After Madeline Soto’s death, OCPS to notify parents earlier about kids not in school

Orange County Public Schools next month will start notifying parents early in the school day if their child is not in class, a change made in the wake of the disappearance and death of 13-year-old student Madeline Soto.

The district also hopes to have in place by next school year an online system that will allow parents to check their children’s attendance in real time.

The earlier notifications will begin on April 8. Currently, parents get automated calls, emails and texts at the end of the day — sometimes not until close to 6 p.m. — about their child’s absence. The end-of-the-day notifications will continue as well, said Superintendent Maria Vazquez, when she announced the changes Tuesday night.

Madeline’s mother told authorities she did not know her daughter wasn’t in school until she went to pick her up at the end of the day on Feb. 26. But police now doubt that story and believe Madeline was already dead that Monday morning.

Her mother’s boyfriend claimed he dropped the teenager off near Hunter’s Creek Middle School that morning. The eighth grader’s body was found four days later in Kissimmee, and the boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, is the prime suspect in her death.

OCPS leaders said that Madeline’s case prompted many parents to call and email them, urging them to change their notification system, as they worried a delay could mean no one would know for hours that a child was missing and in danger. An online petition on the issue had more than 12,000 signatures late Tuesday when it declared “victory” following Vazquez’s announcement at the Orange County School Board meeting.

“While this petition was prompted by Madeline’s disappearance, we now know that it couldn’t have saved her life, but it can make a difference in the life of a child in the future.  Every minute counts when a child is missing!” it read.

School board members said they were relieved district administrators found a fairly quick way to update their automated attendance notification system, a process they feared could take much longer.

“It really was a lot more complicated than I think any of us realized,” said Chair Teresa Jacobs. “I could not be more relieved.”

Board member Alicia Farrant said the “horrific tragedy” upset many parents, and she appreciated Vazquez’s staff responding quickly to calls for a more up-to-date notification system.

“I’m so thankful that you listened to that,” she said.

The exact time when parents will get an early notification is not yet set but will be announced after next week’s spring break, Vazquez said.

Teachers will be encouraged to file first-period attendance reports on time, and schools will make sure substitute teachers know how to report absences, too, she said.

By the start of next school year, OCPS hopes parents can sign into the existing online parent portal and see “in real time if child has been marked absent, period by period,” she added.

Many who signed the petition said such a system makes more sense than the current procedure.

“Parents need to be notified at the first hour when their child is missing from school,” one wrote. “Waiting all day has been established to further endanger children who might be in danger and be detrimental to law enforcement investigations.”

Sterns has not been charged in Madeline’s death but has been charged with 40 counts of possessing child sex abuse material that investigators found on his cellphone, along with seven counts of molestation and 13 of sexual battery on a minor, according to authorities. Affidavits from the Kissimmee Police Department indicated he had been sexually abusing Madeline.

Police said Madeline was living with her mother and Sterns in Venetian Bay Villages in Kissimmee. It was not clear why she was not enrolled in an Osceola County middle school. The condominium complex is zoned for Kissimmee Middle School.

Madeline attended Hunter’s Creek last year and previously attended West Creek Elementary School, an OCPS campus in the Hunter’s Creek area, said Michael Ollendorff, a spokesperson for the district, in an email.

Federal privacy rules prevent the district from answering questions about why Madeline was an eighth grader at Hunter’s Creek when she no longer lived in Orange County, he said.