YOUNGSTOWN - The Mahoning County Juvenile Court held a press conference on Wednesday morning to discuss a program that aims to address truancy in schools.

Judge Theresa Dellick was joined by Early Warning System (EWS) Director Mike Masucci, Magistrate Gina DeGenova, Struthers Superintendent Pete Pirone and Boardman Superintendent Chris Neifer to discuss the impact of the EWS program on students and their families.

The EWS program aims to address chronic absence from school by sitting down with students and their families and getting down to the roots of the truancy problem.

"Often times we hear the two most common reasons [for truancy], and those are transportation issues and mental health. And that mental health is not always tied to the child. More likely than not, it's tied to an adult caregiver," Masucci said.

Masucci says the program will provide caregivers struggling with these issues with resources throughout the county to ensure their children can get back in school consistently.

Masucci says in some other cases, parents and caregivers are dealing with students who simply refuse to go to school. EWS provides resources to these families too.

"It's not about punishment. It's about prevention, it's about support," Masucci said.

DeGenova says she started to hold hearings with students at schools in late October of 2025 and has met with nearly 150 families and has given them resources to address their children's truancy problems.

"We put them on a program, we talk to them on what improvements they can make inside the home, what improvements they can make within themselves. ... And as long as we see improvement, then we will not pursue actual official charges in our court," DeGenova said.

Superintendent Pirone said that Struthers City Schools has been a part of the EWS program since its inception in 2014, and it has greatly improved the district's attendance, describing the truancy hearings as a "godsend" to the district.

"Since COVID, our high has been 1/3 of our students were chronically absent. ... Last year's [absences have] been our lowest since COVID. We are at 29% as a district. Our middle school reduced by 4%. And it's by making connections," Pirone said.

Meanwhile for Boardman, Niefer said the program has had an 81% effectiveness rate in the district, and only three students had to be pushed further following the initial truancy hearing.

"We've been very fortunate in Boardman. We sit below the state average in regards to chronic attendance. We're about 19% right now, we've seen about a 2% increase over the last couple of years, and we do attribute a lot of that to our partnership with the EWS program," Neifer said.

Dellick concluded the press conference by discussing Senate Bill 311, which addresses truancy. If passed, this bill would make all absent hours count the same, regardless of whether they are excused or unexcused.

Additionally, the legislation would change the law so a student would not have to be considered a "habitual truant" for a parent or guardian to be charged with child endangering and/or contributing to the delinquency of a minor. 

"This finally puts an ownness on the parent or caregiver who's not doing their job, because a kindergartener cannot get himself or herself to school. It's the caregiver," Judge Dellick said.