A first-grader kept missing every other Friday and Monday. The school decided he was defiant and filed a petition to bring him into truancy court, a six-year-old standing in front of a judge. It took his court-appointed attorney about two minutes to find out why: his parents had split up, and on his dad's weeks, dad wouldn't drive him to that school. Nobody had ever asked him. That attorney was Kris Ferrell, and that story is the heart of this episode of The Teacher Leader Podcast. Kris has spent years representing Colorado kids in juvenile and truancy court, and she came on to dismantle almost everything schools assume about the students who don't show up. They're not the kids from The Outsiders. They're kids managing anxiety, bullying, safety, custody schedules, and younger siblings whose dismissal bell doesn't line up with theirs. Roughly 98% of them told her they actually want to be at school. Kris walks through why Colorado's truancy law, still on the books from 1963, catches kids after just four absences in a month, why truancy court makes things worse for nearly everyone it touches, and why she'd get rid of it entirely. Along the way: the Hot Cheetos eating contest that earned her trust in a juvenile detention center, why "help me understand" opens kids up when "why weren't you in class?" shuts them down, why student athletes miss far more school and somehow never end up in court, and the reminder that you can't build a real relationship with 125 kids, but you can build one with one, and that one spreads. Kris Ferrell is an attorney, writer, and investigator best known for her work as a Child Welfare Law Specialist and Guardian ad Litem, with a Hot Cheetos tolerance that rivals her teenage clients. She spent the majority of her legal career representing children in dependency and neglect, family drug court, juvenile delinquency, and truancy court as a defense attorney and guardian ad litem. She now spends her time helping families and children understand and navigate the judicial system as a child and family investigator. A semi-native to Colorado, she lives in Denver, CO and spends her time getting into good trouble.

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