Arizona State Superintendent and Maricopa County Sheriff Blame Parents for Chronic Absenteeism in Failing Public Schools

AZ State Superintendent Tom Horne (left); Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan (right)

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan have officially declared war on Arizona families. During a press conference on March, 26, 2025, someone thought it was a good idea to announce their efforts of fighting chronic absenteeism by monetarily and criminally penalizing parents.

The AZ Department of Education headline was particularly special: “Horne calls for ‘radical efforts’ to combat disastrous absentee problem.” The press release says, “Horne is urging schools to adopt measures that call for nine unexcused absences resulting in a student failing a course and five tardies continuing as an absence.”

Horne was directly quoted saying:

“[A] third of our students are missing 18 days of school or more…We have to create a motivation for parents to be sure their children go to school…if schools would adopt those kinds of policies, we would see the parents motivated and a radical drop in absenteeism. As a result of that we would see better academic results.”

Superintendent Horne, are you for real?

The “Wild West” headline from Arizona’s Family is also interesting: “How deputies are cracking down on Arizona students ditching school.” Horne reportedly claimed that “our society has gotten away from consequences” and he’s “pushing to bring discipline back to our schools.” Sheridan co-signed by asserting that absenteeism “is a crisis for the future of these kids.”

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are calling on law enforcement, the courts, and school districts to step it up. The Tweedles also want city attorneys to “treat truancy cases as a priority” and declared “any violations of state law are promptly addressed by the legal system.” It appears their minatory statements were triggered by a Helios Education Foundation slide show exposing Arizona’s colossal failure, otherwise known as government schools.

Statistics show absentee rates have “nearly doubled” since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Helios, 15 million Arizona K-8 students are missing “approximately 18 days or more” of school during an academic year. The state defines chronic absenteeism as “missing 10% of the school year at a single school.” This doesn’t account for missing days after transferring to a new school mid-year.

Click here to view the presentation.

During a live demonstration at the February 24, 2025, State Board of Education meeting, Helios Senior VP of Community Impact and Learning, Dr. Paul Perrault, and WestEd Senior Research Director, Dr. Lenay Dunn, highlighted data comparing chronic absences among the fortunate and “economically disadvantaged” as well as attendance disparities between racial/ethnic groups (of course). What the presentation does not show is a breakdown of absences proving the majority of cases are linked to rogue parents, as Horne and Sheridan presume.

What about homelessness? Transportation? Physical/mental health? Bullying? Youths who work to support their families? Avoiding predators employed by the district? Schools that simply fail to enforce attendance policies already in place? Since there was no mention of underlying factors, how do we know bad parenting is the main issue?

After a (ph)ishing expedition spanning five years, did researchers not speak to a single social worker (they run our schools now)? Student Resource Officers? The Department of Juvenile Corrections? Teachers? It doesn’t seem like data were pulled from anywhere outside attendance records. In fact, immediately following the presentation, the first question from board member Dr. Daniel Corr was, “Why are [students] absent? Do we know?”

Dr. Perrault said there are no “silver bullets” and proceeded to meander in such a way that I believe, prior to this moment, no one in the state department thought to ask the question. Dr. Dunn clarified my assumptions by stating, “[T]hat was not part of this research because we were just looking at statewide numbers. It would be really interesting and good to drill down to district level or school level to identify that.”

You don’t say…

So, what problem is the nanny state really trying to solve?

Could it be President Trump’s Executive Order abolishing a certain department that controls a certain amount of money is what started this fire? Chronic absenteeism has been a problem for a while, so why the sudden tyrannical rhetoric from Horne and Sheridan?

Dr. Perrault said one goal derived from the Chronic Absentee Task Force recommendations is “collecting actionable data to identify challenges and drive solutions.” What does this flagrantly ambiguous statement mean? Why not plainly tell the public what and how data will be acquired? Will families even know data collection/reporting is happening? As it stands, Horne and Sheridan have already identified parents as the challenge, and the driving solution is to slap them with fines and misdemeanor charges.

The second task force goal is to revisit Arizona’s definition of chronic absenteeism and examine how to capture data when students transfer schools. Now that these unelected bureaucrats know they have the power to forge changes through the Department of Education instead of going through the legislative process, Dr. Perrault said they’re “mov[ing] toward a better way to collect chronic absenteeism data.”

Did you know the DOE was conceived more than 110 years before the Carter administration founded it in 1979? History records President Andrew Jackson signing legislation to establish the Department of Education in 1867. Guess what the Department’s primary function was: “To collect information and statistics about America’s schools. However, due to concern that the Department would exercise too much control over local schools, it was demoted to an Officer of Education in 1868.”

And there you have it. For all intents and purposes, Helios, WestEd, Horne, and Sheridan are “just doing their job.”

Horne reacted to the presentation by declaring chronic absenteeism was, in his mind, “a real catastrophe and emergency for our state.”

You know what else is a real catastrophe and emergency for Arizonans?

We’re squandering multiple millions and billions of dollars, tax-year after tax-year, on an education system that consistently ranks at the bottom. Arizona spends the most per student while producing the highest number of illiterate, math- and English-deficient citizens in the whole United States. We’re not adequately serving students who do show up. Why is there no outrage or press conference about this?

There are a number of ways Arizona could approach chronic absenteeism, but the state chose to lead with putting the squeeze on parents. The Tweedles should have listened to wisdom from AZ State Board of Education Member & Cochise County School Superintendent, Dr. Jacqui Clay, who said:

“[T]he big question is why. I always believe in getting to the root of the fruit and not reacting to the fruit because that’s not going to help anything. So, what’s the reasoning?...We need to start looking at the root of the fruit of all of our problems before we start actually hitting on what we see. So, if we could find out, somehow, the why before we act, that would be exponentially great and, I believe, a good strategy.”

State representatives should be thanking the hardworking parents who still entrust their children to this wasteful, rainbow-infested, predator-backing rat maze. The truth is, our public education system is a dumpster fire. Chronic absenteeism is a symptom of much deeper issues and nothing shy of bankrupting, dismantling, and obliterating this corrupt institution will fix the problem. Nevertheless, may Arizona continue to be a beacon of hope and light for parents' choice in education.

Horne and Sheridan’s language is crass, especially coming from those with an “R” behind their name. One can easily discern that collecting actionable data to identify challenges and drive solutions is the opening of a state-control floodgate. Arizona parents better familiarize themselves with A.R.S. 15-802 and A.R.S. 1-602. Scrutinize every scrap of education legislation coming out of the AZ House of Representatives and be ready for action. When you know your rights, you can defend your rights.

Parents: if you already believe your voices are being silenced and your authority is overthrown by public education proponents, you haven’t seen anything yet. It would be better to have never enrolled your children in government schools at all. I hate to be the one who says, “I told you so.”