Schools are actually quite serious when it comes to children attending, and while each state and district handles things differently, it is federal law that they go.
In my state, school is 180 days. Kids are allowed ten excused absences. Excused means sick, going to a funeral, or a doctors appointment with note. It doesn’t mean the parent is allowed to excuse them for any reason they want.
Any day over ten is not allowed and has to be marked as true truant in the system, which in my state the DA can access. Once there are three unexcused absences in a row, a student is truant and a letter goes out to parents reminding them to get to school and telling them consequences. A child is criminally truant if they miss ten percent of the school year
(over their ten excused days). That is 18 days. Things become serious quickly. A meeting will be called with a review board called SARB, and if the child is sick (documented) they can set up home and hospital programs for them. If they are pulled out to take care of siblings, which happens a lot and parents never seem to feel shame, that’s when the DA gets involved. In my state, the District Attorney runs the program and a parent can and will be arrested for truancy if the counseling and other requirements that happen when a kid is SARBed fail. It carries a penalty of ten years.
Schools must abide by religious holidays but they can’t be made up on the fly. The district knows about the various religions and when the students need to be off. As an example, during Ramadan the Muslim kids won’t do strenuous PE activities because they can’t eat and drink. They still have to go but I think Eid is a recognized holiday. Schools know what is and what isnt. Obviously, out west where I am the Jewish holidays aren’t school days off, but back East they are. We don’t have snow days so our schedule is fixed. So each state can decide, as long as the kids have 180 days. (Some count by hours)
Bottom line, Amy is behaving like many white trash mothers I’ve seen, who think it’s perfectly ok to take a kid out of school to babysit or run an errand for Mama. But it is not something they will get away with for long Schools get money by each kid who shows up each day and when they don’t, trust me, it’s taken seriously.
Also, a senior who has missed something like 40 extra days aside from their excused ones can’t walk in graduation. That might be a district thing, but the parents who don’t mind taking their kid out of school to wipe their ass and floor, and then scream like holy hell because they can’t walk are unreal. Was it important? Then why didn't you get them here?
I can see Amy getting in trouble for this.
