Missed school days

[Brooksy]

Does anyone know what happens to parents if they don't send their children to school . I'm asking as my brothers little girl started grade one this year and already i think she has missed 4 or 5 days.
My brother has talked to the principal and her teacher and they notify him if her mum doesn't take her to school. They said that if they miss too many they send the police around but what happens if it keeps going on? Does the police do anything. Her mum always has an excuse why.

[pegasus]

The other thing which I've seen is this can become a pattern (as there's no real value placed on school attendance). My stepkids don't go to school if they don't want to. We've told them if they stay with us longterm, that there's no real option. I've also seen both of my stepkids struggle with school, the problem is the more school missed, the more school is seen as a chore which leads to more avoidance, which leads to it becoming harder...

For example, in lower primary years, we heard about the kids not attending with excuses like, mum didn't want to get out of bed...Now my DSD is in first year highschool and has got a detention already as she's decided that she doesn't want to do homework, and told us of her day off last week - just because she didn't feel like it. She'd also told us of taking lunch to her brother last year (with her mum) and couldn't work out why the teachers were upset seeing her at the school, but not in class when she obviously wasn't sick - again she had told us that she just didn't feel like going. These days, (DSD in particular), just doesn't see any value in school, and I wonder how she'll get through the next 5years. (Who knows, she might choose to live with us for a while - stranger things have happened...She actually brings specific things over sometimes which she thinks I can help her with - I had comments left on a piece of her work for me last year, so we'll see.);)

[Miss Tazar]

I've been studying teaching and have noticed that when children miss days they feel a lot of pressure to 'catch up', when the reasons are genuine (illness, family event etc) then the teachers are very accommodating and help the children.
However, if the reasons are 'flimsy' the teachers may lose interest in helping them.
When the gap between the children and their peers starts to widen, then the children will start to hate their school experiences, this can lead to a lifetime dislike of learning and that is catastrophic and will impact on them forever.

[mythreelittlemonkeys]

We having awful time at moment as my DH's ex is really not putting the best interests of his children before her own selfish needs...his daughter 8 missed 50% of school last year and it must be different in WA as she didn't get any such visit from police...even though my DH rang the schoola dn expressed his concern.

SHe now at her 2nd school this year!!! as her mother running away from bills and trying deperately not to get caught by C-Link for living with her partner... its awful for us as the one week we have them (my husband works away on FIFO) we try so hard to just provide stability but the other 3 weeks so unstable and the teacher at the school she was attending for 1st 4 weeks this year said her mother not doing any reading or doing the homework with her...

we worry that his daughter already hates school and has absolutely no motivation or concentration skills (the teacher worried too). We know her mother just stuffs the kids in front of the tv day in day out whilst she sleeps or is in her room with her boyfriend...and that they stay up watching tv to all hours at night...this won't be helping with school of course! THe other thing is their hygeine is awful...they always look as if they havent washed for weeks, gluey ears, dirty nails, smelly bits! and the state of their hair and clothes is awful....

I feel for them as then they come here and its all so different they must be really confused! I nearly had a fit when his daughter said to me at Christmas we haven't had a toothbrush or cleaned teeth since we last saw you...which becasue of my husbands shifts up to Christmas was nearly 6 weeks before!

The only ray of light we have here is that my husband got a promiotion and looks like he will be on a 2 week away 1 week home roster which means we can have them more often...he has said to his ex she needs to buck up ideas...but she just says you cant take kids away from me they all I got, but hten why does she not look after them and their welfare?
sorry about the rant....