HOUSTON – Since the disappearance of 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, questions have emerged whether her guardians were notified that she was not at school that day, and if so, how soon after her absence was recorded.
Audrii never made it to class or got on her school bus on Thursday. Her parents didn’t notify the Polk County Sheriff’s Office until 5:30 p.m., when she never made it home and reported her as missing, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
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KPRC 2, KPRC 2+, and click2houston.com sent out a form to all area school districts. We wanted to know districts’ policies for notifying a parent/guardian when a child is absent from school.
QUESTION 1:
Does your district notify parents when their child is absent from school?
ANSWER: YES.
100% of respondents responded, ‘Yes’ they do notify parents when their child is absent from school.
We wanted to know how quickly a parent/guardian is notified once attendance is taken.
- 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. : 10.5%
- 10 a.m. - Noon: 15.8%
- Noon - 3 p.m. : 5.3%
- 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. 21.1%
- Next day - Zero (0)
- Other - 47.4%
LIVINGSTON ISD
We sent this same poll question to Livingston Independent School District, where Cunningham attends school.
The district answered: OTHER.
The district stated, “Attendance is taken at different times on different campuses.”
They did not provide a specific time when a parent/guardian is notified about a child’s absence.
You can read all the responses, below in our interactive database.