One national organization, however, was skeptical about the plan that will be introduced in Omaha schools this fall.
"My gut sense is that it will be a disaster," said Jodi Heilbrunn, senior research and policy analyst at the National Center for School Engagement.
Heilbrunn said punishing an entire family by evicting them doesn't address the cause of truancy.
"Truancy is the thing that lets you know there's something else wrong," Heilbrunn said.
Schools in Racine, Wis., Raleigh, N.C. and Grand Island, Neb. are using another, more common approach to curtail truants.
In Grand Island, school administrators, working with social workers and the Hall County District Attorney, have been running what's known as "attendance court" for the past two years for students who are absent for more than 10 percent of the term's classes.
"If you want kids to learn, they've got to be in school," said Deb Harder, learning director for Grand Island Public Schools. "What we were doing wasn't making a difference, so we try to intervene earlier before they get set in their bad habits. You don't have to get in panic mode."
Once teachers and administrators notice a student has repeatedly missed school, they arrange a face-to-face meeting with the district attorney, the school social worker, the parents and the student. With the attorney acting as the judge, they write an attendance plan for the student, addressing what steps the family could take to prevent the student from skipping class. This meeting often gets to the root of the problem.
"Poor attendance is a symptom of something else that is happening in a family," Harder said. "When the true issues bubble up during the attendance program process and we are able to help a family, we have experienced success."
While it's perhaps too early to measure the success of the Grand Island program, other schools that have had the program for several years have reported a major drop https://www.choicehotels.com/nebraska/grand-island/sleep-inn-hotels/ne414 important that truancy issues are solved, but the goal is not to reduce truancy," said Heilbrunn. "It's to promote learning, a value of learning."
ABCNews.com contributor Andrew Mach is a member of the University of Nebraska ABC News on Campus bureau.
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