Should Parents be Jailed if Kids Don't Go To School?

I dont think they should be jailed but they should be reprimanded in some form..now mind you this is for UNEXCUSED absences..no calls, days sick without doctor note, things of that sort. It is up to parents to make sure their children are in school and getting the education they need. If the children are older adn walk to school and skip, well that is also part on the parents not jsut the students, they both are at blame, if my son skips school, then i know i have done something wrong in what i have taught him. So maybe not send parents to jail, but definitely hold them at some responsibility for it.

I don't think that parents should be put to jail just because of the absencess of their children. There maybe a lot of reason why children are absent to school. In our economy right now there are so many poor people that even sending their children to school is very hard. So why bother to jail parents. Weigh first the situation before implenting those laws.

I think to do such a thing would be absurd. I was a teenager not to long ago.. I know a thing or two about skipping school. Parents do not have total control over that. 90% of the time when i ditched school i didn't stay at home. Now if the parents are properly notified that their child is missing a lot of school and the parent doesn't do anything to curb that..maybe a fine of some sort should be put in place. What would putting the child's parents in jail do?? Leave the child parentless and have to put them in some sort of temporary care?? That would not only be sad but a bad experience for the child. Put the child in a detention facility for a weekend for being truant, maybe it will knock a little send into them. The judge just shouldn't place all the blame on the parent. Teenagers are slick these days.

I think that if students miss certain days, there has to be valid excuses. I think that schools need to check every doctors excuse to make sure that it is valid, and every "My child was home sick" letter with a parent's signature to make sure that the child did not forge it, by calling numbers to verify. I think that students should have a limit of ten days per semester that they can be absent (excused) and allowed to make-up work. If students are unexcused, then they are not permitted to make up work/tests for a grade. Also, if students miss over ten days in that semester, they HAVE to pass the class's final exam or they WILL be held back. I think that if students are going to miss days, they still need to maintain their grades or be held back. But, should the parents be punished? That depends. If the school can find a decent way to prove that the parents are, for instance, just letting the kid stay at home, then YES. If the kid is sick, if the parents are fighting with the kid to try to get them to go to school, and has tried to seek outside assistance (such as law enforcement, etc.), then no. You can tell a child to go to school, but there is only so much forcing that can be done by the parent.

I dont think parents should be blamed fully and even be jailed if their kids dont go to school. Although they are to be blamed party but they cant make sure that their kids go to school daily if their kids are those that play truant. It will be unfair to send the parents to jail and if they go to jail, who will take care of their kids? in my opinion sending them to jail will only make the matter worst.

As has been previously mentioned, here in the UK, parents are jailed if their children continually truant from school. The way some of the kids have been brought up, it's a shame we couldn't jail the parents before they have any children and the problem would be solved!! But seriously though, I think it is pointless putting children back into a mainstream class when it's obvious they won't stay there; they just disrupt the class and ruin the other kids education. If having their parents jailed doesn't deter them from doing a runner, nothing will. They need to go to a school which is a secure unit..no escape then!

in the state of south carolina they will arrest the parent if the child is under age.they let them drop out at 16 years old on there on i think this law should change they shouls go to school until at least 18 years old we have to many dropping out school here.our family court is full of teenagers skipping school.judge trying to make them go.if macdonalds and many other places stop hiring these drop out they will keep their behinds in school and get there degree.yes if they have 10 excuse absences per year they parents is going to court but the parents can,t make them go are when they go they go out the back door while classes is going on.i think they should haul the kids to jail when they don,t go thats my word and i stand by it

I don't see where jailing the parents is a good thing...unless their refusing to allow the kid to go to school. Otherwise it's the kids responsibility to go to school. I knew a woman that had a 13 year old daughter and was a single mother. Every morning she drove her daughter to school and watched till she walked in the school doors before heading to work. Everyday the girl would walk in the front doors and walk out the side doors and right back home where she'd watch tv, eat snacks and talk on the phone. Her mom didn't know anything until the DFS (family services) showed up at her work. Now what more could the mother do? Short of walking her to class...and then what's stopping the girl from leaving during recess or something? You can't force anyone to learn and punishing the parents seems really unfair. How about those kids that skip school continuously get shipped off to a Detention Home where school is monitored and is on the grounds? That seems alot more reasonable to me. [b]~~IN SEARCH OF PEACE WITHIN~~ **AGAINST THE STORMS, I WILL STAND STRONG** [/b]

Jail is extremely harsh. Much depends on the age of the child. If a young child is missing a lot of school, then it hurts the child. Young children just don't skip school....the parents for whatever reason, are not seeing to it that the kid is getting to school. Kids need their education and with all the vacation times,weather days etc, there is absolutely no need for a parent to keep a child home unless they are sick or have a valid reason more than 10 times. Highschool is different. Kids skip school. A few years ago, I got hauled into court. My then, 16 yr.old was a professional school skipper. Actually they hauled us both in and ordered her to do community services and attend school each day. She did the community service and even when she attended school each day except for when she had mono...we got called back in. They did not want her missing any time at all. If she was sick, I had to bring her in and the school nurse had to verify it and this time they pumped it up a notch...she also had to keep her grades up as well as meet with a chins officer every day after school, find and keep a job, etc. It was a horrible time. I got up each day and drove her to the school to see that she got there. She would get to class, get excused to use the bathroom and leave the building. When I got slapped with a 6000.00 fine, I went to court and argued it. Often times she came home from school drunk or high after I made sure she got there. If she'd gotten hurt or worse...who'd have been liable? They dropped the case.

No, I don't think they should put the parents in jail. As someone already mentioned, kids have a mind of their own. The parents can drive their kids to make sure they get to school but they can be assured they're actually going to class? Are there people at the school watching to see if anyone tries to sneak out? Some kids out there don't care about anyone but themselves and think they can get away with anything. It may not even phase them that their mom or dad is sitting in jail for their behavior. Now for some parents, I can see that a wake call would be needed if they're not putting forth the effort and just flat out don't care what their kid does. I also think teachers should be held responsible as well. My mom probably would've been thrown in jail if something like that was in effect here. In the 8th grade I had a teacher who was always marking me as absent. Then I would get called to the office the next day to ask where I was and I would say in class. They would tell me to talk it over with the teacher to correct it. Every time I did, he would tell me he didn't mark me as absent. It was very frustrating.

No, I don't think parents should be fined or sent to jail. My own son dropped out of high school at the beginning of his Junior year. I did everything to get him back to school - even took him to school every day and hand delivered him to class. The problem is that once I left he would walk right back out. This went on for weeks. Finally I realized I could only do so much. Should I have gone to jail because my teenage son did everything he could to escape the school after I delivered him to it? Thankfully my son wised up years later and did get his GED. But we as parents cannot be responsible for everything our child does. Sorry, but short of handcuffing them to us I don't see how we can control this.

Hi justino101, It is happening, in this country, the UK many mothers and fathers some single parents have been in jail because the kids are not going to school, even when the parents take them to school and makeing sure have gone into class, somehow the kids mange to be in the mall later in the day. I think the kids should be put in a special jail instead or put in with harden criminals just to give them a scare. Tamara

According to me it is not fine and good..... When this kind of rules were in India, then most of the Indian parents will be in jail for most of the days.... See, parents can only ask them to go to school..... if their kids are not obeying means.... what will they do.... instead they can put the students in the kids jail.. this might be the good option.....

We have laws like that here in PA. Do I agree with them? Yes and No. It has been researched and proven that children perform better academically with good attendance. There are parents out there that will let there child(ren) stay home for the smallest of reasons. Is this the message we want to be sending to our children? Do we want them to think it's perfectly alright not to go just because they have a bit of a headache? If you had a job and called off/or didn't show up because you had a bit of a headache, what would happen? Do we want our kids thinking this is ok? And if that is the case, then yes, parents should be held accountable. We, as parents, are held accountable for the safety and health of our children. So, why not be held accountable for lack of school attendance? It is our responsibility as parents to ensure a good education and attendance is part of it. This doesn't mean that I think they should throw every parent in jail because their child has missed too much school. But, in the cases where parents are showing complete disregard to the matter, then maybe a hefty fine or jail time is the eye opener they need. In the case of older children (13 and above), I think they should be held just as responsible as the parents. It's widely known that teenagers will often skip school and such without the parents prior knowledge. Those decisons should be met with a hefty punishment to deterr from further absences.

I don't think that parents should be under any scrutiny unless the children are below the age of 10 in which case the parents should be evaluated to see the reasoning for why the child is not attending classes. Then to see if they are more or better suited in home school where the parents can tend to their children's education. Children are being bullied all the time and as such the children being bullied probably are fearful of attending school because of the bully. I'm not saying that the ones being bullied should stay at home and be taught but I am saying that if it saves controversy a parent should take it into consideration.

I live in New Jersey, and we have had this law for some time now. I am not sure whether or not it is enforced, but the law has been out there for at least ten years. Here they were basically looking at the kids in the inner cities. Sometimes children were not going to school, because the parents were doing things that they should not have been doing, and not really paying much attention to what their children were or were not doing. With this law the parents would either straighten up or face the consequences. Really, if there are not health issues, why should a child be out of school more than 10 days, especially when there are so many school holidays.

There might be some other ways to ensure the attendance of children in fact. But the steps taken by the government depend on how much worried are they about that very matter. May be there some cases which were severely unbearable for them to force them to take such step.

We got something like here in Illinois. I don't think they should get jail time unless they are purposely are not sending their kids to school. I do agree with them investigating the parents to get down to the reason why the kid has more than 10 unexcused absences though.

BY NO MEANS WHATSOEVER! that is absolutely unexscusebly LUDICRIS O.o if anything It should simply be, if the child passes or fails the test, NOTHING and I mean NOTHING should be based on attendance, when my mom was supposed to be in 7th grade they moved her to 6th simply because she stayed home sick a lot (she seriously was sick, a very sickly child...) EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS TUTORING THE SMARTEST KID IN THE CLASS ON MATHWORK SHE HAD NEVER SEEN and was doing it ACURATELY! eventually they decided to test her in a room where another class was going on with a test based on ALL the material covered in an entire year, and the teachers said she did better than ANY child could be expected to do in those conditions and most werent even tested that theroughly and she still passed... eventually they let her back in her proper grade, but she went through all that because she was sick, not because she couldnt do the work or wasnt smart enough, but because she was sick, I think schooling should be less about showing up and more about pass or fail. and extra help should be offered to failing kids who WANT it. .... I guess thats one of my more passionate points... lol...

Hell no people forget that kids have a mind of their own.Its not fair to the parent that does everything right their whole life and because of that child they go to jail and get a record do you know how hard that would be for that parent even when he or she comes out and now with a record.We have to think of the bigger picture what if that parent has other kids what about them they now go to foster care and so on its a ripple effect we cant just put parents in jail just because of a rogue kid their are a lot of parents our their that try really hard to keep their kids on the right path hey i could go on and on.