42 replies to this topic

[krazygoddess]

Ok, I have 4 children, 18, 17, 5 & 4. I dont know what i am doing wrong with my 17 year old, I am soo fed up with her crap right now I dont know what to do next. I have had problems with her in the past and sent her to live with her dad. Yes I know and understand coming from a broken home can be difficult for children just as much as it is the adults. Her dad and I get along fine now and she does know she is very muched loved by both of us. She moved back in with me right after Thanksgiving 2007 I had to go to the school after winter break I was called by the assistant vice princaple because she had been skipping school, not once or twice always, she was harldly showing up at all, once in a while she would go to a class or two throughout the day and thats it. If I remember right the paper i got from him with her attnedance on it said she was absent 18 out of 22 days since she had moved in with me. I was furious. OF course she was grounded. I thought we worked passed this she told me and promised it would stop and not happen again, she really didnt have an excuse as to why or were she was going. Any way all said and done I truly believed her and thought it was over and she would stop. Well here it is today March 11th. And as I was sleeping yesterday Morning my oldest brought me the phone and said mom wake up its Jessica's school. So I get on the phone still half asleep and its her school councelor calling wanting to know why Jessica wasnt in school for the wassel testing. (This is our states testing required bye all to graduate highschool, I think all states have them jsut named differently) Any way I said what do you mean she is not there? ( I was still half asleep) And he said well she didnt show up today for her testing and I wanted to know if she was gonna be here at all for testing this week? And I of course said well yes and I dont know why she isnt there for it today, she left this morning at the normal time for school. So anyway the after the call I sat and the more I woke up the madder I got. And knowing my child, she always is full of excuses I thought well maybe she was just late.
So after about an hour or so I called the school back and asked to talk to her counselor again, Of course he was away from his desk so I left a mesage, This was about 10:30 am. By one I still had not heard from him so I called the school again and asked to speak with him, And that time he was at his desk. So I told him, now I just want to make sure Jessica wasnt just late for her testing, She is always full of excuses and before she gets in trouble I just want to double check and make sure she wasnt just late showing up. So he tells me just a minte and looks her up in the computer and says no she is still marked absent, he then tells me if you would like to hold on a minnute I will walk down to the testing room and see if she ever picked up her test. I said of course I will wait. So I waited he of course came back with a no she did not show up and did not take the test. I thanked him and as I was saying goodbye he stopped me and said he wanted to talk about her attendance record. It turns out as of febuary 8th she has not attended a full day of school. OH MY GOD!!! Was I pissed. I could not believe she is doing this again, after all the promises she made me. I was shocked. I talked to him and tried to ask for help, but he really didnt have a good solution. He asked about her life outside of school and I said well she has been grounded from the last time this had happened for a long time and then finally got ungrounded, and then report cards came out and she got grounded again, of course she was failing almost everything because she doesnt go to class. The only advise he had to offer me was to let her be ungrounded because his theory is she has no social life so she is using school time to have a social life instead of going to school. Which I agree thats what she is doing. But I would rather try to find another solution, because ungrounding her she will think she got away with it and can do it again and again with out being in trouble. I feel like this makes me look like a bad parent. I just dont know what to do. I signed up for a program today thought that I wish I had known about in the past. It is called parent connect, And it is a program that I sign up for on the internet so I can watch her daily at school, I can see IF she showed up for classes, if she was late, her homework etc.. So I am hoping this will help me to find out what she is doing. She also knows that I did this, so hopefully it will help, and she wills tart going to class.


Please if anyone has any suggestions or ideas please post back, I am really stumped her on what to do and could really use some suggestions. Even if you are a teen yourself I would love your feedback, Or reasons why maybe you yourself skip school. Thank you all for reading sorry it was so long.

[~Upnorf Cr3w~]

lol it was a little long but the more i read the more interested it became

As for the story its self im not sure. i believe she is not listening to a word your saying to her and she seems like she is not bothered what you or her teachers have to say. Do you think it might have something to do with the friends she hangs around with ? Is she easly led along. Like if her friends say to her come on lets skip school again do you think she will just go along with them? Im not sure as you didnt say much about her friends she hangs around with. Are they a bad influance (sp) on her. Maybe look into that side of things a little more.

I skipped school when i was younger but not as much as she is doing. The reason i did this is because of friends doing it and i thought i was cool to do the same. I carried on untill my mother found out then i got the grounded treatment. Then my mother got my dad involved as he didnt live with us also and he gave me the grounded treatment and a few other punishments. I however listened to this and never did it again. Im not sure why she isn't listening to you. But i see a lack of respect here. Sorry if i wasn't much help but after reading it just wanted to let you know why i did it.

[krazygoddess]

~Upnorf Cr3w~, on Mar 11 2008, 01:41 PM, said:

lol it was a little long but the more i read the more interested it became

As for the story its self im not sure. i believe she is not listening to a word your saying to her and she seems like she is not bothered what you or her teachers have to say. Do you think it might have something to do with the friends she hangs around with ? Is she easly led along. Like if her friends say to her come on lets skip school again do you think she will just go along with them? Im not sure as you didnt say much about her friends she hangs around with. Are they a bad influance (sp) on her. Maybe look into that side of things a little more.

I skipped school when i was younger but not as much as she is doing. The reason i did this is because of friends doing it and i thought i was cool to do the same. I carried on untill my mother found out then i got the grounded treatment. Then my mother got my dad involved as he didnt live with us also and he gave me the grounded treatment and a few other punishments. I however listened to this and never did it again. Im not sure why she isn't listening to you. But i see a lack of respect here. Sorry if i wasn't much help but after reading it just wanted to let you know why i did it.

Thank you upnorf for your response all are welcome, I need all the ideas and help I can get.
Ok first of all I agree alot probably does have to do with her friends, she is not much of a follower but I could see her skipping becuase friends asked her, but I also see her as the one asking friends hey lets skip today.. lol Thats terrible to say but truthful I could see her doing this, and im sure she has. As for her friends I dont really know many of them anymore of who she hangs out with because since she has come back to live with me she has pretty much been grounded almost the whole time she has been here.. lol I do however know a couple of them one being her boyfriend and I do talk to him, he is a great student and I have asked him for his help to get in into her head that school is the most important thing right now, she is a junior this year and she is in serious danger if not being able to graduate if this keeps up, she has a long road ahead of her to make graduating happen. But again thank you for your response all are welcome.

[~Upnorf Cr3w~]

No problem i try and help when i can

Quote

she is a junior this year and she is in serious danger if not being able to graduate if this keeps up, she has a long road ahead of her to make graduating happen.

Without sounding rude or anything is this actually what she wants ? Does she want to graduate or do you think this might be another reason for her skipping ?

If she don't want any of this or she thinks she can't be bothered with it and feels you or her dad might be pushing her this may affect her too. Don't get me wrong am not saying you are just asking

[krazygoddess]

~Upnorf Cr3w~, on Mar 11 2008, 02:19 PM, said:

No problem i try and help when i can
Without sounding rude or anything is this actually what she wants ? Does she want to graduate or do you think this might be another reason for her skipping ?

If she don't want any of this or she thinks she can't be bothered with it and feels you or her dad might be pushing her this may affect her too. Don't get me wrong am not saying you are just asking

Hmmm well sadly to say my family does not have a good track record when it comes to school, I for one did not finish school I dropped out at the start of my 9th grade, I am 36 now and I did a few years back go back and get my ged, I know its not the same but I felt I needed it at the same time, And of course do wish now that I had finished school, What adult dropout doesnt. But back to her, she says she does want to graduate and go on to college. I dont know why she would lie about this but that is what she tells me. And I do try to stress how important school is but you have to do it for yourself not others. She is a very arguementive child, I have told her all her life she would make a good lawyer because she loves to argue. She agrees with me and the last few years has said that is what she would like to go to college for, I have even told her dont do it because I say that do it because you want to. And she says thats what she wants so I dont know. She sure is not acting like that is what she wants, maybe I will have another talk with her about it. Thanks again.

[~Upnorf Cr3w~]

well maybe she thinks that you or the rest of your family didnt do well in school so she might think she can get by life doing the same.

I didn't finish school just like my mum and dad, But having said this thats not the reason i didn't i was having such a hard time at school and started working when i was young around 16 so i opted to do that.

Maybe there isn't much too it it might just be a phase she is going through.

Oh well i hope you get it sorted out soon enough. I have a little boy and he's 3 i wouldn't like it if he started to behave like this when he's older. And if he didnt listen i can imagin how hard and frustrating it may be.

Good Luck

[gisellebebegirl]

o wow the girl sounds like meh (: haha. well im about her age... so try getting into her head.. maybe she needs some attention from you? before when she dindt ditch, and went to school everyday, did she have good grades/do right, always did what you told her to? did you ever praise her for it? i think all she needs is some attention.. its a cry for help..

it could also be her friends.. since you did go trhough family problems, she might feel, they are the only ones who care, or know whats good for her.. even though they might be influencing her wrong.. [could be a boyfriend too]

good luck (:

[and yup everyone has those exit exams.. today everyone is taking the california exit exam here.. casee]

[warages]

they think skool is boring and hate it most probaly but when you get older you miss school and u wanna go back aint i right?

[goldtupac]

The reason why i skipped school is it just is basically pointless. Even though i could have learned things from school i never listened and or fell asleep. For me it was about doing things better then school (like hanging with friends).

But because of all that i dropped out and got a ged and going to collage. Maybe you should ask your 17 year old why he/she skipped school.

[arnz]

Without reading most the above posts. There are indeed various reasons for kiddies 'piking', 'wagging' or skipping school in general. Some may be for bullying reasons (eg being picked on at school, etc), and another is peer pressure from friends that may want to do something else, for example.. a few mates want to head to the local shopping centre instead of going to Maths class, therefore a group might pressure someone reluctant to skip class to go with them to the local shopping centre, cinema, etc to hang out.

[sonesay]

Everything affects the people around you, are there any problems at home, school, or anywhere else your child is around? If they aren't comfortable around where they are they will look to ditch school, stay away from home or where ever else it will be. If you want to help your child you need to find out exactly whats bothering her and try and fix that. She may not want to tell you but you need to get it out it in the open before you will start seeing changes. You have to know the problem before you can fix it right? I used to skip school to do drugs with friends back in high school because I was bored of school. I didn't understand school was important because my parents didn't tell me.

Yeah your parents tell you school is important but whether they fully understand is another thing. If they really understand that if they don't do well in school then they will have a hard time getting a job or into the university of their choice then maybe they wouldn't skipping school and aiming for good grades instead of just a pass. Try and think back to when you were their age and did you really understand what the world was all about at that age? I doubt many do because they haven't been exposed to the real world before. This is probably why they don't take schooling seriously. I always said screw school I'd rather be having fun and doing drugs/drinking and worry about all that other things in life later when it comes around. I'm not saying your kids on drugs or doing bad things but if shes not in school what else is she doing?

Find out whats going through her head even if it causes heated arguments, You show you love your kids by paying attention to what they are going through not by letting them do what ever they like. You should try and build a close relationship to them that they can talk to you about anything instead of turning to someone else. That way you can spot potential problems your child might be having and possibly stop it before it does.

I hope things work out for you and your family. Good luck.

[~Upnorf Cr3w~]

Most people when at school think they don't like it and it wont help them when they get older and in need of a job. Most people get jobs and all the time and work they done at school has not helped them get the job. You can get jobs all over the place now and not need any GCSE'S or anything from school. Just simply turn up for a interview and get the job. Ok i understand the bigger high paid jobs you do need qualifications and stuff but most of us dont end up like that.

Having said this its no excuse to skip school. As someone said where ur at school you hate it. Now after 7 or 8 years out of it i would like to go back lolz

[sonesay]

Man I know what you mean I wish I could stay in school and get paid for it. Learning is so much fun and I enjoy it way more now then I ever did in my entire life. I guess what we learn in high school does seem boring and we don't see it really helping us out in the immediate time so we lose interest easily. Your right many people can get a job without any qualification but that job might not be very high paid or very secure. I've worked temp jobs and I hate them. No security, low pay and be treated like slaves. If you have an opportunity to do well why not take it? Most people don't have the drive but it doesn't mean they don't have the potential. I'm just saying just because theres jobs out there for you at mc donalds or KFC dosent mean you have to settle. Some people like you say don't care and are happy with where they are and I agree they have the right to do what ever they like. But if its your child who's skipping school you better do what you can to change that. They will thank you when they are older and understand why.

[slave]

lol.. i'm just 21 ... i do remember my college times when i used to skip in school and in college. it's been great fun for me. hehehe.. i love that time. when i bunk from school and hang out with friends whole day wondering here and there .. well actally kids do that when they fed up with studies. or dont feel like studing. or no getting intrest in studies.. some times friends are tends to skip from school and sometimes you can't reject their proposal

[krazygoddess]

Thank you all for your great replies, it helps to read others thoughts and get different perspectives, I have tried to talk to her and have asked her why, and her answer is just I DONT KNOW. Because I wanted to, OR because i didnt want to go. Becuase i wanted to go hang out with friends instead. But anyway i am trying to work on this. She still says she knows the imprtance of school and wants to go on to college and I am trying to help her with this the best I can. It has been a couple days now and I have been following her progress with this [rogram I signed up for its called the parent connect. And i can log into this everyday and see if she was absent from any classes or late to any classes and what home work she has from each of her classes. I sure wish I had known about thsi program ealier, may have prevented some of this sooner. Anyways thanks again for all your responses.

[terminal2k]

I did the same thing when I was younger, I went to school less than fifty percent of the time I was supposed to. I used to sit at home and watch tv, or play video games, or when my friends were also skipping school, we'd meet up and hang out. Like everyone else I wish I could go back in time and change what I did. Perhaps this is the tack you should take with your kids. Are there any friends or relatives that you have that the kids look up to or are good friends with? someone who can have a talk about how they regret not finishing school? It could help motivate them to keep going to school.

[arnz]

I dont know about overseas countries, but in Australia, high schools and primary schools track student absences, and generally a good reason has to be displayed why the student has been absent from school, considering primary school and "most" of the high school classes are compulsory according to law. Although, of course some students have been getting around it, some may have had lame attempts (eg forging parents signatures) or in some extreme cases some parents may not care for their kids at high school as much. The later is a shame, but personally the parents in the later should really be whacked in the head IMO. Considering, high school is fairly important for a kid's development and training into the work force/real life/etc.

[vijeth]

This is because a child gets so much touched by the parents it doest want her or him to be sent far. so the child get restless all throughout.. they just hesitate to move to school. It would be better if the parents could take some time for their kids and sit with their kids in the kinner garden till they get used with the new surroundings.

[iGuest]

From my experience
Why Do Kids Skip School?

Ok, I have no kids, but this is what my mom did with me and it worked for me.

First of all, I would suggest taking her to a counselor or a peer group - not because I think she's crazy, but because she's not being honest with you and I think she obviously has some frustrations that make her want to avoid healthy relationships with you, her dad, or responsibilities. This is what I had to do for myself when I was 25 years old. There were a lot of things that happened to me that my parents didn't know about and a lot of resentment that I had towards my parents because of their marriage before and after the divorce. I was functional on the outside so no one knew that I needed this help. Your daughter is showing signs of something not being right, more so with handling something internally rather than something you're doing. You're not a bad parent! This is just the time that you have to rise to the occassion and be the best parent on the planet.

As for what my parents did:

My mother's mistake was telling me that she didn't care if I failed. That broke my hear. I needed her to care. What she got right was an old school tactic.

MY MOM THREATENED TO GO TO SCHOOL WITH ME AND SIT IN EVERYONE ONE OF MY CLASSES.

Oh that worked! Plus I knew she'd be pissed about missing work. I knew I had to have my homework done. Try that one. You also need to drive her to school.

Have the call the school you everytime she's absent. Then you call the police everytime. Let her get arrested for truancy and see if that'll change her. LOL when she's expects you to pick her up from the police station, show up late and ask, "Oh, did you expect me to be here? Well I expected you to be in school. It makes NO sense for you to be here, when all you have to do is go to school. Do not get acquainted with this place." Then explain to her that she will be paying you back, from her part-time job.

Other thing you NEED to consider. WHERE IS YOUR DAUGHTER SPENDING HER TIME? Check with the school (and the school she went to when she lived with dad) to see if anyone else is absent like she is. If so, you've found her bad friends. If not, she's hanging with older kids/ adults.

I hate to say this - it's voilating, but 3 things you need to remember, 1. She's blown the trust. Every adult has to live w/ that. And she wants to act grown, she has to live with grown consquences 2. You are legally respsonsible for her and you have to do the responsible thing so you're not held accountable by law. 3. She has to see how much she's hurting you.

Here's the violating thing you need to do: YOU HAVE TO DRUG TEST HER and you have to TAKE HER TO THE OB to see if she's been sexually active or abused and make certain she's examined for STDs ...And if you want, give her birth control, but explain your expectations of her.

Either you're going to do this or she'll experience it in Juvenile Detention - and they don't care about her, and the other kids there might influence her negatively.

I say all of this because when I wasn't in class, at lunch or where I was supposed to be, an older neighborhood boy who also went to school with me was sexually abusing me 6- 7 days a week (in school, in our house, in his house, in our van when we car pooled, in the church, at the park, everywhere) Sometimes he made it seem like it was a relationship, other times, he mad it clear that he just wanted what he wanted to point of choking me. He also tried to pimp me out to his friends, literally. Because I had so many attitude issues, he made it clear that no one would believe me. Now, my other friends were into sex, drugs, drinking, gangs, witchcraft, one had a pimp we were just 13 - 14! I know that a couple of them had been rapped too, and one's mother had mad it clear that she didn't care what she did, she was busy trying to be her friend and her mother only when the school called and if it was ok with her daughter. Her daughter knew she was weak. -- None of us had had counseling. We were all a mess. In our 13 year old minds, rape happened when some creepy dude you didn't know forced you to do something, not some 15 or 16 year old boy that you liked, but couldn't fight off. Oh, did I mention that we also planned the deaths of these guys. Thankfully we didn't do it, but we felt alone and unprotected by our parents. You don't know what your teenagers is doing... Or planning... Or why. You don't even know if she's eating each day.

Oh, and we used to plan wild partys that I didn't go to, but I funded and got paid. My 13 year old's 19 year old boyfriend rented hotel rooms, I put them in contact with 14 year guy at my church to supply the weed, my 14 year old's 25 year old boyfriend brought the alcohol... One 15 year guy from our school got drunk he ran into the back of a police car. Another 15 friend of ours almost died of alcohol posioning at school. I watched him being wheeled out in front of me. Again I never actually went to these parties, I just funded them. It's amazing how much money you can save up when you don't go to the things you're supposed to go to. My other friends traded sexual favors for money, or their grown boyfriends gave it to them or both.

Of those friends, I was the only black girl, but I wasn't into those things. My thing was fighting. (If you saw me today you wouldn't believe it - I'm super sweet.) My mother got called down to the school once because I was being suspended (after she said she didn't care) and she asked me what was going on with me. Finally, I told her - I was tired of being called the and word and being pushed in mud, etc. (I was the only black girl in my school at the time) And she told the principal to suspend me; then she took me out for pizza and a movie. She told me that I obviously need a break from school. We talked for the first time and I knew I could trust her and that she would trust me. So, a couple of weeks later I exploded in our car pool. My neighbor tried to get me to be quite, I refused and when I got home I told my mom everything he had been doing. She was angry, she blamed me (which she apologized for later) BUT she believed me and she saved me.

I didn't tell her before because I thought she thought the worst of me. But she believed me... My dad believed me. No one else did, but they did and I was able to move on from there. My grades went from a 37% in science to a B in one semester. The teachers who I thought hated me, were pulling for me. I left that school and went to another school the next year - one of the top schools in our city (from at 37%!). I graduated the top 25% of my class, I scored so well on my ACT and P-SAT that I got scholarships to college and was accepted everywhere I applied.

My mom is my best friend now. What is going on in your daughter's life may be completely different, but she's keeping it a secret. She doesn't trust you or anyone else with this secret and it's destroying her and her future. I PRAYED that my mom would find out what was going on with me and that she would care. I didn't know how much she actually did care.

When your daughter is out doing God knows what during the day, and finds herself in a situation that she wishes she wasn't in, she could be praying the same thing - if she has enough sense. She might be drugged up and not even aware of the danger she's in. You don't know, because you don't know where she is.

She might not be into anything like sex, drinking, and drugs, but whatever it is, it's not responsible, can't be constructive, is keeping her from moving foward in life, is jeopoardizing her trust with adults and if she's caught outside of school during school hours, she could be arrested for truancy. If it were just here and there - like skipping a test, there would be no reason to assume the worst. BUT she's never there and HAS to be doing something with her time! Shoot that was the 90's before home drugs, prescription sharing, abotions you don't have to tell your parents about...

Worse comes to worse there's a house arrest braclet.

Pray for your daughter, because when you don't know where she is, God does; and when you can't protect her, He can; and while you don't know the conflicts going on inside of her, he knows every one and knows how to solve each of them. God can still have a big plan for her life. She can be like me one day, productive, successful and telling someone else how God rescued her from her wild, self-destructive youth. That was just 14 years ago. Doesn't hurt to ask him does it?

-reply by MsJM

[Saint_Michael]

Although it seems some progress has been made since joining that program, and I know you wouldn't want to do this but I would have followed her just to see where is going. It is obvious that she is not going to tell you the truth just because the obvious reaction would you being getting mad at her and what not. Some of the suggestions that hte previous poster mention seem like something you should consider like getting together with the principal, school councilor, and of course you two and have a heart to heart talk, because with the amount of absences she has, your daughter could be repeating whatever grade she is in before she can graduate. From the looks of it she could already be doing that if she hasn't taken the state test to graduate.

Of course I agree with the councilor, that you getting angry abotu the situation and of course grounded her isn't working, but I think you two need to spend some alone time for a week just to sort everything out, because it seems your daughter has a problem but she doesn't want to talk to you about just because of how angry your getting about the situation. Yes you have the right to be upset, but you need to be understanding as well and maybe seeing an outside councilor as well because there might be even more problems, and it could stem from the fact that she might have not forgiven you and her dad about splitting up. Most kids will not talk about it, and most of the time they are saying she is fine about it but her actions could being something else, and so you might want to get her father involved with this as well. Being a teen is very hard these days, but your way of supporting her is not helping, and getting her boyfriend might help somewhat, but you need ot be there for her more.

Basically you have to relearn who yur daughter is because what you see now is her anger is coming from you the most, and so basically you have to relearn how to be a mother and more important someone she can trust.

[arnz]

Quote

Other thing you NEED to consider. WHERE IS YOUR DAUGHTER SPENDING HER TIME? Check with the school (and the school she went to when she lived with dad) to see if anyone else is absent like she is. If so, you've found her bad friends. If not, she's hanging with older kids/ adults.

Good point. If she is piking/wagging from school for whatever reason, it's best to have a talk with the child/kid/teen involved about what they are doing and so forth, in private and not in a confrontational situation to make it easier and/or reduce chances of the teen "rebelling" against the parent. That way it makes it easier on the kid involved to let it out if there are problems surrounding them.

[gaspe86]

That question varies from student to student... the one and only answer to this question can only be given by your daughter herself. I can only speculate based on what I have seen in my own family. Since she is second child, she could have probably grown feeling over-shadowed by the older child. As if she felt the older one was smarter. Meaning the older one was the athletic, the one with good grades, the "better" student and she was make the assumption that the older one was or is the "better" child. This happened in my own family, with my younger sister, she always felt opaqued by my older sister and I. Since we where always the ones bringing the excellent grades home... she felt dumb... she felt that our parents appreciated us more for it. Instead of trying to achieve academically and make her way up a pretty steep latter of academic excellence, she went the other way. She caught our parents attention alright... but it was due to her poor attendance to school, very low grades, etc. The only suggestion I have... is a work program... make her feel how a low paying job feels like.

[iGuest]

Replying to krazygoddess
Yea ok well I have a sister that skips too,but it's because people at school are calling her "things." I don't really know she won't open up to anyone,but all I know is that she hates the enviorment(the school),so check if your daughter even likes the school.

[iGuest]

as to why they skip school
Why Do Kids Skip School?

Hey I'm 16 and I skipped school I thinmk 3 times in my life I'm a guy and I did it because I was getting picked on and because I didnt truly see the importance in school but if its ok with you I might suggest something like otp the outdoor therapudic program which is kinda like a 5 month counseling daily kinda thing where you live there and go to school there are no fences or anything its just a home you live in and you visit your family a week a month and get fed great I know this because I went there and it really works I hope I helped some...

-reply by bobby jax

[undftdx]

I'm currently in high school and experience these circumstances daily. Kids skip school for a number of reasons but I believe there are some circumstances where it should be acceptable to "skip" school. I refer to the term in meaning that you come to school then after a certain class you just leave and miss the rest of the day. Kids that engage in skipping school for its entirety daily definitely need some guidance. However, a decent student may see no need in attending certain classes on a given day. For example, after AP Testing at my school, many smart students just leave after the test despite having class the rest of the day. They are overwhelmed with the work and just need a break. Most teachers understand and don't penalize these students for unexcused absences on certain days. There are also circumstances where kids want to get out and get some fast food during the lunch period. It is technically skipping school because they are leaving school grounds and are given Saturday school if they are caught. Overall, I feel that students need to be motivated to get good grades and eventually try to get into college. Also, recently with school coming to a close for summer, some students have parties during the school day when their parents are at work which leads to other kids to skip school to attend their parties.