Parent may be jailed if child misses school

Parents should read their new school handbook this week when their child brings it home because it could mean the difference between a parent going to jail or not.
One of the biggest changes in the handbook deals with the amount of days a student is allowed to miss without an excuse and how many times a student can be tardy in a semester.
According to Calvin “Woody” Woodruff, the school board’s attorney, when a student has three tardies or misses three unexcused days in a semester, the student and the parent will be called into the office for a conference. The conference will be held with the school’s administration in order to resolve the problem.
However, if there are two more tardies or two or more unexcused absences in the same semester, then the name of the student is given to the state department’s, Family Services Department through juvenile court. The parent(s) can also be prosecuted through district court if a parent allows their child to miss five days with no excuses in a semester or have five tardies in a semester.
Woodruff said once the student has five tardies or five unexcused absences, a form is filled out at the school and the information is sent to the local law enforcement as it is a state law.
Another thing parents need to know is that if their child has five unexcused absences or five tardies in month, the student will lose their driver’s license. The school has to fill out a form and send it into the state, and the state will cancel the student’s license.
Also, if a student is expelled for weapons, drugs, assault or battery on a teacher, a student will lose their driver’s license. If a teenager applies for a driver’s license and is not enrolled in a school, the state will not issue the teenager a driver’s license. Woodruff said “drop-outs” can not get a driver’s license.
He also stated that the school board has already trained its principals and assistant principals on the procedure for filling out forms and sending them to the state office.
There are notices posted at the schools about the new changes, along with publishing them in the parent/student handbooks.