Adams County court, schools partner to curb student absenteeism early

Adams County is moving school attendance into the same early-intervention system that has already tied together judges, schools and service agencies, with Common Pleas Judge Brett Spencer and attorney Lisa Rothwell bringing the EYES program to the county to catch problems before they turn into juvenile court cases.

EYES, short for Enhancing Youth Education through Support, was first developed by Rothwell in 2020 in Georgetown through work with the Brown County Juvenile Court. In Adams County, the program is being positioned as a practical response to absences that can start with transportation trouble, family stress, health needs or housing instability and then snowball into court involvement if no one steps in early.

Ohio’s definition of chronic absenteeism is missing 10% or more of school for any reason, and state guidance now pushes schools toward intervention before a student crosses that line. The state says missing just two to three days a month can quickly lead to chronic absenteeism, and half of students who miss two to four days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school. Ohio schools and districts must adopt a chronic absenteeism attendance policy by Aug. 1, 2026, after the law shifted on Sept. 30, 2025 from a truancy-first model to one focused on early intervention.

The timing matters in Adams County because statewide absenteeism remains stubbornly high. Ohio officials said more than 25% of students were chronically absent in both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, even after the 2024 School Report Cards showed a drop from 26.8% in 2022-23 to 25.6% in 2023-24. State leaders have pledged to cut the chronic absence rate by 50% by the end of the 2028-2029 school year.

The county is not starting from scratch. Spencer’s Operation Better Together effort began after an emergency meeting on Nov. 22, 2021, when he said 14 children had been removed from their homes within one week and that Adams County was leading Ohio in removals of children. The collaboration has since been described locally as a warm-handoff system that helps agencies communicate so people do not fall through the cracks, and it has already produced Family Intervention Court and the 210 Program.

That existing network gives Adams County a ready-made structure for the attendance push. By linking the Adams County Common Pleas Court, schools and community agencies, county leaders are trying to answer a familiar problem earlier, before a pattern of absences hardens into a juvenile case and another student disappears from class.