The
caller got my attention. “Did you receive
our letter? We are notifying you that we
have filed our case in court. Your
wife or child may have criminal charges
filed against them.”
A
couple of days later I received my first
written communication from my child's
School
Principal. Under Section 25.093 and .094
of the Texas Education Code if a child
misses
school 10 or more days or parts of days
in a six month period or 3 or more days
or parts of days in a four week period,
a parent is subject to prosecution for “
Contributing to Truancy ” and
the student may be prosecuted for “
Failure to attend school ”.
I
sent the principal a nice letter explaining
why our son had to be with my wife in Mexico
for two mandatory trips and that's the last
I heard of my wife and son's brush with
criminality. The caller must have misspoke
because we've received no communication
from any court or any prosecutor. So far.
I
support the intent of such a law insofar
as it gives schools an additional tool to
help it reduce truancy. But this illustrated
to me how easily a school could abuse well-intended
laws. I had never received one communication
from anyone that my son had any attendance
problem. I certainly had never been notified
about this law.
Yet
I have to wonder how many parents are forced
to go through hell because our schools use
criminal proceedings as a first resort in
trying to reduce absences. Are teachers
and Principals incapable of simply talking
to, phoning, or writing notes to parents
suggesting that there is a problem and solving
it before going to court?
The
form letter I received says, “student achievement
is directly related to student time on task.” I
agree. So why does my son have
to spend between 10 and 20 days every school
year going to plays, trips, or having school
or class celebrations ? I had my
child miss one day of school to travel with
me to my high school reunion so he could
see where I grew up. Why is time spent with
a parent for an important life event criminal
while when the child wastes an entire day
in a school event, that is considered educational?
Over
the last two years my son with great frequency
reported that his teacher was absent. If
absences are bad why don't teachers lead
by example?
As
best as I can tell by trolling the Internet,
most teachers in Texas are given 5 sick
days and 7 personal days every year and
the amount increases with tenure. Should
a teacher be ill for more than 5 days she
or he usually is covered by a union provision
which banks unused sick days from other
teachers so 12 absences is only the minimum.
Why
are students and their parents subject to
criminal prosecution for missing 10 school
days while teachers are allowed to take
off 12 days, no questions asked? Is time
on task important or not? Isn't the attendance
of teachers more important than that of
students, since all students fail to learn
when the teacher is absent?
The
5 sick days each year is reasonable. But
why do teachers receive 7 days of personal
leave? Unlike normal people who work from
8 to 5 for 50 weeks a year, teachers can
leave work at 3 to handle important business.
Teachers have 80 days off each year that
most people would kill for. During the school
year teachers get off 16 days for Christmas
and 9 for Spring Break. Why do they need
personal days at all?
Time
on task is important. So why not make sure
teachers teach every day except for major
emergencies or illness?
Our
legislature should enact a requirement that
teachers lose pay for every day they are
not at their jobs without a major verifiable
excuse. The language of personal days off
should be removed from teacher contracts.
Why should teachers get paid for having
the same number of absences that can be
used to jail a student or parent?
ARTICLE
ARCHIVE
PREVIOUS ISSUES
HOME
|
