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Last updated on Friday, May 25, 2012
(BLOOMFIELD) - Two Eastern Greene County parents are being taken to court over excessive absences by their two elementary-aged students.
Nick Schneider of the Greene County Daily World reports criminal charges were approved Friday against rural Springville residents Richard D. Rogers and his wife, Jeanette A. Davis, both who live in Blue Sky North Subdivision.
Both are charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent -- a class D felony; and two counts of compulsory school attendance violation - a class B misdemeanor.
Arrest warrants for both suspects were approved Friday in Greene Circuit Court.
When the warrant is served, both will be held on a $9,000 surety bond with 10 percent cash allowed.
The two are alleged to have been repeatedly notified about continuing absence and tardiness problems of their two children, who are students at Eastern Greene Elementary School.
Between Nov. 1, 2011 and March 8 of this year, one of the students has 10.5 days of unexcused absences, 21 days of excused abscesses and 48 tardies (late).
The other student has accumulated 7.5 unexcused absences, 21 excused absences and 50 tardies, during the same time frame, according to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court by Greene County Probation Department Investigator Julie Criger.
This is not Davis' first problem with her children attending school.
On Jan. 12, 2011, she pled guilty to one count of Compulsory School Attendance Violation - a class B misdemeanor. She was placed on probation until Nov. 1, 2011, according to court records.
During the probation period, Davis engaged in conversation with Probation Officer Patrick Hillenberg concerning her children's attendance and tardy issues.
She told the court officer that it was her husband's responsibility to get their children to and from school, Criger wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
In a Sept. 23, 2011 interview, Rogers agreed that it was transporting the children to school and returning them home was his responsibility.
However, school officials told investigators that they have witnessed both parents dropping off and picking up the two students on "numerous occasions."
On March 9, investigator Criger and Greene County Department of Child Services Family Caseworker Nikki White attempted to interview the two children along with the two suspects, but the parents refused to let her interview their children without them present. In addition, both suspects allegedly refused to speak to Criger about the allegations.
The same day, Davis called the Eastern Elementary school office and withdrew her children.
Criger noted in the probable cause affidavit that if the students would have continued at Eastern Greene this school year, one of them would have been retained in the first grade for the second time and the other would have been assigned to the third grade based on the student's Individual Educational Plan (IEP).
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