By PETER GREER

greer@crescent-news

Judge Stephen Ruyle of Defiance County's probate and juvenile courts, says there are around 8,000 school-age children and teens in Defiance, Fulton, Henry and Williams counties.

"With 90 percent or more of these kids, you have no trouble getting them to school at all," he said.

And while the other 10 percent of students may be difficult at times, Ruyle believes only a few warrant extreme attention from law enforcement, including juvenile authorities.

"It's a small percentage," Ruyle said, "enough to drive officers nuts."

In the four-county area, about 40 cases of truancy are dealt with in a year, along with some 40 probation violation cases and about 15 younger children who don't go to school regularly.

"We've always had compulsory school (attendance) laws," Ruyle said. "It used to be that if you reached the age of 16, if you were employed and had parents' permission, you could quit school. The age (for quitting school) was raised to 18 about four years ago."

While special attention needs to be given to certain juveniles, long-term incarceration in a juvenile detention center is usually ordered only after other options have proven ineffective, Ruyle stated.

Schools grant excused absences to kids who have missed school for up to 10 days with an excuse note from parents (or, after 10 days, doctors). Beyond that, the days absent are counted as unexcused.

"Truancy complaints are filed," said Ruyle, "and we cite parents or kids. Most little kids want to go to school. If the absences are unexcused, it's probably the parents' fault. From the sixth grade on up, (absences are) probably the kids' responsibility."

Often fines of $25 a day are assessed toward unexcused absences, along with $15 per time tardy. While this may provide all the incentive some parents need to get their children to school, it's not the only method used.

"We try explaining that we'll yank (students' driver's) license," Ruyle said. "That works about half the time. Legally, we can hold a license till you're 21."

Another option may be for officials to visit the parents' homes and strip electronics from their children's rooms, he said. "Everything goes but the alarm clock. One of our commandments is thou shalt not have a cell phone. Social pressures work better with many teen-agers than the threat of a week in jail does."

Another resort may be what Ruyle refers to as "educational probation" for students around age 12 and up. "You may skip (school) or get suspended as much as you want," he said, "but every time you do, you're on our work crew, and we charge parents $10 a day to pay the (crew) supervisor."

But what happens if all of these methods fail, as is the case for the 1 or 2 percent of children? That, Ruyle said, is when the jail system comes into play.

"We have two full-time certified teachers," he said. "If a kid is in lockup, the local (school) district pays education costs."

If a child is determined not to be on track education-wise, teachers will conduct math and reading drills for the students in order to keep them current with what they should be learning in school. This is a much shorter time span than it will take to put a student on a GED program.

"When (kids) come here, they are behind in school (and) severely lacking credits," said Brian Patrick, superintendent of the Northwest Ohio Juvenile Detention Training and Rehabilitation Center. Located next to the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, rural Stryker, the juvenile center serves Defiance, Fulton, Henry, Williams and Paulding counties.

Students are educated in two classrooms, one for English and language arts, the other for math, science and social studies.

"A typical student will start with a pre-test," said Patrick, who noted that students at any given day represent various ages as well as education levels.

"Our curriculum is computer-based. It's a nationally accredited computer program."

Once the individual learning modules on the pre-test show where the juvenile is deficient educationally, the teachers go to work, applying the computerized GED program to the problems. For long-time juvenile offenders, the average learning time is 90 days.

"Once it's completed, we take them down to Northwest State (Community College) in order for them to try to get a GED free (of charge)."

In general, Ruyle is pleased with the program at the center, although he added it can't compare to the first and best way to ensure children get a good education.

For the comparatively few students who actually need long-term education at a juvenile facility, the main problem, Ruyle believes, is "inattentive parents (who) don't say no (to their children) and make it stick. Ninety percent of the kids literally have no problem. If you have effective parents, you rarely have school problems."