Mr MILLS - 2008-02-14
You would be aware of section 22 of the Education Act, where it makes it an offence to fail to send your school-age child to school. How many parents have been prosecuted since 2001 for failing to send their kids to school? If you do not know the answer right here and now, would you be able to make that information available to us by the end of this session?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The answer to that is zero. No parents have been prosecuted. It is certainly an issue that we face, particularly in our remote Aboriginal communities, but also in our urban centres. Attendance at school and participation in school is a major issue, member for Blain. We are not denying that; however, we are certainly working with communities and parents. I believe the initiatives from the federal government with some of the quarantining may look at that. It may exacerbate it, which is what we are seeing in some of the communities. We need to work with communities and parents to try to get kids to school. However, in terms of prosecutions – zero.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The answer to that is zero. No parents have been prosecuted. It is certainly an issue that we face, particularly in our remote Aboriginal communities, but also in our urban centres. Attendance at school and participation in school is a major issue, member for Blain. We are not denying that; however, we are certainly working with communities and parents. I believe the initiatives from the federal government with some of the quarantining may look at that. It may exacerbate it, which is what we are seeing in some of the communities. We need to work with communities and parents to try to get kids to school. However, in terms of prosecutions – zero.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016