Ashland, WI Public Schools Attendance Policy

This letter is a formal protest against Ashland Wisconsin's Public school Attendance policy, as well as a legal petition- that this Attendance policy MUST be changed.

The present policy mandates that parents must obtain a doctors note to verify the child's state of health if the child is absent from school due to illness. We strongly disagree with, and challenge this policy on the following grounds-

First and foremost, I am the child's Father/Mother /Legal guardian/Care taker, and these are positions of authority with respect to the child that are protected by law. Doctors, and other persons do not hold such authority. My word as such, is final. Where the school requires additional testimony in the form of a doctors note for non attendance under 3 days, they are in effect, doubting my word as Parent, and undermining my legal authority over the child. This is both highly insulting to me as a parent, and outside the schools area of authority.

Adding weight to our position is the fact that a child's records may have influence on their later life, and an unwarranted entry of truancy may have a negative impact in their future education. Of practical concern is the fact that not every parent may have the time or financial resources to arrange a doctors appointment for every minor illness, needlessly overburdening the healthcare system which would be better occupied in dealing with more urgent cases. Also of concern is the fact that sending children to school when they have a cold is likely to spread the infection to other children-which would ultimately result in yet more inconvenience for both parents AND doctors.

Religious/Cultural/Familial exemptions:

The right to carry out ones religious and cultural practices is a fundamental, protected human right. It is a further insult to our authority and integrity as parents that a note from us in this regard is not deemed sufficient by the school. The school system does NOT have the legal authority to abridge our rights as free people to honor the requirement of our religious and cultural practices. We hereby demand that a written note from parents shall be deemed sufficient evidence of genuine grounds for absence .

While we recognize that truancy does occur and it is the school's responsibility to take steps to remedy the situation, we the undersigned, petition that the truancy/absentee policy be the following:

3 days absence from school WITHOUT notification from parents/guardian may been regarded as truancy.

Verbal or written notification from parents shall be sufficient evidence excusing a childs non-attendance.

(The schools MUST recognize the legal authority of parents.)

A fixed allowance for non-attendance (5-10 days) is unpractical, unworkable and has a negative impact on the child educational records and hence a child future, and should be scrapped forthwith.

We make this petition on the grounds that, as members of the PUBLIC we have a legal right and authority to influence and determine the policies of those services/institutions that are in the PUBLIC employ-let it always be remember the that the contract between the school system and the public it SERVES is exactly that-one of diligent servitude.



Parental Rights are special fundamental rights under the Constitution.
1. In the 1920s, the Court asserted that the right of parents to raise and educate their children was a fundamental type of liberty protected by the Due Process Clause. Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923) and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535 (1925). Over the years, the courts have often asserted that parental rights are constitutionally protected such as a parent's right to the care, custody, management and companionship of [his or her] minor children which is an interest "far more precious than property rights (where a mother had her rights to custody jeopardized by a competing custody decree improperly obtained in another state). May v. Anderson, 345 US 528, 533 (1952). In Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 502 (1965), Justice White in his concurring opinion offered this Court has had occasion to articulate that the liberty entitled to protection under the Fourteenth Amendment includes the right "to marry, establish a home and bring up children," and "the liberty . . . to direct the upbringing and education of children," and that these are among "the basic civil rights of man." (citations omitted). Justice White then added;
These decisions affirm that there is a "realm of family life which the state cannot enter" without substantial justification. Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166 .