Why Do Kids Skip School?
1. Truancy – like smoking, drinking, drug taking – is a cry for help. The US Department of Education states in its Manual to Combat Truancy that truancy “is the first sign of trouble; the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his or her way.” When your child decides to skip school, not just once, but chronically, this usually means that the school (the custodian of the child) is somehow not serving this individual. 2. Truancy is often a standard response to trouble at home. 3. Some experts cite bullying at school as a significant cause of truancy. Here the desire to escape ongoing exposure to torture causes the victims to take the matter into their own hands. When you scratch the surface of many incidents of truancy in teens, you come up with actions that are sometimes appropriate, or at least understandable responses to inappropriate circumstances. What to do– Be involved with your teen’s school. Get to know their teachers, the school administrators by attending
