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
