Stricter policing of truancy advocated

Press, 10 May 1985, Page 11

Stricter policing of truancy advocated

PA Auckland Parents of regular truants should be prosecuted faster and fined harder, says the Auckland Education Board’s senior attendance officer, Mr Jim Taia. He told the board recently that fines of $4O for a first offence and $lOO for each subsequent conviction did not deter some parents from condoning their children’s truancy. “If a parent condones or does not prevent truancy in the first child it is likely the rest of the children will become truants.” Mr Taia said his threemember team was frustrated by long delays in having prosecutions for truancy heard in court. Truancy cases should be heard in the Children and Young Persons Court where both parent and child could be brought forward within a week of a prosecution’s being lodged, he said.

In the adult courts truancy cases usually faced delays of up to six weeks

from the time a prosecution was lodged, Mr Taia said. “One of our other frustrations is the lack of support from some of the agencies we consider to be in a better position than we are to take action,” he said. “We can continue to take parents to court, but in the meantime the children are wandering round in the streets and there is no response from Social Welfare.”

Mr Taia said that the Social Welfare Department did not give truancy a high enough priority.

The board decided to review its submissions on the proposed Children and Young Persons Legislation to see if it included a suggestion for shifting truancy prosecutions from open court. It will also write to the Justice and Social Welfare Departments expressing concern about the lack of support for requests for help with truancy problems.