I thought this article went along well with our discussion of a parents liability over children's actions. I find it interesting that this law doesn't apply to high school students, but only to students between kindergarten and 8th grade.
http://articles.ivpressonline.com/2010-12-30/student-attendance-review-board_26352387
I feel that it is an unreasonable law to make parents liable monetarily by state for the unexcused absences of their young children. The schools should be held accountable for addressing the issue of unexcused absences before the problem should be addressed in court. If a student has five unexcused absences by the halfway mark of the school year, it should be addressed with the student and parent/guardian and future consequences should be stated at this time. By making the absences a state law, less pressure is on the school to keep track of their students because after the absences occur, it becomes a problem of the state. If a student is skipping school without their parent knowing, fining the parent may only cause more problems in the home and cause the parent to pull their child out of school all together.
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