But there are some ways around this, e.g. signing your kid up for “home schooling” (this may be difficult and require your kid to take tests, depending on your state), switching to a private school, convincing the school that the student’s absence should be excused, etc. For “why aren’t they doing it”: bad reasons, see the rest of this post.
In the state of Maryland, an exemption to truancy laws exist while a state of emergency is declared. So, in MD, you can just not go to school up until Jan 31 (when the current state of emergency in MD expires) and you’d face no penalty with regard to truancy laws.
While I’m sure many other states have similar laws in place, there may or may not be states of emergency declared there that would cause this exemption to be valid.
Also, there is the issue that this exemption is solely for the purpose of truancy laws. If a child in MD stayed home, they (and their guardian) could not be prosecuted/fined for truancy, but there would still be other consequences for having “unexcused” absences.
I think children can be prosecuted in any state but the prosecution of parents is more novel and was a minor controversy during the last presidential campaign.
Both the child and parents can face legal consequences if they do this unilaterally. I found this by googling “usa truancy laws”: https://www.findlaw.com/education/student-conduct-and-discipline/truancy-sample-state-laws.html
But there are some ways around this, e.g. signing your kid up for “home schooling” (this may be difficult and require your kid to take tests, depending on your state), switching to a private school, convincing the school that the student’s absence should be excused, etc. For “why aren’t they doing it”: bad reasons, see the rest of this post.
In the state of Maryland, an exemption to truancy laws exist while a state of emergency is declared. So, in MD, you can just not go to school up until Jan 31 (when the current state of emergency in MD expires) and you’d face no penalty with regard to truancy laws.
While I’m sure many other states have similar laws in place, there may or may not be states of emergency declared there that would cause this exemption to be valid.
Also, there is the issue that this exemption is solely for the purpose of truancy laws. If a child in MD stayed home, they (and their guardian) could not be prosecuted/fined for truancy, but there would still be other consequences for having “unexcused” absences.
I think children can be prosecuted in any state but the prosecution of parents is more novel and was a minor controversy during the last presidential campaign.