In a crackdown on truancy that is rare in Maryland, a Carroll County juvenile court has sent a sixth-grader to a home for troubled youth and brought charges against his mother.

Carroll County Board of Education officials say they were "shocked, but pleased" at the action by Juvenile Master Peter M. Tabatsko on Friday when he ordered an 11-year-old boy moved to a Catonsville group home for three days because he had missed more than half of the school days -- 83 days -- since September.

The pupil's mother was charged yesterday in juvenile court with failure to send a child to school, which carries fines of up to $3,000 and up to 10 days in jail if convicted.

Assistant State's Attorney Laura Kozlowski said the mother, whose name was not being released, has two other children in the public school system with chronic truancy problems -- one has missed 60 days of school and the other 22 days this year. The school year lasts 180 days.

The Carroll County case has been deemed highly unusual by the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Spokesman Bob Kannenberg said yesterday the number of cases adjudicated is "zero."

"What typically happens is, truancy is like running away from home," he said.

David J. Tucker, a counselor supervisor for Carroll's Juvenile Justice Department, said, "The court wanted to make an intervention to get the youth and parent's attention regarding the serious issues of his truancy."

The action comes at a time when Carroll Board of Education officials are cracking down on truancy, which has resulted in an average of eight cases per month landing before Tabatsko.

Dozens of other cases are resolved monthly through interventions with the county's educational and juvenile justice workers, officials said.

Kozlowski said the middle schooler, who attends the Gateway School, was brought before Tabatsko last month for truancy problems that stem from a refusal to get up in the morning. Tabatsko ordered him to "go to bed by 9 p.m." on school nights, she said.

When the matter was returned to juvenile court last week, Tabatsko ordered the pupil removed from his home in hopes of sending a stern message to the youth's parents.

"As a general policy, the Department of Juvenile Justice is not going to use its time or resources to have kids placed in shelters," Tucker said. "In this case, the court felt" it had to send a message.

The home where the boy was sent is a 10-bed minimum-security facility for nonviolent juvenile offenders who are referred by a court or social services departments. Carroll County has such a home for girls, but not boys.

While there, children get counseling and structure, with rules about when to get up and what chores need to be done. Doors are unlocked. If a child leaves without permission, the staff reports the absence as a violation of the court order.

"The fact that we lower the boom to get parents to make sure kids are in school is significant," said Cyndy Little, director of pupil services for the Carroll Board of Education. "We are very pleased over this case. Kids and parents often are both responsible -- our workers have worked with families where the parents are willing to help, but the kid is very resistant.

"I think it's not as much a matter of toughness as it is wanting kids to be in school and get their education -- they will not have the skills needed to move on in school if they have chronic truancy and their success of getting through school is lessened. And that has to do with what kind of society we'll have in the future."

Other jurisdictions, such as Baltimore City, are working to handle their truancy problems.

There, where some pupils have missed 100 days of school in a year, the City Council in January introduced an amendment to the municipal truancy law that would allow a judge to sentence parents of chronically truant pupils to perform community service at the school.

City officials handle 300 serious truancy cases each year.

In Harford County, school spokesman Donald R. Morrison said only about six parents were prosecuted in the last school year.

Baltimore County prosecutes about 50 to 100 parents in truancy cases each year, said school spokesman Charles Herndon. "The truant student has committed no crime, but the parent has violated the law by not ensuring that the child is in school," Herndon said.

Pub Date: 3/25/99