An equal justice statue stands outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – South Dakota’s success rate for keeping truancy cases out of court is the lowest it’s been in a decade, according to an annual report presented to a state committee.
The Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Oversight Council is a group of representatives from law enforcement, schools, the Legislature, social services and the court system. It is responsible for tracking South Dakota’s efforts to reduce the number of children in custody.
The group first came together in 2015, following a set of juvenile justice reforms meant to address South Dakota’s status at the time as the state most likely to lock up children. The number of delinquency petitions has decreased from 3,025 in 2014 to 2,489 in 2025.
A delinquency petition is a legal document that launches the juvenile court equivalent of an adult criminal case. Diversion programs typically allow children to avoid such a petition.
Truancy diversion programs redirect chronically absent students and their families away from the justice system by providing support and services to address the cause of the absenteeism.
The success rate of truancy diversions dropped to 63% in fiscal year 2025, which ran from July 2024 through June 2025. That rate has declined from a high of 97% in 2021.
Truancy can be more than students not attending school, State Court Administrator Greg Sattizahn said at the meeting, since it can be a “reflection of a lot of other things happening” in the child’s life, including “breakdown in a family structure,” abuse or neglect, criminal activity or substance abuse.
“A $100 fine as diversion is not going to address that meaningfully,” Sattizahn said, adding, “There is just a lot that you have to unpack in those truancy cases, so they continue to be a challenge.”
Truancy diversion success rates significantly dropped in fiscal year 2023, following a 2021 law making it easier for parents to pull their children from school and place them in alternative instruction, such as online schooling or homeschooling.
The law change struck down testing requirements and instruction time requirements, and removed a clause that allowed the state’s Department of Education to investigate situations where there’s concern a child might not be getting the instruction they’re required to under state law.
Committee member Rep. Mike Stevens, R-Yankton, told South Dakota Searchlight that the report overall shows that the 2015 changes have been largely effective. But truancy, he said, is a “big area that we have to look at as a state.”
Truancy diversions have decreased since the 2021 truancy law changes took effect, gradually dropping to 270 in 2024 and 171 in 2025. There were 694 diversions in 2021 and 565 in 2022.
Parents can avoid potential truancy charges by signing their kids up for homeschooling without accountability, Stevens said.
“We don’t know where those kids are going to school. That’s a real issue,” Stevens said.
Because parents can more easily remove their children from schools, he said, it gives the state less opportunity to intervene.
Stevens plans to address truancy this coming session with a proposal to require families who enroll their child in alternative instruction to tell the state each year where their child is receiving their education.
“I have no problem with someone homeschooling their child or sending them to private school. But there are kids out there that we don’t know if they’re going to school or not,” Stevens said. “That’s a real concern and something that could easily be taken care of.”
Committee member Sen. Red Dawn Foster, D-Pine Ridge, hopes to better understand the “root causes” of youth involvement in the justice system and the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system.
In the case of truancy, she wants to understand the connection between academic achievement, educational opportunities and truancy rates. Foster works with the Boys and Girls Club in Pine Ridge.
Foster told South Dakota Searchlight that understanding ways to not only divert children from the justice system but address “root causes” is more urgent as the Legislature discusses prison construction and rehabilitation reform.
“As Native people, we understand what is happening in our community, and a lot of times we don’t have the resources or data to do something about it,” Foster told South Dakota Searchlight. “If you have the right resources and access to data, you can support others doing phenomenal work to address these issues.”
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