Summit and Eagle’s truancy courts are ‘a last resort option’ for students. Here’s what that entails.

Schools only have so many tools and intervention techniques at their disposal to mitigate a student’s truancy issues, and some districts have more resources than others. When a student continues to be chronically absent, meaning they’ve missed well over 10 days of school, and nothing is working to improve their attendance, court is the last resort. Within Colorado’s Fifth Judicial District — comprising Summit, Eagle, Lake and Clear Creek counties — is truancy court.

Truancy court functions a bit different from district to district, yet has the same end goal in each: improve a truant student’s attendance. Each case that goes to truancy court starts with a referral from a school. Next comes a date in the county’s respective court, followed by the appointing of an advocate for the student.

A judge will assign a volunteer from Court Appointed Special Advocates of the Continental Divide who will work with the students. Court Appointed Special Advocates is a national organization which supports youth interacting with the county system in some fashion and has regional branches. Janine Mariani, co-executive director of programs for Court Appointed Special Advocates of the Continental Divide, said schools in Colorado must abide by state truancy laws until a student turns 18.

“Every school is going to have their own truancy policy with things they do (such as) interventions within the school, and then the truancy courts are a last resort option — they’ve tried every.