Superintendent Barry Walks Door-to-Door to Reduce Truancy

Superintendent Barry Walks Door to Door to Reduce Truancy

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	Picking up the PACE!

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Superintendent Barry Walks Door to Door to Reduce Truancy

“Why aren't you in school today?”

Armed with this simple question, Superintendent John L. Barry and his leadership team literally took steps to break the cycle of truancy in APS. Walking door to door, Barry made personal home visits to students who have not returned to school after the winter break.

Barry’s hands-on efforts caught local attention. Every local news station, including Channels 2, 4, 7, Aurora 8, 9, 13 and Univision, featured stories on this bold campaign.


	“Nearly 30% of students in the metro area are chronically truant. Chronic truancy leads to dropping out of school, and we want to reverse that trend for students here in APS.” - Superintendent John L. Barry

For APS to achieve its new vision—to graduate every student with the choice to go to college without remediation— and prevent students from dropping out, students need to be in classes every day.

These home visits kick off the newly formed APS Truancy Task Force that will allow APS staff members to aggressively enforce truancy intervention and create additional support for parents and students. Composed of APS administrators, staff members, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, community members and students, the APS Truancy Task Force will develop a series of solutions to reduce truancy in APS.

In addition to a regular door-knocking campaign, solutions include letters home to parents, weekend parent-student truancy workshops, closing high school campuses and requiring parents to attend school with their students. Even jail time for parents of excessively truant students is an option.

“We plan to look at and try many solutions to reduce truancy in APS,” said Barry. “We’ll keep those that work and drop those that don’t in favor of any other successful strategies.”

For the door-to-door solution, Superintendent Barry hopes to reach out to students and their families, letting them know that Aurora Public Schools cares about their success and is willing to help them achieve their educational goals.


	“There are many different factors that lead to truancy. From home life to school life to other extenuating circumstances, all of these factors play into why students are truant. We need the help of every parent and guardian and the entire APS and Aurora community to work together to keep kids in classes and give them the tools they need to succeed here in school and after they graduate. If you see a kid out of school during the day, take a few minutes. Ask them why they aren’t in school. Aurora’s students need to know we all care about their success.” - Superintendent John L. Barry

Read transcripts of recent online chat sessions where APS staff members brainstormed ideas for reducing truancy. Visit the APS Chat Archives.

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