Truancy, punish parents

If a child chooses to miss school, it is the child, not the parent who is at fault. Usually the parents want them to go to school, so it is wrong to punish the person who hasn’t done anything. If anyone should be punished, it should be the truant. After all, they are thinking, independent human beings, not just the property of their parents. In any case, most truancy involves 12-16 year olds, who are clearly able to make their own decisions. In the UK and USA these children are treated as adults by the courts if they commit a crime, why do we apply a different standard for school attendance?

Many mums and dads are at their wit’s end about how to control their kids. Children who truant often also stay out all night, join gangs, and drink, smoke and try drugs – none of which parents want. So these parents need help, not threats. After all, how do you control a 14 year old who doesn’t want to do what you say? There is a danger that this policy will lead to violence and other domestic abuse. More children may end up running away from home. And both kids and parents will see school as something nasty that wants to punish them, not a positive place offering them opportunities.

Many of these children don’t care what happens to their parents so the threat won’t work. What about parents who deliver their child to school in the morning expecting them to put in a full day in the classroom, only to discover they left again a few minutes later? What more could the parent reasonably do? Schools are also at fault here – teachers and administrators are paid to keep these children in the classroom. And perhaps if their school was better run, and lesson were more interesting, then there would be less truancy anyway.

Our prisons are crowded and it is very expensive to keep someone in jail. Parents of truants are not violent or a threat to others. They are usually very sad people who need help rather than punishment. Jail should be kept for real crimes and dangerous offenders. This policy is a waste of time and money for the police, courts, and prisons. All three should focus on their real job of keeping society safer.

Truancy cannot be treated on its own – it is often a warning sign of other problems. Many children truant because they know they will be bullied and are scared to go to school. Others have learning or behavioural difficulties that the school is failing to tackle. Some are very bright and don’t see any point of turning up for lessons that do not stretch them, or where discipline is so bad learning is not possible. Until the reasons children play truant are dealt with, no amount of punishment will work.

Punishing parents for their children’s truancy has very bad effects. If parents are fined or have benefits cut, then the whole family loses out, not just the one child who has missed school. And if the family is poor then other children may also go hungry. Sending a parent to prison, even for a few days, is even worse, as they will almost always lose their job and not be able to get another one. And often these are single-parent families, so if the mother is put in jail then all her children will have to be taken into care. This is upsetting at best, may lead to abuse in some cases, and usually results in poor education anyway.

This policy is heavy-handed and often applied unfairly. Different schools and local officials have different approaches, and some resort to threats of prison far too quickly. Often they have been given targets by the government and feel under pressure to get quick results. As threats are quicker than long-term support, this means more people end up in court.