Education Law: Truancy

Truancy Research

Written by Jootaek (Juice) Lee, last modified in August, 2015.

Truancy research involves many different topics such as compulsory education, general truancy procedures, excuse and justification for non-attendance, etc.  Here, I am trying to provide some starting points for research.  Strategically, secondary sources are the best starting points.  If you have journal or law review articles, try to follow the footnotes for more sources.

• Compulsory Education in 50 State Statutory Surveys: Education: General (2007), available from WestlawNext.

o   This 50 state survey provides state by state analysis relating to compulsory education.

• State Policy Approaches to Reducing Truancy by Dinah Frey, Denver:  Education Commission of the States,  2011, available at http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/92/31/9231.pdf

o     This article compiled 50 state laws relating to truancy and state notification practices. 

• Truancy: Generally, 78A C.J.S. Schools and School Districts § 1026.

o   The article provides a great overview of truancy, its definitions, reasoning, and policies. Footnotes provide citations to cases.

• West Key Number System: Education, key  690 Truancy

o   Under this topic and key number, you can find cases from various jurisdictions dealing with truancy including nature of liability, truant officers, truant schools, and liability of parents.

o   Another relevant topic and key numbers are Infants, keys  1861 to 1869 which covers children in need of supervision and truants.

• Conditions at School as Excusing or Justifying Nonattendance by Janet B. Jones, 9 A.L.R.4^th 122 (1981).

o   This old article deals with justifying conditions for school non-attendance in detail. It provides detailed explanations with citations to cases from fifty different states.

• Truancy as Indicative of Delinquency or Incorrigibility, Justifying Commitment of Infant or Juvenile by Janet B. Jones,   5 A.L.R.4^th 1211.

o   This article is an update version from 9 A.L.R.4^th 122 by the same author, and more comprehensively analyzes truant and truancy with updated cases.