$70 fine if a child misses school

[grandmoon]

Have your children had a day off school lately? Just a day off without a good reason?

Well, under a proposed change to the law, you could be hit with a $70 fine if your child misses more than five days a year without a good excuse.

But that’s not half bad, when you realise that it’s a 50 per cent discount on the usual $140 fine.

Education Minister Martin Dixon  says that from  next year, parents will be fined $70.42 if they  don’t provide a valid excuse for their child’s absence.

The fine now is $140.84, but it has not been used against any parents since  the law was introduced in 2006. Under the current law, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development  have to take parents to court to fine them.

Under new laws proposed by Mr Dixon, lame excuses such as shopping days, sleeping in and family visits on more than five days in a year would result in a $70.42 a fine. Truancy, school refusal (where a student is sent home) and cultural days would be exempt.

Details are slim, but principals would be able to alert attendance officers to problem parents with lame excuses. Those parents would then be issued with school attendance notices and would need to provide a valid explanation for their child’s absence.

If they can’t provide a valid excuse, they will be issued with an infringement notice of half a penalty unit.

‘‘On a very small percentage of occasions, parents neglect that important duty, and we need to send a very strong message,’’ Mr Dixon said.

Parents Victoria executive director Gail McHardy said parents needed to be clear about what was an acceptable excuse to their principal.

‘‘Where these measures are resorted to, Victorian parents need to know what is deemed reasonable,’’ Ms McHardy said.

‘‘There  need to be communication messages about the importance of school attendance. At the same time, parents need to know in advance if a breach of uniform policy is important enough to keep a child home.’’

Ms McHardy pointed to Victoria University Secondary College, which sent children home on the first day of school for not having the correct uniform.

She said the proposed laws could encourage parents to lie to school principals about when their child would be absent and why.

She said parents needed to understand the importance of attending school, but there was no need for concern if parents obeyed the rules.

‘‘At this stage, it seems to be like a parking fine, if you don’t park illegally you won’t get fined,’’ she said.

‘‘You do have to ask though, are the people they are targeting likely to pay the fine anyway?’’

She called on the state government to increase support for parents and schools to help with school refusal and truancy to engage children at school.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/70-fine-if-a-child-misses-school-20130211-2e72g.html#ixzz2KZ9EGlQ8

[*crikey*mate*]

crikey plenty of families are in similar scenarios as your family was - some choose to get some quality time by taking a couple of weeks off, you chose to get the quality time by taking a day a week off.

we took our kids out of school for a week every year of primary school up to grade 6 so we could have a family holiday, the teachers were really supportive and our kids didn't fall behind.

as they say - different strokes for different folks,

agrees - it was just my opinion and I did say generally speaking.

your kids didn't fall behind - but I wonder how many other parents take their kids out of school when they are already behind....

[*crikey*mate*]

My kids didn't do any of that stuff :^O

wasn't ever really my intention, but my eldest has HFA and struggled to concentrate at school in the early days - was hard enough for him to just make it through the day, far less actually learn anything as well.

One of the conditions that he be allowed to attend mainstream school was that we got him extra curricula tuition - the school promised us they would do what they could to keep him safe and comfprtable etc and include him in the school's activities (so covering all the social skills stuff) - but they would not guarantee me that they could academically educate him.

So whilst I was taking one - it just made sense to do the same with the others when I saw the benefits of it.

That's how I ended up buying a few KUMON franchises - couldn't afford the fees for all 3 kids - so bought the company and turned it into my job for about 8 years LOL (kids get to go for free then)

[2106greencat]

READ the article.

Kids wagging when their parents think they are at school wiil NOT be fined

A little hard to police don't you think. If I was facing a fine, I'd say I thought they were at school, wouldn't most  😉

[bella_again]

Under new laws proposed by Mr Dixon, lame excuses such as shopping days, sleeping in and family visits on more than five days in a year would result in a $70.42 a fine. Truancy, school refusal (where a student is sent home) and cultural days would be exempt.

Truancy exempt? I don't get that surely picking truant kids up so they don't fall for through the cracks is the issue? I don't think holidays should be discouraged either, they often very educational. When we went on holiday last year we took our DD's work with us and she completed it as usual. Now obviously doing DE is a bit more flexible but we still had to inform them.  If she had have been at regular school we would have insisted on doing the same thing (in fact one year we did).

Gotta love that school refusal where they are sent home is exempt maybe we should start fining the school for not keeping them there LOL!!!

Really I doubt they will do much to enforce it even when truant officers did exist in Victoria they did little to enforce the rules.  Does anyone know much of the case 10 years ago?

[*crikey*mate*]

 I don't think holidays should be discouraged either, they often very educational. When we went on holiday last year we took our DD's work with us and she completed it as usual. Now obviously doing DE is a bit more flexible but we still had to inform them.  If she had have been at regular school we would have insisted on doing the same thing (in fact one year we did).

But Bella, you are very actively involved in your children's education, and are aware of where they are at and always have been.

Just a few weeks ago here on CS, we saw some parents receive shocks at report card time finding out how their kids are going, or only discovering then that their workbooks were filled with hand outs etc. only then finding out what their kids had been doing at school for the year - Just in this thread we have seen how some parents are unaware of days absent etc.

So generally speaking, it's a pretty sure bet that a lot of parents don't know just how their kids are doing at school and in the event that they do become aware, really don't know how to address the issue - even those that want to - some just can't for a variety of reasons, including time, finances, English not their first language, methodology changes, not knowing what needs to be taught/learned etc...

4 examples come to mind

1) one of my kids got an A in Math in grade 4 - now I knew for a fact that they didn't know their times tables - yeah sure, they could work them out eventually, given enough time - but there is no way they deserved an A. Now most parents would see that A and go "oooo Johnny is doing sooo good".

2) another child was given a math test of double digit addition in about grade 4 - he got 0/100. Now I knew he could do this competently as he had mastered that at B level KUMON and was currently working at G level - when I asked to see the test - he had every answer correct - but he was marked wrong because he hadn't shown his carry numbers - he had done the sums in his head.

3) same child also received a 0 on an algebra test in grade 9 - again, I knew he should have had that in the bag having mastered it many years before and independently working on calculus at home. The problem - he hadn't used his calculator - he'd gotten 100% but did it mentally. The teacher was horrified telling me that if he couldn;t use a calculator for algebra, he'd never be able to manage calculus and higher order math. I told her that Isaac Newton invented calculus and he only had an abacus....

4) in the KUMON centres, we used to get a lot of grade 8 and 9 kids struggling with complex fractions - they had been straight A students until then, but were slowly starting to slide backwards... you could see that the kids knew the rules and they knew how to do the sums - upon testing, the problem was that they usually didn't know their times tables well enough and couldn't add, subtract and divide fast enough to handle the multi step sums. They understood the principles, but had never had enough practise to ensure mastery.

[aspie*mum]

This is targeted at families who consistently don't send their kids to school - NOT those who take an extra week or 2 holiday each year.  In general, those parents inform the schools ahead of time and the children get holiday work to do.

I think it's a great idea.

[*crikey*mate*]

So how many weeks is OK?

How are cultural beliefs accounted for?

i.e In 2 Aboriginal Communities I know of  (so undoubtedly there are more)it  is customary for the families to go walkabout. In the past they have been doing this and thus pulling their kids out of school as well.

Additionally, those subject to welfare quarantining were faced with another dilemma - the vouchers they were given were only redeemable at stores hundreds of kilometers away - so in order to get food, families were gone for days at a time on a regular basis.

Well, the absenteeism was addressed and the families denied welfare payments for when their kids weren't at school.

And now a situation has been created where children as young as 6 are being left home unattended for days at a time.

An extreme example, I know, but where do we draw the line? How can we create legislation that caters to everyone?

How do we determine what exceptions are acceptable - and who decides this in the first place?

Yes, some families are capable of making sure their kids don't fall behind, but is every family capable of this? Do we only allow the families whose kids are doing OK at school to take a few extra weeks off here and there?

Do we allow it to become the accepted norm that it's ok to miss a couple of weeks of the school term?

I agree, some families wouldn't abuse the system, but we are aware that there are many who do and will - so excuses for absenteeism need to be minimilized IMO to make sure every kid has the same opportunity as the rest of his cohort.

Additionally, it is my opinion that the aim for a child's education should be to keep them ahead of the curriculum (where possible, I am aware some are not able to) - not just keeping up with it.

Unexpected illness or injury can amount to a lot of time of missed school, so any advantage of being ahead should, IMO be grasped with both hands.

One of my kids pretty much missed an entire semester of school due to illness, and another missed a term, though she did attend school in the hospital for a few weeks once she started to get better.

Kids have a hard enough time keeping up with their peers without creating any more obstacles to accessing the curriculum - and lets face it, education is a competitive field, the quality of which determines the rest of their lives.

Another aspect is the message that it sends the kids - that school really isn't that important - it's OK to miss it from time to time.

[*crikey*mate*]

But as I'm sure my dad would say - "Go for Gold" - any disadvantage someone else's kid is subjected to is an advantage for one of mine - gives my kids one more opportunity to get ahead of their competitors - and the reality is every child is a competitor - as performance in school will ultimately determine which career paths our kids will be able to choose - so the fewer kids going for the careers my kids pursue the better....

Gone are the days when ourr kids are working towards a job in their hometowns etc - its a global market now and our kids are competing for careers on an international basis - so it is my opinion, we need to be looking at what the rest of the world are doing and determining if we are keeping up with them - determining if we can compete with them in a career choice - not looking at the kid in the next desk.

[*pepe]

my eyes just glazed over.

[syrupsmummy]

When my kids were younger I was surprised there were so many parents don't bother sending kids to school for no special reasons. And there are so many people take kids for holiday during school terms. And my daughter even had a teacher having two weeks off for her holiday to Bali.

Those things were unthinkable for me as I grew up in Japan. Now I'm sort of used to it. But I don't think I can take kids out of school for family trip myself.

$70 fine is not a bad idea for those parents don't bother sending kids to school without special reasons.

I think it's ok to have some days of at the end of terms for early holiday for primary school kids because schools expect many kids are having day of at the last week of terms and they don't do much. Kids who attend school till end like mine have fun time as teacher let them watch movies, playing games, class party etc.