View source for Truancy

{{Short description|Unauthorized refusal to attend school}}
{{About||the  Isamu Fukui novel|Truancy (novel)|the album|Truancy: The Very Best of Pete Townshend}}
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'''Truancy''' is any intentional, unjustified, unauthorized, or illegal absence from [[compulsory education]]. It is a deliberate absence by a student's own free will and usually does not refer to legitimate excused absences, such as ones related to medical conditions. Truancy is usually explicitly defined in the school's handbook of policies and procedures. Attending school but not going to class is called ''internal truancy''. Some children whose parents claim to [[homeschooling|homeschool]] have also been found truant in the United States.<ref>{{cite news|title=Home-school mom charged with allowing truancy|work=The Southern|date=25 April 2005}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Truancy & False Homeschooling |url=https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/advocacy/policy/homeschool-law-truancy/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=Coalition for Responsible Home Education |language=en-US}}</ref> 

In many countries, truancy is criminalized by law as either a [[Crime|criminal]] or a [[Municipal offense|civil offense]], and authorities can prosecute truant students ([[Minor (law)|under the age of 18]]), their parents, or both. Some countries, like [[Canada]] or [[Australia]], reserve fines for truant minors and allow for their detainment (but not arrest) while skipping school. In [[Russia]], [[Germany]] and some parts of the [[United States|U.S.]] police officers even have the power to handcuff and arrest truant minors on the streets during the school hours. Strict measures against truancy are usually motivated by compulsory education gaps among children and underage crime surge in big cities.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-04-23 |title=Police use truancy sweep in battle against San Pedro burglaries |url=https://www.lapd.com/article/police-use-truancy-sweep-battle-against-san-pedro-burglaries |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=LAPPL – Los Angeles Police Protective League |language=en}}</ref>

Truancy is a frequent subject of popular culture. ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]'' is about the title character's (played by [[Matthew Broderick]]) day of truancy in [[Chicago]] with his girlfriend and best friend. ''[[Truancy (novel)|Truancy]]'' is also the title of a 2008 novel about a student uprising against a dictatorial educational system. 
The term truant can also be used to describe a child that avoids duty, or is unruly, although this use is uncommon.<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of TRUANT |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truant }}</ref>

==History==
In older [[English language|English]], a '''{{linktext|truant}}''' or '''truand''' was any vagrant, vagabond, or shirker of duties.

The widespread legal obligation for towns and villages to provide free education did not evolve until the late-19th century and was born in such legislation as the [[Education (Scotland) Act 1872]]. Over and above the obligation within such legislation for local government to provide school-buildings and -teachers, there was also a counterpart requirement for children to actually attend an educational institution, and thus the modern legal concept of school-oriented truancy was born.<ref>Education (Scotland) Act 1872 etc</ref>

Most private schools had{{when?|date=September 2024}} the concept of punishing pupils for non-attendance. This was done on a reverse principle{{vague|date=September 2024}}: and schools had in principle to get the permission of parents to punish children.<ref>''[[Tom Brown's Schooldays]]''</ref>{{qn|date=September 2024}}

==Slang expressions==
There are a number of expressions in most languages which refer to truancy.

* [[Antigua and Barbuda]]: ''skudding''.
* [[Argentina]]: ''ratearse''.
* [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]: ''escaping'' or ''eluding''.
* [[France]]: drying (class) refers to truancy. "Faire l'école buissonière" or "l'école de la vie" is also used.
* [[Germany]]: ''schwänzen''.
* [[Guyana]]: ''skulking''.
* [[Ireland]]: ''dossing'', ''mitching''
* [[Italy]]: ''marinare'' marinating (school)
* [[Jamaica]]: ''skulling''.
* [[Japan]]: ''futoko''
* [[Mexico]]: ''pintearse''.
* [[New Zealand]] and [[Australia]]: ''wagging'', ''jigging'', ''ditching'', ''bludging'', ''bunking'', or ''skipping school''.
* [[Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]] ([[Flanders]]) ''spijbelen'', ''schoolziek''.
* [[Pakistan]] and [[India]]: ''bunking''.
* [[Philippines]]: ''skipping'' or ''cutting class''.
* [[Poland]]: ''wagary'' or ''wagarowanie''.

* [[Romania]]: ''a chiuli''.
* [[Singapore]] and [[Malaysia]]: ''pon, short for ponteng''.
* [[South Africa]]: ''bunking'', ''mulling'', ''skipping'' or ''jippo''
* [[Trinidad and Tobago]]: ''breaking biche''.
* [[United Kingdom]]: ''bunking (off)'', ''skiving'', ''wagging'', ''kipping'', ''mitching'', ''twagging'', or ''on the knock''.
** [[Liverpool]]: ''cutting class'', ''doggin'', ''playing {{Not a typo|tickie}}'' or ''puggin''.
** [[Greater Manchester]]: ''legging''.
** [[Wales]]: ''sagging'', ''on the mitch''.
** [[Scotland]]: ''on the hop'', ''doggin it'', ''beaking'' or ''on the beak'', ''ticking it''.
* [[United States]] and [[Canada]]: ''(playing) hooky'', ''ditching'', ''dipping'', ''skipping'', ''cutting (class)''.
** [[Newfoundland and Labrador]]: ''pipping off'', ''on the pip''.
** [[Utah]]: a ''sluff'' commonly refers to a truancy.

==Punishments imposed==
[[File:Ralph Hedley The truant's log 1899.jpg|thumb|[[Ralph Hedley]]: ''The Truant's Log'', 1899]]

=== Denmark ===
In [[Denmark]], some welfare benefits{{Clarify|date=March 2012}} may be confiscated for a period if the child does not attend school. However, not all cities use this approach to keep the children in school.<ref>[http://www.dr.dk/Regioner/Kbh/Nyheder/Hovedstadsomraadet/2007/10/25/072056.htm Det virker at inddrage børnechecken] (It works confiscating the child benefit check), by Anette Sørensen, Denmark's Radio, October 25, 2008</ref> Most cities{{Clarify|date=March 2012}} watch for families who have not returned their children to school after the summer vacation because some groups [[exile]]d their children to their ethnic home countries for [[behavior modification]]. In the city of [[Aarhus]], 155 children had not attended one week after school started.<ref>[http://www.aarhus.dk/default.asp?Id=359&LcId=da&AjrDcmntId=3046&AjrThmId=0&AjrThmPg=0 155 elever er ikke mødt op] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107064059/http://www.aarhus.dk/default.asp?Id=359&LcId=da&AjrDcmntId=3046&AjrThmId=0&AjrThmPg=0 |date=2009-01-07 }} (155 children have not started), by Majken Klintø, aarhus.dk, August 26, 2008</ref> In April 2009, research among 4,000 students showed that more than one in three had been absent during the past 14 days.<ref>[https://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2009/04/30/043947.htm "Børn pjækker mere fra skole"], DR News, April 30, 2009</ref>

=== Finland ===
In [[Finland]], truant pupils are usually punished with [[School discipline|detention]] in comprehensive schools. The police are not involved in truancy control, but teachers monitor the school and its surrounding area to avoid unauthorized absences. If a pupil is absent for a long period of time, the parents may be fined.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/%C3%84idille+sakkoja+lasten+oppivelvollisuuden+laiminly%C3%B6misest%C3%A4/1135249315433|title=Äidille sakkoja lasten oppivelvollisuuden laiminlyömisestä – HS.fi – Kotimaa|access-date=1 February 2011|language=fi|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923210550/http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/%C3%84idille+sakkoja+lasten+oppivelvollisuuden+laiminly%C3%B6misest%C3%A4/1135249315433|archive-date=23 September 2009}}</ref> The child will not be escorted to school, but the government may remove the child from the household if truancy continues.

=== Germany ===
In [[Germany]], truancy is prohibited until the age of 18, and parents can be fined up to 1,250 euros or jailed if their child misses too much school.<ref name=":0">OLG Hamm, Beschluss vom 21. Dezember 2012, Az.: II-2 UF 181/11</ref> The students themselves can also be imprisoned for truancy from age 14 to 18, because the criminal responsibility age is 14 in Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Minimum Ages of Criminal Responsibility in Europe |url=https://archive.crin.org/en/home/ages/europe.html |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=archive.crin.org |language=en}}</ref> The students older than 18 cannot be held criminally liable for truancy.<ref name=":0" /> The parents of a child absent from school without a legitimate excuse are notified by the school. If the parents refuse to send their child to school or are unable to control their child, local child services or social services officers may request the police to escort the child to school, and in extreme cases may petition a court to partially or completely remove child custody from the parents.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

=== Israel ===
In [[Israel]], Attendance Officers (AO) are key figures helping students cope with difficulties of adjustment in school, which can cause them to drop out of the education system altogether. AOs are employed by the local authority, as authorized by the [[Ministry of Education (Israel)|Minister of Education]], and their role is to ensure that the Compulsory Education Law is implemented in educational institutions for all 15 years of [[Compulsory education|compulsory schooling]].  In recent years, efforts have been made to professionalize and structure the role of attendance officer.  A 2016 study of the AO role found there had been a change in the focus of the AOs' work – from concentrating on students who do not regularly attend an educational framework to intervention at an earlier stage with students who are still in a formal educational framework, but are experiencing adjustment difficulties. The data over the period from 2006 to 2016 indicated a decline in the relative percentage of students not in formal education ([[Dropping out|dropouts]]) out of all students in the care of AOs, and that most of those in the care of an AO did attend a formal framework.  At the end of the period of AO intervention, 38% of the students who were not in an educational framework when the AO began work with them had returned to a formal framework. Among those who had been in a framework at the start of work but were contending with various difficulties, almost 90% were still in the framework at the end of the intervention.  Finally, the data noted the multiple difficulties facing AOs working with the [[Negev Bedouin|Bedouin]] population and with students in East Jerusalem, as well as the limited resources available to them.<ref>Ruth Baruj-Kovarsky, Viacheslav Konstantinov, and Dalia Ben-Rabi.  ''[https://brookdale.jdc.org.il/en/publication/attendance-officers-israel-analysis-data-decade-work-school-dropouts-disengaged-administrative-files-2005-2015/ Attendance Officers in Israel – Analysis of Data from a Decade of Work with School Dropouts and Disengaged Students (Administrative Files 2005–2015)]''. Jerusalem: Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute (2018).</ref>

=== Italy ===
In Italy, compulsory education starts at six years of age and finishes at 16, but truancy constitutes a crime only for the elementary-school level.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

=== Taiwan ===
Truancy is subject to an administrative fine, which may be continued until proper enrollment in the compulsory education.<ref>[https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawSearchContent.aspx?pcode=H0070002&norge=9 Article 9] of the Compulsory Education Act</ref>

=== United Kingdom ===
In [[England and Wales]], truancy is a criminal offense for parents if the child concerned is registered at school.<ref>S.7 Education act 1996</ref> Truancy laws do not apply to children educated at home or otherwise under Section 7 of the [[Education Act 1996]]. Since the passage of the [[Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000]], parents of persistent truants may be imprisoned for up to three months.<ref>[[Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000]], §72</ref><ref name="TruancyTimeline">{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7851787.stm|title=Truancy timeline: 1997–2009 |publisher=BBC News|date=11 February 2009}}</ref> In 2002, the first parent was imprisoned under this provision.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7880936.stm|title=Jailing parents: What happened next?|date=12 February 2009|publisher=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/3561655.stm|title=Truancy mother sent to jail again|publisher=BBC Newsdate|date=23 March 2004}}</ref>

Since 1998, a police officer of or above the rank of superintendent may direct that for a specified time in a specified area a police officer may remove a child believed to be absent from a school without authority to that school or to another designated place. However, this is neither a power of arrest nor a power to detain, and it does not make truancy a criminal offense.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ERORecords/HO/421/2/cdact/truancy.htm |title=Electronic Records Online |publisher=Nationalarchives.gov.uk |access-date=2012-01-21}}</ref> A warning is issued to parents following the first instance of truancy, but for subsequent events, the parents are assessed a fine of at least £50. Some charities have highlighted an increasing prevalence of truancy among impoverished girls during [[menstruation]], especially among girls who do not have easy access to sanitary products.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/17/girls-from-poorer-families-in-england-struggle-to-afford-sanitary-protection|title=Girls from poorer families in England struggle to afford sanitary protection|last=Marsh|first=Sarah|date=2017-03-17|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-01-30|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

=== United States ===
{{Mcn|section|date=August 2024}}

In the [[United States]], truancy regulations are generally enforced by school officials under the context of parental responsibility. New automated calling systems allow the automated notification of parents when a child is not marked present in the computer, and truancy records for many states are available for inspection online.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} In large schools where law enforcement officers are present, the fine for truancy can range from $250 to as much as $500. About 12,000 students were ticketed for truancy in 2008 in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Ehrenreich |first=Barbara |author-link=Barbara Ehrenreich |date=8 August 2009 |title=Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09ehrenreich.html |department=Opinion |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=9 |access-date=1 February 2011}}</ref> Many states{{Clarify|date=March 2012}} provide for the appointment of local truancy officers who have the authority to arrest habitually truant youths and bring them to their parents or to the school that they are supposed to attend. Many states{{Clarify|date=February 2011}} also have the power to revoke a student's driver's license or permit. Where it exists, a school truancy officer is often concurrently a [[constable]] or [[sheriff]].

Children are required by [[Compulsory education#By country|law]] to remain in school until the age of 16, although some states{{cn|date=August 2024}} require schooling through age 18 unless an absence is formally excused by a school official or if the child has been [[Expulsion (education)|expelled]]. In the 1972 case of ''[[Wisconsin v. Yoder]]'', the Supreme Court determined that [[Amish]] children could not be placed under compulsory education laws past the eighth grade.

Children in [[private school]] or [[homeschooling]] are exempt from attending mandatory public schooling.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hslda.org/content/|title=HSLDA: Homeschooling Advocates since 1983 |publisher=Home School Legal Defense Association |language=en|access-date=2019-11-06}}</ref>

==Truant's Day==
{{Further information|Skip Day}}

In [[Poland]] and the [[Faroe Islands]], the first day of spring (March 21) is an unofficial occasion popular among children, who traditionally are truant on that day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.staypoland.com/poland-holidays.htm |title=Public Holidays in Poland |publisher=Staypoland.com |access-date=2012-01-21 |archive-date=2012-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611062344/http://www.staypoland.com/poland-holidays.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In some American high schools, a "senior skip day" may be organized, often without the school's consent. The date for the skip day varies among different schools. In the [[Eastern United States]], skip day often occurs on the last Friday before [[spring break]] or on the Monday following the school's [[prom]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Dyer |first=Elisabeth |title=Life's a beach for many students on senior skip day |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/14/Citytimes/Life_s_a_beach_for_ma.shtml |access-date=23 November 2010 |newspaper=St. Petersburg times |date=14 April 2006}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[AWOL]] (absent without leave)
* [[School refusal]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:School and classroom behaviour]]
[[Category:Student culture]]