"We're thinking we're on the verge of something great here," he said.

The district's efforts have drawn fire from critics, including Javier Guzman, executive director of the Chicano Youth Center. Guzman said the superintendent blocked his plan two years ago to form a citywide dropout commission.

But Hanson says he didn't cooperate with Guzman because the community leader came to the district demanding $200,000 to address the Hispanic dropout rate.

"He just wanted us to give him $200,000 with no plan," Hanson said. "If you ever find me, as a superintendent, giving $200,000 to an organization with no plan and no track record, you have every right to criticize me."

Guzman said he never asked the district for any money. "I'm prepared to take a lie detector test to prove I never asked for any money," he said. "They're only saying that because they can't bring themselves to address this crisis."

Hanson also defended the district's practices in dealing with chronic absenteeism. He pointed to the district's Department of Prevention and Intervention, which he said handled crises, conflict resolution and chronic truancy problems for 11,000 students last year.

According to Fresno Unified policy, students who miss more than 10 days of school are referred to the department. Parents are invited by letter to meet with district social workers and discuss attendance problems.

If the attendance problems aren't resolved, the district either calls another meeting with the parent or conducts a home visit.

If the absences continue, the student is referred to the district's Student Attendance Review Board, consisting of a panel of social workers and district officials. If the absences continue, the family may be sent to court and fined.

However, records show that Junior, the teen profiled in the Bee series, was not sent to SARB despite persistent absences over his high school career. Nor was his younger brother, also a chronic truant, sent to SARB until last month, after Scharmann made repeated inquiries about his status.

Last year the district reported that 2,700 of Fresno Unified's 74,000 students had more than 10 absences, according to district spokeswoman Susan Bedi. Four-hundred fifty were sent through the SARB system because they continued to miss school. Fifty-two families were sent to court because of their child's continued absences and 218 citations were issued, Bedi said.

This number of reported truants is far lower than what is shown in district attendance records from its high schools, as published in The Bee's series, which reported that the district fails to capture the true extent of the truancy problem.

"The truancy rates from districts are inaccurate numbers," David Kopperud, the Department of Education chairman for SARB, said in the series. "They mask what's really going on at grade level with chronic absences."

Although the SARB system is used statewide, Hanson said he questions whether SARB, which can -- but rarely does -- end in fines for parents, is an effective consequence.

Instead, Hanson said, he is focusing on educating parents through the district's Parent University, which he said will expand from 2,600 to 10,000 families next year.

Parent University teaches classes about helping students succeed in school and provides training in using ATLAS, the district's online information system that provides information about student grades and attendance.

"Frankly, there's no teeth in the SARB process -- unless we want to prosecute parents," Hanson said. "I don't think prosecuting parents is the answer, I think educating parents is the answer."