Current:Home > Markets2 Missouri moms charged with misdemeanors for children’s absences lose their court battle -FutureWise Finance
2 Missouri moms charged with misdemeanors for children’s absences lose their court battle
View
Date:2025-04-17 19:32:04
LEBANON, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a state law criminalizing parents whose children miss school, ruling against two mothers charged in their young children’s tardiness.
Prosecutors charged two moms from Lebanon, Missouri, with misdemeanors and the mothers then went to the state Supreme Court to challenge the law’s constitutionality.
One mother was sentenced to a week in county jail for her first-grade daughter’s nine unexcused absences in the 2021 school year. Another was sentenced to two years of probation for her kindergartener’s seven unexcused absences that year.
Missouri law requires K-12 students to attend school “on a regular basis.” A public defender for the mothers argued the law is unconstitutionally vague.
Supreme Court judges disagreed, ruling that regular attendance means going to school when it is in session.
Judges wrote that school officials can excuse an absence for mental or physical illness and opt not to report parents to prosecutors. Prosecutors, judges wrote, can choose not to charge parents in cases of “minor noncompliance.”
The mothers’ public defender did not immediately return an Associated Press phone call Tuesday.
veryGood! (86)
Related
- Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
- Florida school officials apologize for assembly singling out Black students about low test scores
- Camila Alves sets record straight on husband Matthew McConaughey: 'The guy doesn't even smoke'
- Environmental group suffers setback in legal fight to close California’s last nuclear power plant
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- RHOA's Kenya Moore Seemingly Subpoenas Marlo Hampton Mid-Reunion in Shocking Trailer
- Railroads resist joining safety hotline because they want to be able to discipline workers
- Takeaways from first GOP debate, Prigozhin presumed dead after plane crash: 5 Things podcast
- B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
- Billy McFarland went to prison for Fyre Fest. Are his plans for a reboot legal?
Ranking
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- Support grows for sustainable development, a ‘bioeconomy,’ in the Amazon
- AP Week in Pictures: North America
- Man accused of beating goose to death with golf club at New York golf course, officials say
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among 6 nations set to join the BRICS economic bloc
- UK: Russian mercenary chief’s likely death could destabilize his private army
- BTK serial killer Dennis Rader named 'prime suspect' in 2 cold cases in Oklahoma, Missouri
Recommendation
Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
A woman abandoned her dog at a Pennsylvania airport before flying to a resort, officials say
New York governor urges Biden to help state with migrant surge
A woman abandoned her dog at a Pennsylvania airport before flying to a resort, officials say
Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
New gas pipeline rules floated following 2018 blasts in Massachusetts
Terry Dubrow Reveals Romantic Birthday Plans With Wife Heather After Life-Threatening Blood Clot Scare
Police arrest two men in suspected torching of British pub cherished for its lopsided walls