Oranginafina t1_j92qp25 wrote on February 18, 2023 at 8:06 PM

In my school all teachers are required to call home if a kid misses more than 3 days of school. Most call after 2. Even so I know of kids that missed more than 80 days of school last year. We need to start fining parents like they do in other countries. Threatening to take them to court doesn’t scare them.

GhostOfRobertTreat t1_j99036y wrote on February 20, 2023 at 4:13 AM

Issuing fines to parents who are below the poverty lines doesn’t seem like it would fix the situation. I don’t know what the answer is but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to help.

Oranginafina t1_j993hj1 wrote on February 20, 2023 at 4:45 AM

It might help deter parents who keep their kids home for no good reason. I’ve had kids tell me they missed school to get their hair done, because it was raining, or, my favorite, they had to go shopping with their mom because “she gets lonely when she goes alone”. On Friday I was told a kid stayed home because “he didn’t want to go to school”. He’s 7.

GhostOfRobertTreat t1_j993vct wrote on February 20, 2023 at 4:49 AM

That’s a good point. I just worry if fines are the best tool. What happens if the parents don’t pay the fines? We’re not going to jail them over a school debt, right? Send them to a debt collector? Does it end up destroying their credit which is probably already in bad shape? No easy solutions here.