-> The city of Peoria, AZ, came up with a new program which was piloted
-> in several districts in Phx this year which outlines criminal
-> prosecution of parents & children who do not attend school.  Those
-> unexcused absences add up & the parent & child are in court before
-> the situation gets irremediable.
-> The Attendance is Mandatory program sends the police out to the
-> family's residence after two warning letters (@ 5 & 8 unexcused full
-> day absences.)  One of our officers told the newspaper that he has
-> arrived at a house to find the parent claiming that "I can't make her
-> get out of bed," so he goes into the bedroom & wakes the student.  He
-> then writes out a citation on a traffic ticket form with a court
-> date.  There are two more levels beyond that, but rare is the child
-> who continues sleeping in after Officer Rudy pays them a personal
-> visit.
Wow! That's pretty tough. I wish the attendance rules at our school had
a bit more teeth in them, although we don't have _that_ many problem
attendance students. There is some limit after which a student is put on
"attendance probation" and they get a letter and a parent conference and
stuff. But my understanding was that nothing "really" happened after
that.
BTW, I notice that you wrote _UN_excused absences. Are these parents not
covering up for their children and saying they were "sick" or something?
We have a fair number of parents who do that at our school.
I saw this post of yours after I typed in the article from the L.A.
Times about the Truancy law in Monrovia. I did have mixed feelings about
that article. I thought the law was good, but apparently a lot of kids
don't see it as that much of a deterrent to ditching classes. Do you
know if students feel they can get around this AIM program in AZ?
Sheila
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