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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Hitting Kids Where They Live
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Andrea Jones’ and Heather Vogells’ update on this story, go here.
More than 8,000 kids lost their driver’s licenses because of truancy and another 2,700 lost their licenses because of discipline problems. Here’s the Associated Press story.
A 1997 state law spelled out the consequences for truant and delinquent teens. But some school districts are more aggressive than others in turning kids in. The Atlanta district hasn’t yanked a license since 2003 because of “bureaucratic oversight,” the story says.
The story goes onto say: “Students in Georgia can lose their licenses if they rack up 10 or more unexcused absences in a semester, commit a violent crime or are arrested for drug, alcohol or weapons possession
Students licenses are revoked for one year or until the student turns 18, whichever comes first.”
Obviously this law has its limits, as not all truant and delinquent teenagers have a driver’s license. When I wrote extensively about truancy several years ago, the kids who were the most hard-core school skippers did not drive. But for some suburban kids, this could be a useful incentive.
Parents, teachers, do you know anyone who has lost a license because of this law? Do you like the idea?
Crossblogination alert: MOMania is talking about the last couple of weeks of school and whether teachers do much teaching.
