Parents charged with son's absenteeism

• Couple faces 'family abandonment' charges for son's continuous non-schooling
• Local Police duties include combating truancy

LA LÍNEA (Cádiz) -- Local Police recently made the first charges for school absenteeism of the current school year. The parents of a boy who was not attending school on a regular basis were charged with 'family abandonment' (translatable to 'neglect of parental duty' in UK terms) and are due to appear in court when the Children Protection Prosecutor in Cádiz studies the case. The Law of Legal Protection of Minors establishes that any person or authority is aware that a minor is not being scholarised, or is continually absent during class time in a school period, and is between during the obligatory school ages of 6 to 16, is obliged to report it to the competent authority (Local Police, School, Council). One of the Local Police's duties is to try to locate and identify a child who is on the streets without the knowledge or consent of its parents or school.

Procedures are different in each case

If a minor is caught out of school, the police can take him or her back to school and inform the parents, as well as the 'absenteeism team' of the Council's Social Services department. On the other hand, if there is consent of regular absenteeism, even encouragement, or simply an 'don't care' attitude from the parents, the police should try to convince them otherwise. Should that fail, they can then proceed to put charges on the parents, such as the case described above. 

(EDITOR'S OPINION: Having had personal experience in the matter of the truancy of my son, then aged 13, I will soon be publishing a report on the subject as it affected him, his mother and myself. It is not a nice story and I'm not looking forward to re-living it, but feel I must.)