Atlanta Adopts New Approach to Combat Truancy

The Atlanta City Council has approved an ordinance to make it easier for police and courts to get involved with the families of young people who skip school.

In the past, the court system couldn't sanction parents until their child had been .

Under the new ordinance, officials would have the flexibility to act after a first offense. Parents could be ordered to take parenting classes, attend counseling, perform community service, pay fines or serve jail time.

“The goal of this ordinance is NOT to put parents in jail or to administer fines.  Those are the methods of last resort,” City Council President Ceasar C. Mitchell said in a news release. “Court is an option only after multiple attempts by Atlanta Public Schools and the Atlanta Police Department to engage the parent in working to improve the attendance of the student.”

In 2009 the City Council created a daytime curfew for children ages 6 to 15 that forbids them from being in public places during school day from 8:30am to 2:30pm.

The Georgia Truancy Intervention Project says that experts agree truancy is "the first sign of trouble -- a gateway to crime." The organization notes that 88 percent of adult prison inmates in Georgia are high school dropouts.

What do you think of the truancy problem? Should parents of kids who skip school face fines and other sanctions?