Punishing Parents for Truancy Does NOT Work

Punishing parents for chronic truancy doesn't work, according to a recent study reported in the Huffington Post.

The fact is that kids are chronically absent for numerous reasons that are out of the parents' control and cannot be mitigated by taking the parents to court. Lack of health insurance, for example, causes low income kids to miss many days of school for treatable illnesses that go untreated. Kids cut class to avoid bullying, a problem that lies more with the school than the parents. Some avoid school because of transportation issues that may be due to family income or working conditions, or because, in order to get to school, they must pass through the "wrong" neighborhood, subjecting them to harassment by gangs.