Truancy Reporting Guidance

When a student meets the criteria for truancy, school administrative units must maintain the student’s enrollment and enter the progress into Synergy State Edition while the school follows the necessary protocol for truancy. Each incremental step in the process should be documented and dated and the truancy record must remain open until it reaches a conclusion. There can only be one record open at a time per student.

  • Please note that any absences related to homelessness should be considered excused. 

There are six different truancy thresholds:

  1. A student who has completed 6th grade but is not yet 17 and has 10 or more cumulative unexcused absences.  
  2. A student who has completed 6th grade but is not yet 17 and has 7 or more consecutive unexcused absences.   
  3. A student aged 6 or above who hasn’t completed 6th grade and has 7 or more cumulative unexcused absences.   
  4. A student aged 6 or above who hasn’t completed 6th grade and has 5 or more consecutive unexcused absences   
  5. A student at least 5 years of age and not yet 6 years of age and has NOT completed grade 6, has been enrolled in public school and has not been withdrawn, and has 7 cumulative unexcused absences.  
  6. A student at least 5 years of age and not yet 6 years of age and has NOT completed grade 6, has been enrolled in public school and has not been withdrawn, and has 5 consecutive unexcused absences.

Once a student has been identified as truant by meeting one of the six thresholds, a truancy record must be entered into Synergy State Edition. The Start Date of the truancy record is NOT the date of data entry but rather the date the student has been deemed truant under the guidelines described above.

The truancy resolution levels are followed sequentially and the specific truancy resolution steps that must be followed are:

⦁    Please note: While there is no longer a dependency between Intervention plan (1) and Notification of Superintendent (2) and there is no longer a dependency between Parent Notification (3) and School Board notification (4), Intervention plan and Notification of Superintendent MUST be done before Parent Notification and School Board notification. 
Additional Intervention – this step can be added as needed and is not required. The step can occur at any point in the truancy process and does not have to be sequential to other truancy steps.
 

Note: If an SAU includes parent notification as part of its local intervention process, that should be documented as part of the intervention plan or as an additional intervention. The Official Parent Notification step in Synergy refers to the statutory requirement that occurs when it has been determined that the intervention plan is not correcting the truancy.

Synergy: Truancy records are entered into Synergy State Edition. Please note only one Truancy is entered per student per year. Truancy records are left open for the year once entered and close automatically when a student is exited.

NEO: Truancy data is sent from Synergy to NEO where the truancy reports are located. NEO Data System

If you cannot log in to Synergy or NEO or you do not see the Student Truancy Summary screen and the Student Data tab as indicated in the instructions, contact the MEDMS Helpdesk at 624-6896 for assistance.

Truancy Data Entry

Truancy Certification

For each quarter which truancy reporting is due, AND by June 30th, Superintendents are asked to:

  • Validate the accuracy of the truancy data
  • Make modifications in the State SIS if needed
  • Certify the truancy data in NEO
  • End-of-Year Truancy certification must occur after the last day of all schools in the district AND before June 30th of the school year.
  • Attendance reporting is completed each quarter with a certification of the data in NEO by the Superintendent:   
    • (Q1) Quarter 1: First Day of School through 9/30  
    • (Q2) Quarter 2: 10/1 through 12/31 
    • (Q3) Quarter 3: 1/1 through 3/31
    • (Q4) Quarter 4: 4/1 through Last Day of School  

Contacts

  • For technical questions regarding entering truancy into Synergy, please contact the MEDMS helpdesk at MEDMS.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896
  • For policy questions regarding truancy, please contact Pamela Ford-Taylor at Pamela.Ford-Taylor@maine.gov or 207-624-6637