EPISD disputes claims made in Texas Tribune article

Advocacy groups in Texas claim the El Paso Independent School District isn’t following truancy laws. Those claims and a complaint to the Texas Education Agency are detailed in an article by the Texas Tribune, which cites Disability Rights Texas, Texas Appleseed and the National Center for Youth Law.

The groups claim both EPISD and the Mesquite Independent School District near Dallas violated state law when handling instances of students with multiple absences.

El Paso district leaders told ABC-7 they followed a higher standard than what the law requires in their case. Mark Mendoza, director of the district’s student retention and truancy prevention, said he can’t discuss specifics or identify the student mentioned in the Tribune article, but said district records show something completely different from the report.

EPISD does have a specific set of programs for when students are missing multiple days of school, all together called the Alpha Initiatives. The district can use “interventions” or specific methods to work with students to address whatever problems they may have that keeps them from school.

“First of all, why is a student not coming to school,” Mendoza asked. “We identify: is it an academic issue, in which case we look to see, you know, has make-up work been done? Are we applying tutoring? Is there additional academic assistance? On the psycho-social side, do we need counseling to intervene? Do we need a social worker? What community agencies might be able to help?”

Mendoza says these kinds of questions and more were asked in the case brought up in the report, and is part of district procedures.

“The characterization is completely inaccurate based on the documentation that we have here within the district,” Mendoza said. “As I said, in cases similar to this, when we provide 15, 20, sometimes as many as 25 interventions, including home visits, sit down meetings with the parents and student… To look at what the appropriate setting is for the student.”

If you have a student who is struggling to make it to class, you’re encouraged to contact the district and the Alpha Initiative.