CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new report alleges Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) did not comply with North Carolina’s truancy law during the onset of the pandemic.
The law compels districts to formally notify parents when their students are missing, and if the absences persist, parents could eventually be referred for criminal charges.
By request of the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor looked at the procedures for six North Carolina school districts, including CMS, during the 2020-2021 school year.
A finding of the report said CMS, along with the other school districts audited, didn’t act on legal requirements for students with three, six, and 10 or more unexcused absences.
Data has long shown that students missing school climbed to their worst numbers during the pandemic.
"This audit is not diminishing the crisis brought about by COVID for North Carolina school systems, the students, their families, and teachers," Beth Wood, North Carolina’s state auditor said in a prerecorded statement.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction came out with a scathing rebuke of the findings. DPI said that the Office of the State Auditor failed to understand the data they were provided, and in turn, produced a report that was flawed in concept and execution.
"Given the unprecedented nature and magnitude of errors of this audit, NCDPI felt it necessary to respond directly to this egregious report," a press release said.
The report acknowledges it used limited data for its findings, saying DPI did not provide complete or accurate data for five of the six school districts selected for audit. One of those five is CMS.
"The analysis could only be performed on one school district and the details are in the audit," Wood said.
"NCDPI was optimistic that this report would provide the guidance schools desperately need, but instead it provides nothing that schools are able to operationalize to get even a single student back in the classroom," DPI officials said in a statement. "Instead of delivering recommendations that could be useful to the General Assembly, NCDPI, and the districts, OSA wasted $350,000 of COVID-19 relief funding and well over 1,000 hours of NCDPI and public school unit (PSU) staff time producing a report that did not answer the questions posed by the General Assembly."
WCNC Charlotte learned a sample of only 60 CMS students was used to determine the outcomes of the report despite the district having more than 140,000 students.
Despite the data limitation, the auditor's office said it was able to come away with the following findings.
- All six school districts did not comply with North Carolina’s Truancy Law during the 2020-2021 school year. Specifically, District schools did not perform required actions for students with three, six, and ten or more unexcused absences.
- All six school districts did not monitor to ensure student attendance data was complete and accurate.
During the pandemic, the CMS superintendent at the time, Earnest Winston, admitted to a board member that he was not making criminal refer for truancy of CMS students during the pandemic.
The law compels districts to escalate truancy cases to the district attorney's office and social services if the parents are not taking steps to get their child to school.
CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill has been clear the district will enforce its attendance policy.
A school plan under Hill's leadership was unveiled at a 2023 CMS media conference showing intervention for chronically absent or truant students. It includes finding out why students are missing school, how the district can help, and official communication going to parents.
In addition, the community is helping to incentivize students to come to school with groups like the nonprofit Communities in Schools Charlotte Mecklenburg, Bank of America, and the Charlotte Hornets.
WCNC Charlotte is still waiting on an official response to the report from the district.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.