Compulsory School Attendance: The New American Crime

Abstract

A mom walks up to the District Attorney’s desk in the Justice of the Peace Court with a total of six tickets as a result of her low-income children’s truancy, three in her name and one for each of her three children. She faces the possibility of having to pay anywhere from $510 to $2010 in court costs and fines. Luckily for this mother, her children’s cases can be dismissed if she and the children comply with the Judge’s probation terms. In this Court, the court costs are actually at the lowest end of the range for the price established by the state; some judges can charge as much as $150 per case and $500 fines per offense. In this instance, the costs are $85 per person, $340 total for the mother and the three children. Those costs cannot be waived and must be paid, regardless of family income. The judge may waive the fine if the parent and the students complete the community service assigned by the judge.

Pushed Out for Missing School: The Role of Social Disparities and School Truancy in Dropping Out

“…In 2005, the national graduation rate was 70%, with 50% for Native Americans, 55% for Blacks, 58% for Latinxs, 78% for Whites, and 85% for Asians and 68% males and 78% females. Urban areas had a graduation rate of 61% compared to a 75% graduation rate in suburbs [12,16]. In 2009, it was reported that the dropout rate for bilingual students who were denied bilingual classes nearly doubled [17].…”

“…All states in the United States have laws governing compulsory education covering school attendance/truancy issues [12]. Most states have framed attendance/truancy policies to hold parents responsible for the actions of their children [minors].…”

“…Most states have framed attendance/truancy policies to hold parents responsible for the actions of their children [minors]. Some states have focused on state attendance/truancy policies that criminalize parents and students [12,22]. According to Reyes [12], some states and jurisdictions have organized truancy prevention around one or more of the following factors: social competence, health, family services, family policy, academic success, juvenile justice, criminal behavior, and Americanization.…”

“…The law and order-get-tough-approach used to crack down on school truancy penalizes parents through fines and jail time [12]. For example, the Pennsylvania state get-tough truancy policy requires that after "three days of unexcused absence from school", students and the responsible parent are referred to court and fined $300 per additional unexcused absence.…”

“…One of the factors that contributes to this alarming statistic is that harsh school punishment disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority students in urban settings [6][7][8][9][10]. It is argued that truancy policies actually alienate and disproportionally punish Black and Latino youth and their families, rather than making school more accessible for students [11,12]. Rios [13] finds that Latino students that experience harsh truancy sanctions at school end up being more vulnerable to police contact, arrest, and incarceration.…”