There is a news article blasting California school officials for threatening parents with the arrest of their child for truancy. Many on the right have a problem with this, and I am not sure I have a problem with enforcing truancy. I think that it should, however, be the parents who face penalties.
Truancy isn’t a new problem that has just come about die to COVID. For years, I have sat and watched as more than 75% of my students are chronically absent. Chronically absent means that a student is not in school more than ten percent of the time. More than a third of my students miss more than half of class time. One in ten of my students miss three quarters or more of school hours. Out of 180 school days, the median number of absent days is 23. If an adult were to miss that much work, they wouldn’t have a job for very long, yet half of my students are gone for the equivalent of a month each school year.
I have had students whose parents sign them out of school every day, two hours before the end of the school day, so the student can go to an after school job. Some students are late by an hour more to school every morning, and when you ask them why, they will tell you because they wanted to stop to get breakfast with their boyfriend/girlfriend.
Teachers are held responsible for what their students learn or do not learn. If a teacher’s students are not learning enough, that teacher can lose their job. If enough students fail to learn, the entire administrative staff MUST be terminated by law.
Taxpayers should be livid, because the courts have ruled that a free education is a constitutional right. That means the school must be funded with taxpayer dollars, even if the students choose not to go. These truants and their parents are robbing the taxpayers blind.
I think it should look like this:
For students under the age of 15:
If a student misses more than 5 school days in a quarter, then the parents will be subject to a monetary fine of up to $250, unless they can produce a doctor’s note outlining an illness that prevents the child from coming to school.
If a student misses more than 10 school days in a semester, then that fine increases to a maximum of $1,000.
If a student misses more than 30 days in an entire school year, then the parent can be sentenced to up to 30 days in jail and additional fines.
For students over the age of 15:
If a student is tardy to school more than 5 times in a semester, then the student loses campus parking privileges.
If a student skips or otherwise misses 15 hours of any single class in a single school year, they will automatically fail the course and their parents would be subject to a fine of not more than $500.
If a student misses more than 5 school days in a quarter, then the parents will be subject to a monetary fine of up to $250, unless they can produce a doctor’s note outlining an illness that prevents the child from coming to school.
If a student misses more than 10 days in a school semester, they will be subject to a hearing that will determine whether or not they are defacto dropouts. If they are ruled to be dropouts, the student will be removed from taxpayer funded school and will not be able to re-enroll in school at taxpayer expense. Wanna skip school and waste money? Do it on your own dime.

