Caddo School Board discusses truancy crackdown - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

One Caddo Parish School Board member wants parents to be more responsible for making sure their kids are in school.

Dottie Bell says cracking down on parents is the way to address truancy in the school system. The board discussed it in Tuesday's meeting.

"Parents need to be involved in their child's education," Bell says. "And if you're going to keep your child at home, or not take care of the situation, then to me you need to go to jail. Or you need to pay a fine or something. Because we mean business in the Caddo Parish school system."

The current School Board handbook outlines the responsibilities of the student to be in school, and the parent to make sure their child is in school. However, it does not include the penalties for parents if their child misses too much school.

Bell wants to change that: "The parents must sign the back of this handbook and return it back to school at the beginning of the school year and say I read it. That way, if the attendance office referred a child to the court system, the parent cannot come back 'I didn't know about this.' Oh yes you did. It's in the handbook."

"Most of the times, the parents don't read the pamphlet," adds Caddo parent Toni Wright. "They take the pamphlet and sit it aside, and they don't look at any of the policies or anything in there until that child is in trouble."

Wright has an idea of how to reach parents-"I think it needs to be emphasis on things that should really stand out, as far as I'm going to jail because of this child because they're not going to school."

Marcus Hines with Shreveport police says enforcement is an everyday thing.

"The parent will be warned. They will be told listen you need to get this under control...or if you do not control this issue, the penalty associated with these types of infractions can included six months in jail and up to a $500 fine," he says.

We asked Bell and Hines what this means for parents whose children skip and don't care what their parents say.

"If that parent is supposed to be the boss of that house, something is wrong. Let's find out who's running the house. The parent or the child. To me, the judge needs to do something about that too," says Bell.

"If you have a child that refuses to go to school, contact your local police department. We do have some programs through our juvenile division to try to assist," Hines tells us.

KSLA News 12 will bring you the latest on the School Board's decision as the information becomes available.

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