On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 14:50:05 EST, "Dawn"
wrote:

On Nov 21, 6:59*am, Paula wrote:
Do not excuse his absences or tardies. *

Careful -- in Texas (or at least in our part of Texas) the parents can
be held legally responsible for a child not getting to school... that's
a younger child, though -- so maybe in High School this is a viable
alternative. In Middle School (where we struggle with this issue) we
could be fined or jailed for unexcuses absences.

In my part of California, the parents can also be fined for unexcused
absences. If worse comes to worse, however, and you can't get your
child to school without physical force beyond what is allowed parents,
you can call the sheriff or police. It sounds weird, but we used to
do it when I was a counselor at a middle school and school staff
couldn't go out on a home visit. In the cases I knew of, the kid
always went to school with the police, but if he didn't, the fact that
the police had been called and couldn't get the kid to school
established that the parents had done what they could to get the kid
to school and they would not be fined.

Furthermore, it would not help in cases where attendance is bad enough
for the authorities to get involved with an eye to fines if the kid's
absences are excused. They know parents write notes to excuse
unexcusable absences and it would be stupid to let them off the hook
for school attendance just by writing notes. If there are a certain
number of absences, the parents come up for review, even if the
absences are excused. The parents had better be able to prove that
the child was sick enough to be gone that often or they will be fined
no matter how many notes they wrote. In fact, they are more likely to
be fined by those who run our local attendance review board if they
did write excuses because they are seen as being a big part of the
problem by letting the kids think that it is okay to skip school
because their parents will excuse it. If the parents have refused to
write excuses and have backed up school discipline for absences, they
at least look like they have been trying instead of being in league
with the kid who doesn't want to attend.

--
Paula
"Anyway, other people are weird, but sometimes they have candy,
so it's best to try to get along with them." Joe Bay