If you want to know why the school system just expanded the reach of its truancy program, check out what truancy officer Michelle Edmonds-Sepulveda came across while making her latest rounds.
Edmonds-Sepulveda, who’s best known for her other role as a Westville alderwoman, is one of 16 truancy officers working for the city school system. Thursday, she began her day at the Wexler/Grant Community School, a pre‑K to 8 school in the Dixwell neighborhood where, according to Principal Jeffie Frazier, about 40 of the roughly 670 students are absent every day.
Edmonds-Sepulveda’s job is to help kids overcome obstacles that keep them from coming into school. At Wexler-Grant, some parents play a very active role — a school PTO meets every month. Others need to be reached out to to help get kids to school.
Edmonds-Sepulveda does a mix of home visits and in-school counseling at Wexler-Grant, Beecher and Hillhouse High School.
The smiling truancy officer began her day Thursday at the principal’s office with a seventh-grader who had been marked down for 43 unexcused absences over this school year. The soft-spoken child got a talking-to from Principal Frazier. She told staff her mother could be found at home.
Edmonds-Sepulveda looked up the address and hopped in her car up Winchester Avenue. She rang the doorbell to a second-story apartment. — no one answered. The door was ajar.
“Woof! Woof!” called Edmonds-Sepulveda, listening for a response before mounting the inner staircase. “Don’t laugh — You never know when there may be a dog.”
At the top of the stairs, a fourth-grade student answered the door. Who is it? her mom wanted to know.
“Miss Michelle from Wexler,” responded Edmonds-Sepulveda, dressed in a floral blouse and sandals, carrying a pen adorned with a big pink rose. (“I’m the friendly truancy officer,” she later explained. “When you show up, especially with a flower on your pen, they’re not afraid, and they answer your questions.”)
The young girl, who turned out to be home on a three-day suspension after getting in a fight at school, let the truancy officer and this reporter in, to wait on a living room couch for her mother, who was in the other room. A one-year-old girl toddled across the carpet, swinging a soft toy purse.
When the mother emerged about 10 minutes later, Edmonds-Sepulveda introduced herself and gently handed her a list detailing her daughter’s 43 unexcused absences plus several instances of tardiness. The mother acknowledged the tardiness, but said, “there ain’t no way in the world she missed so many days.”
She reckoned her daughter had indeed come to school, but “she probably afraid to go to the office [and sign in] ‘cause she’s late.” Her daughter doesn’t take the bus, but walks to school, often leaving the house late, she said.
“You have to stress to her she has got to stop with the tardiness,” said Edmonds-Sepulveda. She said she wouldn’t take any punitive action yet, but would keep an eye on her daughter.
The mother asked to keep the list of absences — “I’m gonna show her,” she said. They said friendly goodbyes.
The morning visit was just one of a series of house calls, many of which reveal deeper social problems. Thursday, she knocked on four other houses where no one was home. In one home, she’s been trying to get a hold of the mother for weeks to set up counseling for her two daughters, who have been getting in trouble at school ever since a family member died by gun violence. “They need help,” she said, frustrated.
She was working with a list compiled by Principal Frazier. On that list were 28 students who had missed at least 20 days of school this school year.
“That’s far too many!” said Frazier, referring to the 40 or so who are absent each day at school. “That shouldn’t happen, especially when we’re giving them breakfast, lunch,” and a snack if they do after-school activities. “New Haven’s doing all we can — we just need help from the parents!”
Each student’s family must be contacted, and solutions sought. Excessive unexcused absenteeism can warrant a call to the state Department of Family and Children Services for “educational neglect.” More often, students may be sent to juvenile court, where a judge can suggest detention or a monitoring bracelet. Edmonds-Sepulveda prefers to use those methods as a last resort, opting for counseling and social services instead.
In many cases, reaching out means helping families find basic needs, like food or electricity. Earlier that day, Edmonds-Sepulveda led a grandmother down the bright hallway of Wexler/Grant. Her granddaughter had been missing school lately. Edmonds-Sepulveda quickly discovered the reason — the child’s mother had come down with a serious illness and had relocated out of town. The student had to travel half an hour to commute to school.
As in many cases, the visit opened up a backdrop of bigger problems — an aunt needed diapers for her newborn; and back when the family lived in New Haven, they could not afford electricity in their home. Edmonds-Sepulveda led the grandmother to the school’s family resource officer, who made a call to the local diaper bank.
Edmonds-Sepulveda also works for the Hillhouse High School, where she helps girls who have dropped out due to pregnancy, or boys who won’t come to school for fear of a fight. She sits down with them, sometimes over a beef patty on the porch, talks to them and helps them find a way to transfer or go back to school.
The Night Shift
When no one’s home, Edmonds-Sepulveda drops off a card with her phone number, but oftentimes people don’t call back. She says she has much better luck when she can meet the parent face to face and help them with their problems, be it connecting with social services, setting up a mentor for the child, or instilling some motivation.
Noting that kids who didn’t go to school were at higher risk for getting wrapped up in turf wars and shootings, the mayor in February expanded the truancy initiative to include a nighttime shift, so that parents who work during the day could be reached at night.
Truancy officers take turns working the night shift, accompanied by a cop for personal protection. Sometimes police presence does the trick with truant kids: “because you’re with a cop,” noted Edmonds-Sepulveda, “they get afraid and they’re like, I better go to school now!”
Overall, however, the job isn’t about intimidation, said the lifelong city resident and friendly alderwoman. It’s about connecting with kids. She should know — she spent years doing just that as a dance and drama teacher in city public schools.
“Some of these families are so depressed or overwhelmed that they forget to show their kids they care about them,” she said. “Just showing up and showing you care — that gets them going again.”