Mothers of truant children can be jailed, Missouri Supreme Court rules

A kindergartener and a first grader missed more than a dozen days of school in 2021, the court said

The Supreme Court of Missouri ruled that the parents of children who didn’t regularly attend school can serve time in jail.

Tuesday’s opinion highlighted two single mothers, Caitlyn Williams and Tamarae LaRue, who the court said failed to enforce that their children “attend school on a regular basis in violation of Missouri’s compulsory attendance law.”

According to the filing, after Ms Williams’ daughter’s sixth absence from first grade in November 2021, the school sent a letter to the mother. The letter ​​said that “The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education states that students should have a 90% or higher attendance percentage.”

Although Ms Williams provided reasons for some of her daughter’s 15 absences – like a dentist appointment, suffering from ringworm, a bad cough – nine absences were not given excuses, the filing states.

The assistant principal reportedly said that “the child’s lack of attendance affected her performance in the classroom.” The state later charged the mother with a “class C misdemeanor of violating the compulsory attendance law.”

The circuit court found Ms Williams guilty, and the single mom was sentenced to seven days in the Laclede County jail. She appealed, but the circuit court’s judgment was affirmed.

Similarly, Ms LaRue, also a single mother, was charged with a “class C misdemeanor of violating the compulsory attendance law” for her son who is in kindergarten.

According to the filing, she enrolled her son a month late in 2021. Per the same policy as Ms Williams faced, after Ms LaRue’s child reached six absences, the school sent her a letter. It appears Ms LaRue’s son missed school 14 times, and for seven of those she did not provide a reason.

As was the case with Ms Williams, the circuit court found LaRue guilty; she was sentenced to serve 15 days in the Laclede County jail, but her sentence changed, placing Ms LaRue probation for a term of two years. She also appealed the decision, but the circuit court’s judgment was affirmed.

According to the court, there are only two exceptions to the statue that the mothers allegedly violated. One is that a child – between the ages of five and seven – can be excused with a written request. The second exception is granted when a child is determined by the school superintendent to be” mentally or physically incapacitated.”

In both cases, “this nonattendance was not excused by any circumstance provided for in the statute,” the court wrote. “Given the notice provided to each parent and that each parent was in control of their young child, evidence existed to support the inference that each parent knowingly failed to cause their child to attend school on a regular basis.”