Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin speaks on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, at a press conference at Birmingham City Hall. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Tuesday threatened to report parents of students habitually skipping school without an excuse to the Jefferson County District Attorney for prosecution for truancy, and even possibly to the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District, which could endanger their subsidized public housing.“I’ll call the D.A. of Jefferson County,” Woodfin said.
Woodfin said the problem is systemwide, kindergarten through 12, but especially critical for third graders, whose reading proficiency and future literacy is at stake. At another elementary school, 23 percent of students have been chronically absent in the third grade.