Truancy

In Russia, Germany and some parts of the U.S. police officers even have the power to handcuff and arrest truant under-18s on the streets during the school hours.

Strict measures against truancy are usually motivated by compulsory education gaps among children and underage crime surge in big cities.

Over and above the obligation within such legislation for local government to provide school-buildings and -teachers, there was also a counterpart requirement for children to actually attend an educational institution, and thus the modern legal concept of school-oriented truancy was born.

The police are not involved in truancy control, but teachers monitor the school and its surrounding area to avoid unauthorized absences.

In Germany, truancy is prohibited until the age of 18, and parents can be fined up to 1,250 euros or jailed if their child misses too much school.

[citation needed] In Israel, Attendance Officers (AO) are key figures helping students cope with difficulties of adjustment in school, which can cause them to drop out of the education system altogether.

Finally, the data noted the multiple difficulties facing AOs working with the Bedouin population and with students in East Jerusalem, as well as the limited resources available to them.

[14] In Italy, compulsory education starts at six years of age and finishes at 16, but truancy constitutes a crime only for the elementary-school level.

[citation needed] Truancy is subject to an administrative fine, which may be continued until proper enrollment in the compulsory education.

[citation needed] In large schools where law enforcement officers are present, the fine for truancy can range from $250 to as much as $500.

[23] Many states[clarification needed] provide for the appointment of local truancy officers who have the authority to arrest habitually truant youths and bring them to their parents or to the school that they are supposed to attend.

In the 1972 case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Supreme Court determined that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education laws past the eighth grade.

In the Eastern United States, skip day often occurs on the last Friday before spring break or on the Monday following the school's prom.