Every day in Philadelphia, 15,000 of the Philadelphia School District's 167,000 pupils don't make it to school.

While that total is a combination of excused absentees and truant students, it's a staggeringly high statistic.

Half of those 15,000 kids who don't make it to school are truant, in other words, they are skipping school.

That's a number the district hopes to see shrink this year.

School officials overhauled how the district's Office of Attendance and Truancy addresses the problem and how schools communicate with that office.

The initiatives come on the heels of a new daytime curfew fine.

The city is slapping the parents of truant students with minimum $25 fines. Repeat offenders could face fines of up to $300.

The new daytime curfew fines, proposed through an ordinance sponsored by City Councilman-at-Large William Greenlee and Curtis Jones Jr. (D-4th dist.), started in March. The targets are the parents of students found out of school from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

But that's not the only new trick the school district has up its sleeve for combating truancy.

"We are all responsible for the welfare of our children," Francis Pombar, deputy chief of attendance and truancy, said of the school district's efforts to work with parents and communities in combating truancy.

"If a kid isn't in the seat (at school), they aren't getting the education they need," agreed Kelli Lofton-Oglesby, a special assistant to the district's truancy office.

Pombar and Lofton-Oglesby joined Delia Reveron, director of attendance and truancy for the school district, and Vincent Thompson, a school district spokesman, for a recent discussion with the Star on the citywide problem and what the school district is doing to curb truancy.

Playing hooky: No joke 

School district representatives stressed how damaging chronic truancy can be, and said the school district is attempting to do more than simply fine parents.

Along with fines, the school district stepped up efforts with SEPTA and police to begin sweeps of the city, looking for truant students and returning them to their schools.

But, the program will not simply pick up students, Pombar said.

To figure out how they can get truant pupils back in school regularly, truancy office representatives now ask them why they skipped school.

"We want to find out why they aren't coming to class," he said. "We ask them, 'why aren't you coming to school?' Answers are often things like bullying, boredom, not feeling engaged at school ..."