Data from the 2024-2025 school year shows that Oregon schools have the second-highest chronic absenteeism rate in the country. It breaks down to about a third of Oregon students being chronically absent — missing more than 10 days of school a year.
In Malheur County, though, things are different. A recent analysis of attendance data by the Oregon Journalism Project found that students in Malheur county are attending class more than any other county in Oregon. School districts in Malheur County have a tool in their back pocket: truancy citations, or fines issued as a last resort as a means of motivation for students to attend school regularly.
Lawmakers banned the use of these fines in 2021, and school officials in Malheur County saw attendance slip. They brought truancy citations back in the 2023-2024 school year with a local ordinance, and attendance grew immensely, bolstered by wraparound services the district provides to support families struggling with school attendance.
Vale School District Superintendent Alisha McBride says the key to their success isn’t necessarily the fines themselves, of which they issued only one during the 2025-2026 school year, but the conversations that school districts, school boards and the community had to have around attendance in order to pass the local ordinance. We’ll hear from McBride about the ways Malheur County schools are battling chronic absenteeism and how those techniques can be applied to other counties in the state.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI tools and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Geoff Norcross: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Geoff Norcross. Oregon schools don’t do very well when it comes to attendance. Data from the 2024-2025 school year shows that Oregon has the second-highest chronic absenteeism rate in the country. About a third of Oregon students miss more than 10 days of school a year.
The picture in Malheur County is a bit brighter though. A recent analysis of attendance data by the Oregon Journalism Project shows that students in Malheur are attending class more than any other county in the state. Why is that? One reason might have to do with the fact that the county has an ordinance that allows for truancy citations, and that means fines.
We’re going to talk more about this with Alisha McBride, who is the superintendent of the Vale School District. Alisha, welcome to Think Out Loud.
Alisha McBride: Thank you for having me, Geoff.
Norcross: It’s a kind of a return to citation power for you. You had that tool until the year 2021. What happened that year that took that ability to deliver citations away from you?
McBride: That is correct. In 2021, Senate Bill 817 made it so that school districts did not have the citation process as one of the tools to promote high attendance in public schools.
Norcross: What happened? What happened to the attendance rate after that was taken away by the state?
McBride: Interestingly, the state regular attenders data dropped significantly from just 2020 – and we do have to factor in that some of this data was also impacted by the COVID pandemic.
Norcross: Sure.
McBride: But prior to the COVID pandemic, the state of Oregon was fluctuating around the high 79% to 82% regular attenders rates. And in 2021-2022, the year after the lever or this tool was removed as an option, it dipped down to less than 64% as a state.
Norcross: What does that tell you?
McBride: It was a pretty immediate reaction in attendance rates, not only in Malheur County, but also in the state in general. So it is one hypothesis that the option to issue a citation or use that as a tool to promote high attendance could have impacted that rate.
Norcross: Yeah, and I don’t want to suggest for a minute that citations or the lack of them are the only factor in attendance, but we want to focus on it a little bit before we move on. And I’d like to hear more about the process of passing the local ordinance that made it so that you could issue citations again. Can you tell me about those conversations?
McBride: Yes. So, locally in Malheur County, superintendents collaborate often. And as we were noticing the decline and the significant decline in our attendance rates, in Malheur County, our regular attender rates went from 83% to 70% in just one year of not having that as a local lever. So we began having conversations about the potential cause, because we were also, at the same time, lifting up other supports in response to re-engaging students and families after the COVID pandemic. So we had more resources and support in place than ever before, but we were not noticing a decline in attendance rates.
We know that if we want other metrics, such as reading scores, math scores, ninth-grade on-track scores, graduation rates, to improve, students have to be in school regularly. So, we began to have conversations locally with our district attorney and our county commissioners about the possibility of enacting something locally within our county.
Norcross: Was there ever any doubt that you could do that legally, go your own way on citation power?
McBride: There was a lot of research that was completed, and an avenue that made it possible legally was discovered through all of those conversations and the analysis. Our district attorney was a key player in that process. So we were able to craft an ordinance that does align with the state law.
Norcross: Can you be specific about when you can issue a truancy citation and what the actual cost is?
McBride: Yes. The regular attender in Oregon is defined as a student who attends school 90% of the time or more. So, any student that is attending less than that is considered to be chronically absent by definition in the state of Oregon. And our local ordinance language mirrors the state’s definition.
So truly, any student who has less than a 90% regular attender rate is eligible for a citation. But I would like to emphasize that although this tool is available, it is very rarely used in our county. For example, in the 2025-2026 school year, we have approximately 6,000 students that we serve in Malheur County, and there were only [45] citations issued, which is less than 1%. A very, very small percentage of students and families are receiving citations because the emphasis in this ordinance is not to issue a citation. It is to ensure that families and students engage and attend school regularly prior to issuing a citation.
Norcross: Well then, why do you think it had such a positive effect given that you use the citation power so rarely?
McBride: I think that it is a lever in our toolbox. A really good comparison would be that there’s a law in Oregon that requires parents to send their children to school regularly. But in Oregon, as a state right now, there is not a consequence for not sending your child to school regularly. Similarly, there are speed limit laws. If an individual is not following the speed limit, there is the potential for receiving a citation. It doesn’t always happen, but it is a lever that encourages individuals to align their practices with the law.
Norcross: Even the potential, though, for some sort of fine would seem to hit hard in Malheur County because nearly 1 in 5 people in the county live below the federal poverty line. I’m wondering if you had that in mind when you made the decision to bring back the citation power.
McBride: I think that any potential monetary fine is always a deterrent from behavior, and we see that mirrored in other consequences in laws throughout the state of Oregon. I think a monetary fine is a motivator to ensure that individuals are aligning their practices with the laws.
Norcross: Alisha, can you talk about some of the other barriers that families have, reasons that kids aren’t showing up to school, and how you’re getting around them?
McBride: That’s a really good question. It’s important to note that we are problem solving with parents at the very beginning. And many of our problem-solving practices are resulting in improved attendance so that we aren’t even going down the path of a citation.
Some of the common barriers in our county include an increase in mental health challenges for students who are returning to school after the pandemic. We live in a county that encompasses almost 10,000 square miles. We have a very large county, and sometimes we don’t have very much public transportation. So sometimes transportation can be a barrier. There are instances in which older siblings are required to support younger siblings at home if they’re ill.
So, our process is to help problem solve with parents and identify what those barriers are, and then help remove those barriers and work with the families, so that if childcare is an issue, we’re connecting them with community resources to find childcare that is affordable and reliable.
Norcross: Well, can you be specific about other services, wraparound services that are available to families who are struggling with chronic absenteeism?
McBride: Yes. One of the primary functions of our system, and even when we get to the citation process, is an effort to wrap around, learn more about the individual circumstances, and then use that information to develop a wrap-around plan. I think this goes back to the intent of the citation is to avoid a fine. And that was very intentionally written into the ordinance.
When a family appears before the judge, the judge will ask the family and the school about the different barriers and what they are seeing. And then the judge will say, it sounds like you might need assistance for housing. Perhaps you’re living in a situation where you’re living in an RV and that is creating challenges to get your child to school, because you’re simply looking to meet your basic needs, and school isn’t a priority right now. The judge can say, I want to connect you with this resource. And if you go to this resource and allow this community resource to help you to resolve this barrier, I am not going to fine you.
So there is encouragement from even the last step in the process, the actual citation for families to engage in services, problem solve and address barriers to avoid a fine.
Norcross: It sounds like you’re saying, on some level, that good absenteeism numbers within county schools is kind of a marker for the broader county and how the residents are doing.
McBride: In Malheur County, we are one of the highest poverty counties in the state of Oregon. And we know that if students are attending school regularly and they’re accessing resources, every school district in our county provides free breakfast and free lunch to our children. So we know that their basic necessities, in regard to meals, are being met. We have counselors at each of our buildings, so we know that mental health needs are being met. And students [who] are attending regularly are accessing their academic supports.
We know that students, in order to navigate outside of poverty and develop a plan for success after high school, they have to attend school regularly so that we can change the trajectory of the poverty rate in Malheur County. But high attendance is necessary to achieve that.
Norcross: You touched on this earlier, but I’d like you to be a little more specific if you can. How did the COVID-19 outbreak rearrange expectations around attendance, and how are you still feeling those effects?
McBride: The expectations didn’t really change after the COVID pandemic, other than during the COVID pandemic, attendance accounting rules were slightly different to accommodate the different learning styles. We had already started to kind of emerge from the pandemic when Senate Bill 817 went into effect. So, I would attribute the change in the attendance expectations and the attendance data more to the removal of citations as a strategy than the actual COVID pandemic.
Norcross: So there are, I’m sure, other counties who are looking at their attendance numbers and wishing they could be more like yours, especially in rural parts of the state. I’m wondering what advice you might have for other counties and lessons they can take from your success.
McBride: Interestingly, we receive communication from superintendents throughout the state on almost a weekly basis, asking how we navigated this process and what our system looks like. So, we’re actively sharing that information, because this isn’t just a Vale School District initiative, it was a Malheur County initiative. And I think that that is why we are experiencing such success. The expectation in Malheur County is that students attend school regularly. It’s not just a suggestion, and that is consistent across every school district.
As other school districts are looking at this and other counties are looking at this, I would encourage them to reach out to any of the superintendents in Malheur County and even come observe the process. But on that note, I think it’s inefficient for every county and every superintendent to navigate this process separately and have different expectations in different counties. I really believe that it needs to be looked at more seriously at a statewide level.
Norcross: Do I hear you saying then that you think the state laws around absenteeism and citation power should go back to what they were before 2021?
McBride: I don’t know if they should go back to exactly what they were before. There were attempts in the ‘23 and the ‘25 sessions to re-add the citation option for chronic absenteeism processes. But I think what we’ve learned in Malheur County is that a system of support that works collaboratively with community partners to address barriers is successful. But in order for that to be truly impactful, there has to be some accountability for the parents. Because what I can share with you is [that] school districts, and school district superintendents and staff at all levels of every school district in the state of Oregon are working harder than they’ve ever worked before to try to increase attendance rates. It’s not a lack of effort. It’s a lack of tools for other school districts in their toolbox to hold families accountable to sending their children to school. Right now, the burden is on school districts.
Norcross: So what is your message for parents in your school district who may be looking at the coming school year and may worry that they’re not going to be able to get their kids to school as much as they need to?
McBride: We have been able to maintain high attendance rates in Malheur County and in the Vale School District. And I want to be clear that if a student simply drops below that 90% threshold, we don’t immediately go to a citation. We engage [by] making daily phone calls, sending letters, arranging problem-solving meetings. So the citation is never a surprise to a family. We have promoted a significant amount of engagement prior to the citation being issued. We’ve attempted to connect with community partners and help families remove barriers.
As I shared previously, the citation lever is very rarely used because most families engage and we’re able to remove those barriers or address them at the school level. It’s when the resources that are required to address chronic absenteeism are outside of our scope, or if families are just choosing not to engage because they really don’t have to engage with resources if we recommend it … But if a judge recommends it, then there’s more accountability to engage.
Norcross: Alisha McBride, thank you so much for this and good luck with the new school year.
McBride: Thank you.
Norcross: Alisha McBride is the superintendent of the Vale School District in Malheur County.
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