If you live in Palm Beach County, Fla, watch your back. If your child doesn’t go to school, you canend up in serious trouble. A new truancylaw in the area says that you can get two months in jail if your child missestoo many days of school.
Under the law, "parents can be charged with truancy ifa child between 6 and 16 has 15 or more unexcused absences in threemonths," according to the Times-Sentinel.
Amy Reiter at Cafe Mom had something to say about the newlaw.
“I get why the court system might want to take a strong handwith parents in the case of younger kids. We really all should be able to finda way to get our 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds to school. But in the case of olderkids, I have to wonder if going after the parents so strongly is the rightmove.”
Florida is not the only state to push hard againsttruancy. Baltimore sent over a dozenparents to jail in 2011 because their kids were not showing up at school.
Kary Moss, former director of the ACLU of Michigan, hasproblems with the approach.
"The problem here is motivating children," shesaid. "I don't believe throwing their parents in jail will accomplishthat."
