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A local education leader is raising concerns that Douglas County’s proposed truancy program would replace direct services for families with a case management approach as commissioners revisit the proposal Wednesday.

“To me, this sounds like going backwards,” Lawrence school board member Bob Byers said.

The new program was put forward after county commissioners decided to not allocate funds it previously gave to the Center for Supportive Communities, CSC, to create its own in-house truancy program, EveryDay Counts. Supporters of the CSC model argue the county’s approach is more limited, relying on fewer staff and case management instead of a larger, family- and mentor-based system that better addresses root causes of absenteeism.

While both programs are designed to help students improve their attendance before their cases reach the court system, they operate differently. The proposed county program retains some elements of the CSC’s existing model, such as family and school collaboration, attendance incentives and the 8-week graduation criteria.

However, the primary changes are staffing capacity and its intervention scope. Kelsey Dachman, executive director and co-founder of the CSC, told the Journal-World that the nonprofit’s truancy program SupportEd currently operates with more than 30 trained community members and provides mental health interventions to families directly.

Meanwhile, the proposed program would be staffed by two juvenile services officers providing case management services. While case management has a role in truancy cases, Byers said his concern is with relying on case management as the primary intervention for elementary and middle school truancy.

“The new program, in my view, is a case management type program … that’s a different approach, and it’s usually an approach that doesn’t work well,” Byers said.

Byers said case management often coordinates services rather than providing them directly. He also said truancy with younger students is often a family issue because children rely on their parents to get them to school, adding that these students need family-centered intervention.

Dachman also said case management alone may not address the root causes of absenteeism in cases involving, for example, extreme anxiety, bullying, or learning differences. The reduced capacity also means higher caseloads and less individualized time per family.

As the Journal-World reported, county commissioners could not come to an agreement in May on whether to implement a new county truancy program for elementary and middle school students, and they deferred the decision. Only four of the five commissioners were present, and Commissioner Karen Willey was absent. There are no changes to the truancy program proposal compared to what was put in front of commissioners in May.

Commissioners Erica Anderson and Gene Dorsey voted in opposition to the county’s truancy program in May, and Dorsey cited that the program adds one truancy coordinator to work alongside the department’s existing juvenile services officer.

Given the scale of the service area – which is K-8 students across more than 26 schools, there were questions about whether two staff positions will be enough to meet truancy diversion service needs over time.

“I don’t think any of the four people who voted last time have changed their opinion,” Dorsey told the Journal-World on Tuesday. “Maybe they have.”

Dorsey said his opinion hasn’t changed, and it was under his impression at budget deliberations last year that the county’s program was simply a “backup” in case CSC didn’t secure AmeriCorps funding for the upcoming school year.

“I still think we should continue with CSC,” Dorsey said. “This whole thing came up a year ago at budget time when (CSC) thought they lost their AmeriCorps funding, and so at that point, we said, ‘Well, we need a backup plan’ because we couldn’t replace their funding from AmeriCorps.”

Dachman said that uncertainty only lasted for a few weeks before the organization was told it would be receiving the AmeriCorps funding.

Dachman told the Journal-World SupportEd serves about 80 students each school year with 30 trained mentors. Each of the mentors typically works with two to four students each year.

“One of my concerns is two people aren’t going to be enough,” Dorsey said. “And we have a system that uses volunteers and (University of Kansas) students as mentors. Why wouldn’t we want to continue that? And they have more people involved.”

Regardless, county staff previously told commissioners they would be able to handle the workload of the new program.

Questions about long-term costs have also emerged as Douglas County commissioners have begun discussing moving truancy services in-house.

The EveryDay Counts program is estimated to cost $74,357 for the remainder of 2026 and $113,467 in 2027. The bulk of that funding – $53,357 this year and $91,467 in 2027 – will be used to fund the salary for an additional truancy coordinator.

However, Dachman said, if demand exceeds available staffing, the county may need to add additional full-time positions in future budget cycles, and this could add up higher than the $150,000 allocation that could have been given to the CSC.

At the May meeting, Commissioner Patrick Kelly said he thought costs for the CSC program were getting too high, considering that CSC filed an additional funding request to cover the potential loss of AmeriCorps funding. The CSC uses AmeriCorps funding to support essential personnel who administer, coordinate, and deliver SupportEd’s services to high-risk youth and families.

During the 2024-2025 school year, the SupportEd program received $150,000 in funding from Douglas County and $166,746 through AmeriCorps. For the 2025-2026 school year, Douglas County provided $62,500 to support operations during the first half of 2026, while AmeriCorps contributed $171,360. Looking ahead to 2026-2027, no county funding is anticipated. As a result, the truancy program is expected to operate with $181,884 in AmeriCorps funding, with the remaining budget supported through private donations, fundraising events, fee-for-service revenue, and corporate sponsorships.

Following 2026 budget deliberations last year, Dachman thought that commissioners’ conversations surrounding truancy would go in a different direction, and the county wouldn’t continue coming up with a program of its own after the CSC found out it wouldn’t lose AmeriCorps funding.

“It doesn’t make too much sense to have two separate programs operating when we could just combine our efforts and serve kids and families even better than how we have been,” Dachman said.

“Our priority has been and will continue to be expanding access to evidence-based services for children and families of this community,” Dachman said. “We respect the commissioners and hope they reach a decision that is in the best interest of the children and families who ultimately will be impacted.”

Byers said regardless of the decision on Wednesday, he hopes the county ends up with a program that meets the needs of the youth, the families and the school districts.

“They’ll do what they think is right, and I respect them to do that,” Byers said. “I may not agree with what they decide, but I do respect their right to make their decision.”

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County commissioners will also consider executing a cooperative agreement with the City of Lawrence and the Lawrence school district to help Alarm.com, a smart home tech firm, redevelop a downtown building into its new office space at 714 Vermont St. in Lawrence, as the Journal-World reported.

The agreement is for a Neighborhood Revitalization Area, with a 10-year, 80% property tax rebate. When the 10-year rebate period expires, all participating taxing jurisdictions would receive 100% of taxes generated from the improved valuation.

The County Commission will hold a work session at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Douglas County Commission meeting room at 1100 Massachusetts St. to discuss Consolidated Fire District No. 1’s 2027 budget, as the Journal-World reported. The business meeting will follow at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.