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Nick Conor urges lawmakers to shift H.930 from punishment to partnership on chronic absenteeism
Summary
At a Senate Education Committee hearing, Nick Conor, director of student engagement data, testified that Vermont’s H.930 risks criminalizing poverty and urged removing rigid 'excused/unexcused' lists, replacing 'truancy officer' language with engagement roles, and using chronic-absence rates as the accountability metric.
Nick Conor, director of student engagement data for Monty Rock public schools and a senior fellow with Attendance Works, told the Senate Education Committee on April 15 that House Bill H.930 should be reworked to focus on lost instructional time and family supports rather than punishment.
Conor opened his testimony with a home-visit anecdote about a first grader he identified as "Sarah" whose single mother walked nearly a mile with multiple small children to get them to school. The story, he said, illustrated how barriers such as transportation and poverty—not parental indifference—often drive absenteeism.
"When we look at the bill as it's written now we are codifying multiple reasons that leave," Conor said, adding that lengthy statutory lists of "excused" and "unexcused" absences invite subjectivity and can entrench inequities. "We care more about lost instructional time than trying to be a lie detector to say this was good, this was bad," he said.
Conor urged three changes: remove hard-coded lists of excused/unexcused absences and delegate definitions to the Agency of Education or State Board so policy can adapt; replace the term "truancy officer" with engagement-focused job titles (for example, "attendance engagement specialist"); and eliminate or reconsider financial penalties and criminal-process triggers that could penalize low-income families.
He cited data to frame the problem: about one in four Vermont students is chronically absent, he said, and his district reduced rates from roughly 32% to 18% after targeted interventions. He also recommended using the chronic-absence metric—missing 10% of school days—as the accountability benchmark for schools rather than relying on punitive measures aimed at individual families.
Committee members pressed Conor on whether he had engaged the House and on prosecutorial practice. Conor said he had testified earlier with the Vermont Superintendents Association and filed written comments before the House vote; he said local prosecutors' approaches vary and he had not seen a uniform statewide enforcement policy. A committee member asked whether the state's attorney would support removing penalties; Conor said he had not formally consulted the local state's attorney on the bill's language but described courtroom interactions he had observed as often "family first."
Conor described a concrete intervention: after a home visit to a housing complex, his district added a bus stop near the building and chronic absences there resolved. He framed such resource-focused responses as more effective than letters or fines. "That was an effective intervention versus sending a letter to say you're at this number," he said.
Conor concluded by urging the committee to move "from criminalization to compassion" and offered to provide further data or follow-up testimony. The committee did not take a vote on H.930 during the session; members indicated they would continue review and accept additional testimony in coming days.
