It could go on your permanent record

[Long Run]

Should parents be able to take their kids out of school without getting a truancy letter?

California’s strict truancy laws are rubbing some parents the wrong way.

A student only needs to be 30 minutes late for school three times to be labeled a truant and have a letter sent home threatening their parents with prosecution. Being tagged a chronic truant – after missing 10 percent or more of the school year – could mean up to a $2,000 fine and jail time for parents or the student.

California school districts have a new urgency to increase attendance now that truancy will be officially counted as a measure of school performance on the state’s new dashboard, which will replace the Academic Performance Index score in December.

But some parents believe that districts should give parents more discretion to take kids out of school.

Last year, Kim Berry was surprised to learn his daughter would receive a truancy letter from Carriage Drive Elementary School in Citrus Heights for attending his older daughter’s wedding in Arizona and then traveling to the Grand Canyon.

* * *

The local debate over parental rights versus state law heated up this fall when a family that went to see the solar eclipse in Oregon received a letter from Breen Elementary School in Rocklin declaring their 10-year-old son a truant.

* * *

Students are allowed one day off school for the funeral of an immediate family member if the service is in California, three days if it is out-of-state.

“I think that’s pretty harsh,” said Barbara Lindsay of Folsom. Her son was only allowed to miss one day of third grade at Empire Oaks Elementary School when his grandfather died.

* * *

School officials say they are simply following the law and doing what is best for students.

“Kids are off for a lot of time,” said Victoria Flores, director of student support and health services at Sacramento City Unified. “We want to encourage our kids to take vacations when they are out of school.”

Chronic absences in kindergarten and first grade are associated with lower third-grade reading scores, while ninth-grade chronic absences are a huge indicator that a student will drop out of school, said Hedy Chang, president of Attendance Works, a federally funded initiative.

“What we know from lots of research now, as well as common sense, is if we want kids to benefit from what is taught in the classroom they have gotta be there,” she said.

* * *

Trisha McKay was unhappy to hear that her kindergartner is one absence away from a truancy letter that would remain on file and could move with her if she transfers.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/educat ... rylink=cpy

[rubato]

Parents have other choices if they don't want to ensure their child gets to school reliably. They can home school, send their kids to private school, and the child only has to go to school through 8th grade if they assert the exemption used by the Amish.

The recent crackdown on truancy is a good thing overall even if some of the details are a little harsh.


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

In the UK..

Parents who take their children out of school for term time holidays can be prosecuted, the Supreme Court has ruled as a "stubborn" father lost his landmark case on Thursday whilst appealing to parents not to follow his example.

Delivering their verdict, the judges ruled that Jon Platt, a businessman from the Isle of Wight who took his six-year-old daughter on a seven-day family trip in Florida in April 2015, should have paid a £120 fine for his daughter’s unauthorised absence.

The judges said he had shown a “blatant disregard of school rules” and that his approach had been a “slap in the face” to “obedient” parents who abide by the law.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/20 ... ally-take/

[rubato]

The community is paying a lot to provide an education and has reason to insist that it not be used wastefully. Education is one of the three largest expenses for state and local governments along with administration of justice and health care. And in addition government has an obligation to remediate the social and economic costs of ignorance caused by truancy and students dropping out.


yrs,
rubato

[Jarlaxle]

Wish that had been a law when I was in school...I'd have skipped school in a second if it might have gotten my father locked up.