Prince George’s County work group weighs attendance monitoring, family supports and school-based mental health to curb truancy

Councilwoman Crystal Bridal, co-chair of the Prince George’s County Council’s Truancy Study Work Group, convened the group’s meeting to review recommendations aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism across county public schools. The group discussed strengthening attendance-monitoring systems, expanding parental engagement workshops, standardizing school attendance teams, increasing home visits, building community partnerships for transportation and food security, expanding tutoring and mentoring programs, and improving school-based mental health supports.

The work group is considering recommendations that range from short-term, low-cost steps — such as parental engagement workshops and small incentive programs for improved attendance — to larger staffing and programmatic changes, including adding school social workers and clarifying the scope of home visits. "We are really looking forward to coming up with solutions, not just for the school system that could impact policies and procedures, but more importantly, also how we can look at investing resources, to tackle the issue of truancy," Councilwoman Crystal Bridal said at the start of the meeting.

Why this matters: County officials and school staff said chronic absenteeism is driven by multiple barriers outside the classroom — transportation gaps, food insecurity, inconsistent contact information for families and unmet mental-health needs — and that responses must combine administrative changes with community supports. The work group intends to produce recommendations…