Is being late to school a crime?

It's pretty simple. If these kids' families can't afford a ticket, then go to school you little turds.

Who does the money collected for the truancy tickets go to?

This program is perfect. All these excuses that are given for truancy? Have the parents call in when their kid needs to be late. That's how it gets done folks. The only way people learn is when it hits them in the pocketbook! The bus was late? TAKE AN EARLIER BUS and be at school EARLY. no crime in being early to school. Dummies.

I have attended truancy court with my son who was ticketed plus boot camp. Blaming parent? many kids refuse to go to schoo;l try and drag a 6foot 13 year old to middle school...

As usual, kids in this case, are being charged by the government, yet the government who is so ready to write the ticket, is unwilling to follow through with reasoning, assistance, or proper help; this as stated, because they "cannot afford to".

THE ANSWER WITH THIS IS IF GOVERNMENT CAN'T AFFORD TO FOLLOW THROUGH, THEN DON'T WRITE TICKETS!!

Regarding parents responsibilities, our system allows so little intervention by a parent when a child chooses to disobey, that you basically have to have child-services come get your kid, to enforce what the damnable ordinances require parents to do. It is a total catch-22!!

Obviously other writers have no kids and do not realize kids do not realize the value of money within a family. Kids don't care unless the punishment is theirs directly!!

This is a great place for LESS GOVERNMENT and more family choice.

Exactly as the last caller said… And I would've added that if, as a parent, you can't take the responsibility of even taking them to school on time, DON'T have kids!!!

My son has asthma, one class created a situation that triggered several attacks. While he was in the nurses office getting treated, he got tardies from the next class.

He accumulated enough of these that we got a trauncy notification. It was a failure to communicate.

Before ticketing there should be some warning mechanism that requires the school and parent to communicate, that would help to clear up underlying conditions, (late buses, nurses office not notifying classroom)

Why isn't it ever get mentioned, that parents who are below the poverty line (as was mentioned as a reason for tardiness) should stop having large families?

I believe that having a child is not something to be taken lightly, and perhaps we should develop a program in which future parents must prove they are financially and emotionally able to provide for a child!

This is ultimately a parent responsibility issue, but we could also consider more scheduling options like we see in Latin America and Europe in which students attend classes in mornings, afternoons, and/or evenings. This would alleviate some overcrowding issues and employ more educators.

A national exit exam along the British A-level and GCSE model would also place the onus of education on the student. Give some teeth to it, for example by witholding drivers licenses until the individual pass the exam. Most students would never consider dropping out if they knew they would not be giving driving priviledges.

We need not to reinvent the wheel, but we can put some treads on it!

Why not require a student to accomplish a certain amount of hour in order to graduate. They'd just have to make it up in summer school or if that isn't enough time to fulfill the hours then they would be required to retake that grade.

Possibly, after a certain amount of misses, a fine or better yet, community services versus jail time would be I
possed.

I did a lot of ditching starting in Jr. High and ended up dropping out in 10th grade. But I was pushed to take the G.E.D. by my mom and then went to city college. Thanks to her I got enough life training. But now at 40 I wish I would have finished school properly.

Thank you, Jane Anthony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But of course, God forbid we do something like that in this country… I only wish…

*be GIVEN*
my apologies.

Giving a $250 ticket for truancy is just the kind of thing I've learned to expect from the LAPD. Just this past July, I was given a $164 ticket for jaywalking. Previously, I have received tickets for: making a right turn at a stop sign without coming to a complete stop (11PM at night, no traffic or pedestrians within blocks), making a left turn to reach a parking spot on the other side of the street in a no U-turn zone, parking on the "wrong" side of the street (a narrow 2-lane road, ticket given on a Saturday night when there was surely more serious crime going on elsewhere), and a ticket for parking in a no parking zone when I was actually parked in a portion of the block where the curb was NOT painted red. As a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record, this kind of thing has been my only interaction with the LAPD. And now they're giving tickets to children who aren't even old enough to drive yet. Is it any wonder that young people have so little respect for law enforcement?

I agree that kids and their parents should be fined for truancy, however, considering that 80% of these families are under the poverty level, 200 to 250 dollars as the opening fine seems unreasonably steep.

Also, as much as we all want to rest responsiblity with the parents and most of it does belong there, a good part of the responsibility lies with the childrend. A single parent working two jobs simply cannot afford to walk their child into school every morning. Sure they have a responsiblity to teach their child, that they have to go... but in the end, if the child decides not to - the parent will not be able to stop him.

So why not begin the penalty process with the children in the form of community service. 'You want to skip the weekdays - then you'll work on weekends'. If forced labor doesn't get the kids showing up on time, escalate the penalty to where both child and parent have to attend community service. Not only does this penalize the families, but it directly pays back to the community. If neither of these penalties seem to have an affect and we can term the child as a habitual truant, then yes - move on to the hefty fines levied above.

I don't think there's anything wrong with truancy fines per se, but I think it needs to be less draconian. It's crazy to do that to someone who is just a few minutes late. I don't care how focused you are on education, it's hard to get there on time every day of your school career. I was one of the top students in my high school class and I was late many times. Now if someone made a habit out of being late to every class, the teacher ought to be able to notify someone about that problem and have it taken care of. You could build up tardies or something. But building some leeway into the rules is fine and good. Bell-to-bell just smacks of an attempt to extort money.

I think that there is a tremendous potential for abuse of the system of fining late or truant students, especially with the budget problems in the city. In fact, I think that fining a student is really an admission of school failure with regards to the students fined. Education should be carried out in a way that keeps the students' interest. If a student ceases to see the value of education, there is something wrong. Also as pointed out, in some cases, students will drop out of school to avoid tickets. That is ridiculous: the average student scores would go up because the struggling students would be gone, but we would have failed with those students.

It is notable that the average score of schools in Los Angeles, as reported today, decline in the middle schools and and further decline at the high school levels. I think that kids ditch school because they are bored with school, or they are dealing with economically-aggravated problems at home.

Why would a student be bored? The runway before a student gets to apply his knowledge is too long. Students lack reality on the value of what they are learning. And sometimes, they just don't understand what they studying and need help. For example if a student is away due to illness or problems at home, they may have missed critical information and now feel lost when the teacher is talking.

My wife and I started a small private school to deal with the fact that our son hated math after 2nd grade. As we looked into why, we found that he didn't see a use for math in his life. Eventually we found ways to add math application to his life and he went to college and graduated as an engineer.

We would have students asking, "How are we ever going to use this?" I remember one little girl telling me that we should teach her dad how to use math because he was in charge of earning money in the family. (In other words, she didn't see any use for it, personally.)

A great solution to making school more interesting would be to allow students to participate in academic internships in businesses one or two days a week. When my son finally got an internship and was able to apply his knowledge, he was a very happy guy. He could see that it was all worthwhile.

To summarize, I believe that the ticket system should be abolished, students should be treated as clients and the system needs to be changed to make education more relevant to students lives by adding academic internships as part of the program. In the days of Benjamin Franklin, students apprenticed and learned on the job. There was a balance of learning and applying. We need to get back some of that balance.

It's too funny to me that people are just like, best idea ever and yay let's fine people who are late. Punishments rarely work (look at our prison system and how often they recommit crimes).

I also realize that anyone over 40 has no idea how it is for kids in LA anymore. Back when there used to be public transportation and one parent at home. If a student can't come in on time, should we really punish them? They probably need even more help.

I'm pretty sure if I got a ticket ever time I was late, I would have dropped out of school and gone a not so legal path instead being a productive member of society and getting a doctorate now.

It is important to understand that schools are responsible and accountable for the academic success of each child. The notion of "only" 5 or so minutes late translates to 15 or 20 minutes late when the child enters the gates and finally gets to class. That's 15-20 minutes of high-stakes accountability for the school for which the student has been absent. SOME consequence MUST exist, although I don't see meaningful results from this system in my own school district.

Study after study has proven that parents have the greatest impact in the academic lives of their children. Even the greatest educational program or the most terrible punishment have less impact than does the parent. We must work with that FACT and find a way to keep kids in school from that very crucial foundation.

A school should be designed to educate the child. Personal issues, like mental health or scheduling problems with child care, should be handled personally. The idea that schools should be transformed into mental health institutions is simply outlandish. Personally, I would be delighted to entertain anyone who thinks differently. However, in that conversation, I want to hear EXACTLY where funding would come from (saying "there are grants out there" is not sufficient information), who will pay for the district grant writers (since this is a highly specialized and very time consuming field), how grant money will be distributed equitably (since there is competition for almost every grant out there), who will pay for the physical plant elements that will be needed (a room and office/s, electricity, maintenance of facilities, etc.), who will pay for personnel, and who will pay for instructional materials. SOME districts have these services available and others don't because there's not enough money out there to go around. My district doesn't even have enough money to buy books this year. Give me concrete, detailed solutions instead of idealistic generalities.

Regarding some of the other comments on this blog: Students are not "turds." They are valuable people. Parents with different priority sets are not necessarily "bad" parents. Many simply don't have the tools to get it all done or may not have the same basis of knowledge that others consider "common sense." They may simply be trying to survive.

The later paragraph was an aside, and by no means an "out" or an excuse for people who can't/won't get their children to school. It was simply a plea to treat people with dignity and respect, and to offer an educated response to this question.

Thank you.

We will always run into these problems as long as we use the law to protect people from themselves and impose our ideas on everyone else. By inventing more and more elaborate ways to force young people to go school we are just hurting their peers. Requiring young people to go to school does not automatically make them productive, successful people--they have to want an education. The question is not: how do we keep these kids in school? it is: why don't they find school to be valuable?

People are so quick to blame parents, but what about blaming a school system that has failed our students and a society that failed their parents but forcing people to take multiple jobs and still not make ends meet! Let's stop the parent-student blame game and let's start finding solutions that do NOT criminalize our youth. Ticketing does NOT work--it simply makes schools more hostile to our young people. But most importantly, ticketing students criminalizes them and throws them into the very system we should be trying to steer them away from. Numerous studies have shown that highly punitive policies are ineffective and racially discriminatory. Schools--including parents, teachers and students--should create policies of accountability and support for truancy and tardiness--and leave the legal system and police out of it.