Staff at Dallas Independent School District have started making calls to students who have not been to school yet.
The goal of the annual initiative, called "Operation Comeback", is to find out why kids have not been in attendance since the new school year began.
“Sometimes a student may not have what they need to come to school," said Dallas ISD Spokesperson Andre Riley. "They might feel like they are not ready to come to school yet. Sometimes folks have simply moved into another school district, so they need to update their records with us.”
More than 5,500 students have not been to class yet, according to Dallas ISD officials.
This is the first year that truancy is not a criminal charge. The Texas legislature recently passed a law decriminalizing it.
