In order for young people to do better in school, it helps if they actually are in school. Schools basically have two options when it comes to fighting chronic truancy. There’s the positive approach, in which students are rewarded with iPads, sneakers, gift cards, and other incentives merely for showing up at school. Then there’s the flip side, in which students and parents are penalized for unexcused absences. In the past, parents have been sentenced to jail time for failing to get their children to school. Prosecutors have also suggested jail time as a penalty for missing parent-teacher conferences. Now there’s a school system in the news because itssuperintendent plans on fining families $ 75 for each day a student skips school.

In New Britain, Connecticut, a new superintendent of schools named Kelt Cooper wants to end high truancy rates among public school students, and he’s proposing monetary penalties to get the job done. A plan to fine students $ 75 per skipped school day is now being considered by New Britain council members.

The concept of fining kids for skipping school may come as a shock, but it’s not new. In Ohio, the guardians responsible for a student guilty of habitual truancy can be fined up to $ 500 and/or be required to perform up to 70 hours of community service. Until recently, students in Los Angeles could be hit with a $ 250 penalty for each count of truancy; in early 2012 the law was amended and the expensive fines were removed, though a $ 20 penalty may still be handed out for the third offense.

Internet: <http://moneyland.time.com> (adapted).