Missouri Supreme Court Rules Parents Can Be Jailed if Kids Miss Too Much School

Parents can face jail time if their children miss more school than allowed by the Missouri School Board, the state's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. 

The court said school officials have the right to take parents to court if their children miss too much school. The case acted on an incident involving two single mothers from the Lebanon school district who allowed their children to be absent for several days of school.

Caitlyn Williams, the mother of a kindergarten student in the Lebanon R-II School District, was sentenced to seven days in jail after her daughter missed 16 days of school during the 2021-22 school year. 

Tamarae LaRue also faced 15 days of jail time but was instead sentenced to two years of probation for allowing her son to miss 13 days of school. 

According to the St.Louis Post-Dispatch, both parents told the school of a few instances where their kids were sick but they did not account for all absences. 

Ellen Flottman, the attorney for the women, said they were unaware they violated school rules because the parent handbook did not say absences without a doctor’s note were unexcused. Flottman also argued that attendance laws are ambiguous. 

The court ultimately ruled that the school attendance laws are not unconstitutionally vague. They also said evidence of attendance rules existed and the parents “knowingly failed to cause their children to attend school on a regular basis after their children were enrolled.”