Dan Papacek
Social Worker / Attendance Liaison

RESPONSIBILITIES:
As a Social Worker, I am responsible for providing individual counseling to students, helping parents resolve family problems, connecting families to school and community resources, and making reports to Ramsey County Child Protection in cases of child abuse or neglect.

As the Attendance Liaison, I am responsible for monitoring student attendance and making referrals to the Ramsey County Truancy Intervention Program in cases of excessive unexcused absences from school.  Under Minnesota state law, there are only four reasons that students can be absent from school:  illness, medical appointments, religious holidays, and extreme family emergencies.  Extreme family emergencies are crisis situations such as a death in the family or a house fire. 

PLEASE NOTE:  Every time that a child is absent from school, a phone call or note from a parent is required in order to excuse their absence.  

If a student has five unexcused absences from school during one school year, they are referred to the Truancy Intervention Program.  This purpose of this program is to improve school attendance and prevent involvement in the juvenile court system for truancy.  The program involves students and parents together and consists of four steps:  a mandatory informational meeting, an attendance improvement contract, a student attendance review meeting at juvenile court, and a court hearing which could result in a juvenile probation officer for truancy.  Students are referred to each step of the program only if their attendance does not improve.

PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY:

High school: Graduated from Central High School in LaCrosse, WI
College: B.A. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN
Graduate school: Masters of Social Work from the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, MN
Favorite hobbies: Golf, bowling, basketball, weight lifting, reading, watching sports and movies, spending time with friends and family
Favorite books: Favre: For The Record by Brett Favre, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss
Other fun books: Anything by John Grisham, Tom Clancy, or Jonathan Kellerman
Favorite foods: Pizza, apples, cheesecake
Favorite movies: Braveheart, Cool Hand Luke, Caddyshack, Tommy Boy
Favorite sports: Golf, basketball, football, baseball, hockey
Favorite color: Black
Favorite teachers: My high school Spanish teacher (Mr. Felix), My graduate school Social Work teacher (Mr. Bradshaw)
Little-known facts: I lived in Phoenix, AZ for 3 years during high school, I spent 6 years in the Army Reserve as a Combat Engineer, I'm a Green Bay Packers fan, and I speak fluent Spanish.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Mr. Dan Papacek
Social Worker / Attendance Liaison
Battle Creek Middle School

2121 North Park Drive

St. Paul, MN  55119

Phone: 651-293-8960 x2010
E-mail: dan.papacek@spps.org