"Any way you cut it, skipping class has consequences.
Attendance at school correlates to higher academic achievement, and the more likely students will perform well on standardized tests that are required for federal education accountability measures.
'We can't educate a child who is not here,' said Mandan Superintendent Wilfred Volesky."
When students ditch class without permission, they are considered truant. It's an ongoing problem that is difficult to track because of inconsistencies in how truancy is reported to the state. The number of truant students in the state appears to have dropped 75 percent between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years, but even the Department of Public Instruction, which collects the data, doesn't believe it.
School administrators and school boards try to curb truancy through attendance policies, reward programs and partnerships with law enforcement. Now educators are looking to the state Legislature to make the truancy law more enforceable.
Chronic truancy can result in a student receiving a citation from police and losing academic credit. Parents also could receive citations for educational neglect.
