You asked for a legislative history of the state law that imposes a fine on any parent who fails to send his school-aged children to school. You also asked if any school districts have levied fines against parents under the law.

SUMMARY

With certain exceptions, state law requires parents or others controlling children to send children between the ages of seven and 16 to public school unless they can show that the children are receiving equivalent instruction elsewhere. Parents and others who fail to comply can be fined up to $ 25 per day under CGS § 10-185. That section was first enacted in 1882. The original fine was $ 5 per week. But Connecticut laws imposing fines for failure to comply with compulsory education laws date from as early as 1796. (For your additional information, we enclose a copy of an 1994 OLR report (94-R-0847) giving the legislative history of the state's compulsory education law. )

The current § 10-185 is still very similar to its 1882 predecessor, with only four substantive amendments being made in the last 120 years. The most recent change occurred when the legislature increased the maximum fine, effective July 1, 1991.

According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, there were a total of 30 offenses of violating the compulsory attendance law brought to court in FY 2001-02. All the offenses were nolled and no fines were actually collected. There is no centralized data on which school districts have brought cases leading to parental fines under § 10-185. Computer searches show that some districts mention the fine in their truancy policies and programs, but we are not able to provide any instance of the fine actually being imposed or collected.

HISTORY OF FINES FOR VIOLATING COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAWS

The current section of the state law imposing a monetary fine on parents and "people having control of children" for failing to send them to school dates from 1882. That statute (CGS § 10-185) remains very little changed from its 1882 wording. But Connecticut's law requiring parents to have their children educated dates from colonial times and the legislative history of those laws shows that monetary penalties for violations were part of the law, at least intermittently, before 1882.

Fines Before 1882

Connecticut's 1796 compulsory instruction law imposed a fine of $ 3. 34 for a violation. The fine was to be paid to the town poor (Acts and Laws, 1796, p. 60). Although no monetary penalty appears in the version of the law on the books in 1821, by the 1842 statute revision, the penalty had reappeared. The 1842 law applied the penalty, which was $ 25 per offense, to any factory supervisor who failed to send children under age 15 to school for at least three months per year. In 1869, the General Assembly increased the fine for factory supervisors who violated the law to $ 100 per offense.

In 1871, the General Assembly allowed parents and guardians to be fined $ 5 per week for up to 13 weeks per year if they failed to send their children between the ages of six and 14 to school, if the children were temporarily discharged from work to go to school. The law made exceptions for children whose physical or mental condition precluded them from going to school or whose parents' "pecuniary necessities" prevented them from going to school.

1882 Law

The direct predecessor of the current § 10-185 was enacted in 1882 as part of "An Act Concerning the Instruction of Children. " Section 2 of the act required parents of children over age eight and under age 14 to send them to public school or have them otherwise instructed in specific subjects for a minimum 12 weeks or 60 full schools days per year. It required at least six of the 12 weeks of instruction or school attendance to be consecutive.

A parent or guardian who failed to comply with the requirement could be fined up to $ 5 for each offense with each week of violation considered a separate offense. The law required all offenses concerning the same child to be combined as separate counts in one complaint and allowed courts to sentence a violator on one or more counts and suspend sentence on the remaining counts. If the child attended school regularly for 12 weeks, the law required the court to drop the suspended counts. (1882 Public Acts, Ch. LXXX).

Amendments to the 1882 Law

1885. In 1885, the General Assembly amended the law to cap the aggregate fines at $ 60 per year. It also exempted from the penalty any child who has no suitable clothing in which to attend school and whose parent or guardian is unable to provide clothing. The clothing exemption remains in the current law (1885 Public Acts, Ch. XC).

1887. The General Assembly eliminated the $ 60 per year cap on fines and added a second exemption from the penalty for parents of children whose mental or physical condition rendered instruction for the child inexpedient or impractical. This exemption remained in the law until 1978. (1887 Public Acts, Ch. CXLVI).

1978. As described above, in 1978, the General Assembly extended the penalty to parents of children with mental and physical disabilities who fail to comply with the compulsory education law (PA 78-218). This change conformed the law to the requirements of the 1975 federal special education law, which required public schools to provide individualized educational programs for eligible students with disabilities and which became effective in 1977.

1990. In 1990, the General Assembly increased the fine for parents and guardians who fail to meet the compulsory education law's requirements from up to $ 5 per week to up to $ 25 per day. The increased fine was part of a larger law establishing several programs and measures to combat student truancy (PA 90-240). Another act passed in the same session delayed the effective date for the increased fine from July 1, 1990 to July 1, 1991.

In debating the increased fine, Representative Mintz argued the increase from $ 5 per week to $ 25 per day, together with the existing provision allowing judges to suspend fines on some counts, would give judges the power "to really use this section where they haven't before. " The fines and suspension powers in the law give judges "some flexibility to actually try and help the situation" when a child is truant. (House transcript, April 19, 1990).

SCHOOL DISTRICTS WHERE FINES HAVE BEEN IMPOSED

According to information provided by the Office of Fiscal Analysis, there were a total of 30 violations of the compulsory education law (§ 10-184) brought to court in FY 2001-02. All 30 of the offenses were nolled and no fines were collected.

Neither the State Department of Education nor the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education was able to provide any information on school districts that have brought cases leading to parental fines under § 10-185. A computer search showed that the fine is mentioned in truancy policies published by the Shelton and West Hartford boards of education. The fine is also prominently mentioned as part of the Naugatuck High School Truancy Initiative (copy enclosed), which also includes an attendance officer and a Truancy Review Board consisting of officials from the school district and the juvenile court. Finally, the fines were listed one of the sanctions open to judges in a New Haven "truancy court" created in 1995, according to a 1996 article in the National Education Goals Panel's Daily Report Card (copy enclosed). We enclose an OLR report (97-R-0061) that describes the New Haven program more fully.

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