Schools all over the country are now seeking restitution from students who are missing too much school. The punishment? Students and their parents are either being fined or forced to spend time in jail, resulting in, you guessed it, even more school being missed.
Oh the irony.
Sure, there should be consequences for too many absences. But children who miss school for legitimate reasons, like chronic illnesses, appointments, etc., should not be punished. Truancy rules should keep those who would try to outsmart the system (habitual ditchers or parents who don’t enforce the rules) to stay on the straight and narrow. By making the parents aware that there are consequences for not parenting their children, the school is actually acting as an advocate for the child.
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And what about those parents who do everything right, and somewhere between leaving the house and the front door of the school, the kid makes a detour? They shouldn't be jailed for their deviant child. It’s not right to punish a parent because her child sneaks out of school. The wrong person is being punished.
Then there are the students who have chronic illnesses or extenuating circumstances, those need to be taken into consideration. If a child is so anxiety stricken that they can’t leave the house and they need to see a therapist once a week, how is it helpful to fine the student or the parents for trying to help their child? What if the child is ill with cancer or some other ongoing disease that they are too weak to attend school? In these cases, the nature of the absence needs to be taken into account.
No matter how you look at it, fining students and their parents and jail time for absences seems extreme and, in most cases, not beneficial to anyone involved. I thought the purpose of these rules was to help students do better in school by curtailing absences, but really, I think it is too flawed to benefit anyone.
Do you think this truancy system is going to help students miss less school and increase test scores? Or are we going to end up wrongfully punishing parents and students alike?
Image via Schmich/Flickr
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Comments 53
Completely agree! And how is it legal?
Where are the parents of cancer or illness-ridden children being thrown in jail? Where are all of these 'anxiety stricken' children who can't leave the house to go to school, but can leave the house once a week to go to a therapist?
As I have no supporting evidence to refer to on this topic, I have no idea what parents are being thrown in jail, and if they are, for what.
But I do believe that it is ultimately the parent's responsibility, as long as they are paying all of the other bills for their children (this includes seniors in HS), to ensure that they are where they are supposed to be, and to ensure they fulfill their responsibilities.
As much as I hate the concept and wish it would change, the schools lose money every time a student doesn't report to school. When a kid is chronically absent, they lose the money for that child. They cannot work a budget with money that is constantly disappearing.
So, yes, the parents should face some sort of discipline if their kid is regularly ditching. Because more often than not, the parents bear responsibility - through not teaching their kid to stand up to their own responsibilities.
But for regular truancy parents should definitely be held responsible. If a child is ditching the school bus every morning the parent is notified. At that point parents cab file police reports to access state programs to get their kids discipline.
Parents have more control over the situation than they think. And it's their responsibility to learn about resources in their area.
My BFF's little sister went through a phase of not wanting to go to school by refusing to get out of bed. After missing a week I offered my services, her mom told me do what I had to do (She had to be at work at 5am and was the only one working before you ask.) I came to her house around the time she had to get up and I yelled once in the room for her to get up, after ten minutes she refused and told me to go f*ck myself. I go in there quietly and literally pull her out of the bed using her blankets and told her if she got back in that bed I would keep doing it. After forcing her to get dressed I took her to school myself and took her to the office and made sure that they knew she was there.
She never tried skipping school after I did that, and if she threatened to do so once in a while she would threaten that I would come over.
Yeah it was harsh but it got her to school everyday, the next year she had perfect attendance.