Parents Will Get 2 Months In Jail If The Childs Misses Too Many School Days

If you live in Palm Beach County, Fla, watch your back.  If your child doesn’t go to school, you can end up in serious trouble.  A new truancy law in the area says that you can get two months in jail if your child misses too many days of school.

Under the law, "parents can be charged with truancy if a child between 6 and 16 has 15 or more unexcused absences in three months," according to the Times-Sentinel.

Amy Reiter at Cafe Mom had something to say about the new law.

“I get why the court system might want to take a strong hand with parents in the case of younger kids. We really all should be able to find a way to get our 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds to school. But in the case of older kids, I have to wonder if going after the parents so strongly is the right move.”

Florida is not the only state to push hard against truancy.  Baltimore sent over a dozen parents to jail in 2011 because their kids were not showing up at school.

Kary Moss, former director of the ACLU of Michigan, has problems with the approach.

"The problem here is motivating children," she said. "I don't believe throwing their parents in jail will accomplish that."