Truancy

The offense, in most legal systems classified as a status offense applicable only to a minor, of a school-age child being unexcused from compulsory school attendance for a number of days or a proportion of the school year exceeding what the relevant education law permits. Nearly every United States state maintains a compulsory education law defining a threshold number of unexcused absences that constitutes truancy, and, while the truant student themselves is most often addressed through a school or juvenile-court intervention rather than a criminal charge, a number of states additionally allow prosecution of a parent or guardian for contributing to or failing to prevent a child's truancy, sometimes styled as an educational neglect offense. Truancy is documented in criminological and education research as a significant early risk indicator, associated in longitudinal studies with a substantially higher likelihood of later school dropout and, in some populations studied, later involvement in the juvenile justice system.