Coleville, CA
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2024
All states have passed compulsory attendance laws requiring that students in a certain age range attend school, with varying exceptions by state. But, nearly one in four students are chronically absent.
Students and their parents can face penalties for truancy. Some states take a punitive approach to truancy, allowing referrals to juvenile court for truant students and imposition of criminal charges parents that can result in hefty fines and even jail time.
For example, a 2024 Kentucky law required that a school refer a student to the County Attorney for "formal court action" if a student accumulates 15 or more unexcused absences. Until Governor Newsom repealed the policy in October of 2025, California's truancy laws allowed parents to be fined up to $2,000 or up to a year in jail if their child was chronically truant (missed 10% of the school year). In Merced County in 2017, 10 parents were charged with a misdemeanor for their children's absences.
Despite a recent shift away from punitive truancy policies, 20 states still require schools to alert courts if a student is truant.
Greenville, CA
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2012
Rural communities are especially susceptible to truancy. The National Rural Education Association found that "[n]early one in seven rural students experiences poverty, one in 15 lacks health insurance, and one in 10 has changed residence in the previous 12 months." Schools with greater populations of students in poverty are three times as likely to be chronically absent. Additionally, the spatial isolation of rural areas means that rural students travel farther to get to school and may have a more difficult time accessing transportation. The transportation issue, along with limited funding, also means that rural schools have less access extracurriculars, leading to students being less engaged in their school community. The lack of opportunities is not a new problem; this blog post from 2014 discusses the struggles related to school involvement in rural areas.
Truancy laws are ineffective
Truancy laws are ineffective at decreasing school absence because they do not address the underlying reasons why students are absent in the first place.
For example, in an article by the New York Times on homelessness in rural areas, author Samantha Shapiro explained a crucial paradox:
Students who do not have a stable place to live are unable to attend school regularly, and failing to graduate from high school is the single greatest risk factor for future homelessness.
This is just one example of how truancy laws fail to address the problem, and instead act punitively. As expressed by California Assembly Member Patrick Ahrens, the sponsor of California's bill repealing criminal fines and jail times, "[f]ining or imprisoning parents did nothing to get kids the education and support they need."
Truancy compounds on the issue of rural school funding in states where school funding is directly tied to attendance. While not the majority, six states use average daily attendance (ADA) to determine a student count for funding allocations, including California, Texas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Missouri. Using ADA results in districts with higher rates of chronic absences receiving less funding, making it even more difficult to address truancy issues.
Better solutions to chronic absences
While punitive policies are ineffective, one study found that truancy decreased by 5% with the sending of simple, periodic, personalized messages to parents about their child's attendance. These messages used templates that automatically pulled information about a student, including their name, absences, and goals for decreasing absences which could be sent to parents to keep them better informed.
Data systems, such as Iowa's, catch absentee patterns early and allow schools to intervene earlier are more effective. Instead of punishment, prevention should be the focus of school policies to decrease truancy.
1 comment:
I appreciate the straightforward way in which this post speaks to the need for reform in truancy law. This is a body of law that is failing students and families on the whole, primarily because it does "not address the underlying reasons why students are absent in the first place." Punishing truancy with more time away from school is a plainly paradoxical approach. As research reveals that high school graduation closely correlates with risk for experiencing homelessness, primary education feels like the perfect place to lead with restorative practices that prioritize keeping kids in school. Restorative frameworks, rather than punitive ones, are more likely to encourage student and parent participation in connecting with resources to address the circumstances that lead to truancy in the first place (housing insecurity, lack of transportation, etc.).
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