The state Department of Education has asked school districts to step up truancy prevention measures, saying children can't meet tougher achievement goals if they are habitually absent.

The state's recommendations include contacting parents the first day children are absent, instead of waiting a day or two to see whether they return to school, and writing "truancy elimination plans" for frequent violators.

The Pittsburgh school board voted Tuesday to implement the recommendations next semester.

Education Department spokesman Mike Storm said he didn't know how many districts had accepted the recommendations since the department released them in August.

The recommendations would not mean change for everyone. Woodland Hills School District spokeswoman Maria McCool said officials there already contact parents the first day a child is absent -- unless the parent calls with an explanation -- and summon parents to the school to discuss cases of chronic truancy.

J. Kaye Cupples, executive director of support services for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, said the district's 65 schools traditionally have had some discretion in handling truancy. Now that will change.

Dr. Cupples said parents will be contacted on the first day of a child's absence, unless parents contact the school with an explanation. If parents are not reached and the child is absent a second time without explanation, the district will make another call to the child's home.

On the third unexplained absence, the district will send the parents a certified letter warning of a truancy citation and summoning the family to school for development of a truancy elimination plan. Dr. Cupples told the school board that the meeting could help the district determine the family's need for social services.

Under the new policy, parents will be cited for truancy after the fourth unexplained absence. After that, the district may file a report with Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families.

The state said the recommendations came from a Statewide Task Force on School Attendance and Truancy Reduction. Because federal and state performance standards require growing percentages of students to post gains on math and reading tests, the state considers truancy a growing concern.

Dr. Cupples said the Pittsburgh district will send parents a letter to explain the policy changes, remind them of their obligations under the state's compulsory attendance law and outline the penalties violators face.

For repeated violations, parents face $300 fines, jail sentences, parenting classes and even the possibility of having their children placed in foster care. But the state says it wants to deal with truancy in the school whenever possible.

"Every effort should be made to keep youth in school and reduce the school district's referrals to the courts, child welfare or juvenile justice systems ... Children are truant for many reasons and schools should seek to understand and address those issues," the state said in making the truancy prevention recommendations.

Dr. Cupples said the districtwide attendance rate is good -- 93 percent last school year. But he said he supports the state's effort to "build a closer, more collaborative relationship with parents, right from the first day" of a child's absence.

In part, it's a safety issue. If a student isn't in school, Dr. Cupples said, a principal must consider the possibility that something unfortunate happened.

Attendance typically is highest in elementary years and slips in middle-grade and high school years, when students may decide to skip school. Also, Dr. Cupples said monitoring truancy is easier in elementary schools with a couple hundred pupils than in high schools with 1,000 or more.

Richard Sternberg, principal of Grandview Elementary School in Allentown and president of Pittsburgh Administrators Association, said some parents don't understand their obligations under the compulsory attendance law.

He recalled one parent left town for a week, put her child in a relative's care but made no arrangements to get the child to school. In other cases, parents don't send excuses for justifiable absences.

Under the new policy, parents must submit an excuse within three days of the absence or it will be permanently unlawful. After missing 10 days, students must have an excuse from a judge or doctor.