Michigan Has a New Game for CPS: Truancy

To begin, TANF in Michigan is virtually non-existent but the holes in school budgets are not.


Cash assistance comes in the form of home health care for the disabled, or, the state quarterly disability payments, about $42 every three montsh, to families with disabled children and that is only if a chid has been successfully determined to be disabled.

If a child is chronically truant, there is a reason.

Many times it is a reason which falls under a need for special educational assistance, which, in many Michigan public schools is non-existence.

Charter schools are not even mandated to provide special needs educational assitance.

Sometimes, the conditions of the schools are so deplorable, not even the teachers want to show up.

So, if a child is not going to school, there is a reason and a need for assistance.  More than likely, it is going to be a developmental issue which resulted in poor socio-economic conditions due to lack of access to resources.

Unfortunately, in the wake of the slash and burn of social assistance programs, the only and last resort is for the state to conger new ways of pimping out the Medicaid expansion to maximize revenues for these privatized, contracted child welfare agencies, which, as of today, are under the rule of a religious corporate belief system..

Then again, as the state takes such an aggressive approach to ending truancy, they will ensure all the seats are filled on mandatory count day.

As the battle to progressively improve public educatoin wages on, the only ones offering solutions seem to be lumped into the pervasive polices of privatization.

Where are the #MDP alternative options?  *Crickets*

Michigan governor signs bill tying truancy to assistance

A Michigan policy that ties cash assistance for poor families to school attendance has become law. 

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed the legislation Thursday.

“Much like the Pathways to Potential program, this legislation brings together parents, schools and the state to determine obstacles that keep students from being in school and how to overcome them,” said Governor Snyder. “To break the cycle of poverty, kids need an education to position them for future success. We have to do everything we can to see that they are regularly attending school.”

 A family loses eligibility for cash assistance if a child ages 6 through 15 doesn’t meet attendance requirements.

Children 16 or older who are dependents and haven’t graduated from high school will lose their aid if they don’t meet attendance requirements.

Cash assistance would be restored if a student attends school for 21 consecutive days.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Al Pscholka, says kids need to be in school “to break the generational cycle of poverty.”

The law matches a policy that’s been enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services.

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