Skyward app to keep the peace," Stanton said. "And for that, I was told I could no longer excuse my own child's absences without a doctor's note." She characterized the referral as "incompetence dressed as authority" and said it caused reputational harm and stress to her family.

Stanton also quoted a passage that she said was written by a district staff member and included in the referral: "this student does way too many activities and is under a lot of pressure to do well by her parents and herself. She does need to attend a workshop, but she needs to slow down at the same time." Stanton said that language was opinion, not evidence.

The parent urged the board to "take a hard look at the culture that allows something like this to happen," saying that if a thriving, supported student can be treated in this way, other families could be similarly affected.

The board did not take an immediate action on the comment during the meeting; public-comment remarks were taken under advisement, and the district did not respond on the record during Stanton27s turn. The transcript indicates the district uses the Skyward student information system to track attendance, and Stanton said she used the same system to excuse some entries rather than contest each error.

Stanton asked the board to examine district processes that lead to truancy referrals and how staff commentary is appended to official referrals. The board did not announce follow-up steps during the meeting.

Clarifying details from the public comment: Stanton said the initial district letter listed 10 excused absences and 0 unexcused absences; she said many entries labeled as absences were actually participation in school-sponsored activities; she said the DA notice directed attendance at a courthouse workshop to avoid court proceedings.

The comment was made during the board27s public-comment period on Aug. 18, 2025. The board took no formal vote in response during the meeting; public comments were recorded and will be part of the official meeting record.