Do I have to go to school?

There is at least a little something you can do for parents who do no help their children with homework. I would come before school or stay after school with the children to make sure they understand the concepts I am teaching in class. But, what do you do with a parent that does not make their child come to school, or lets them leave school for a haircut or just to go home? This particular child misses about one day a week from school. After talking with her mother it doesn’t seem as if it is a problem to her. Her grades are not suffering. She just does not want to come to school because it is boring for her. She asks her mother if she can stay home, and she says “yes”. For instance, at the end of the school year last year, this girl did not want to go to school for the last week in school because she said they would not be doing anything. Her mother let her stay home for a week. It has gotten to the point where she is keeping count of the days she goes to school so she will have enough days to move on the next grade. Truancy charges obviously do not threaten her. How do you convince a parent that it is important for their child to go to school to learn? When she arrives at college and sees that if she does not go to class, her grade drops or she does not pass the class, then it might be evident that going to school is important. Nothing anyone says has been able to convince this parent that school attendance is important. It has gotten so bad that other students are noticing and not wanting to come to school either. “If ******* does not have to come to school, why should I?” I do not know what else to tell her or her mother. If you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.