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| Get to Class, Punk (Image from Flickr, by DonkeyHotey) |
A new Michigan law (effective October
1) requires all children to be in school full time or the entire family will
become ineligible to receive welfare benefits, the Detroit News
reports. Furthermore, all new cash-assistance applicants will now be required
to prove school enrollment for their children and good attendance in order to
receive aid, while families that have lost benefits due to truancy will have to
prove their child has attended school for 21 consecutive days before they can
regain eligibility.
Of course it is difficult to succeed
in school if you do not go to class and truancy certainly hurts schools’
finances since revenues are based on average daily attendance. But it is cruel
and stupid to strip welfare benefits from an entire family, potentially harming
the health, safety and educational outcomes of younger siblings, because of the
behavior of one child, particularly when truancies are often unavoidable
products of poverty.
Many lower income children miss class
for untreated medical conditions. Without health insurance or resources for
preventable care, minor treatable conditions can worsen to the point that students
are in too much pain to attend class. They may even require hospitalization. Lower
income children also have higher rates of asthma, diabetes, anemia and other chronic
conditions that can lead to long-term absences or hospitalization, particularly
when treatment is out of reach. Even “excusable” medical absences can become “cuts”
if they last longer than a few days and a doctor’s note cannot be obtained
(which is not uncommon when the student cannot afford to see a doctor in the
first place).
Lower income kids also sometimes stay
home from school to care for younger siblings or older relatives so their
parents can go to work. While this is unfortunate for the children who are
missing out on school and being forced to grow up more quickly than their
peers, it is also a product of poverty. Affluent families are more likely to be
able to afford day care, home care, private preschool and other resources for
family members in need of supervision or care.
Some students cut class to avoid
bullies or rival gangs. This is rarely seen as an “excusable” absence by
schools. However, from the perspective of the child it may be the only
reasonable choice when the alternative of coming to school includes the risk of
injury or even death. Students also report cutting class because they live far
away from school and cannot secure consistent transportation to school. Hunger,
depression and other mental health issues can also keep some kids from
attending school regularly.
In none of these examples is the
threat of losing welfare benefits likely to change the behavior.
Of course there are plenty of kids who
are truant purely to avoid the stress of classwork or to party with their friends.
There are also plenty of kids who are truant because their parents keep them
away from school for family vacations or social events. It is understandable
and perhaps even justifiable to hold these parents accountable for their
children’s unexcused absences, but the state of Michigan is unlikely to invest
in sufficient social workers to visit every home of every truant student to
assess the actual causes and legitimacy of the truancies.
More importantly, if the issue truly is
children’s wellbeing, a one-size fits all punitive approach cannot succeed and
will most likely have the opposite effect. Since the majority of chronic truancies
are related to poverty, stripping poor families of their meager welfare
benefits will only worsen their poverty, while completely ignoring root causes
of truancy like inadequate transportation, poor access to health care, gang
violence, lack of child care for siblings, hunger and depression.
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