Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Under-18 license loss: How can school enforce?

According to the article, “Skip school, face jail, license loss” [The Citizen, May 19, 2004], it says, “The state is also getting tough on students who drop out of classes. If a student leaves school before age 18, she will lose her driver’s license for a year.”

My question is, how is the Fayette County going to enforce this? According to the Georgia state school code, a child’s compulsory attendance ages [are] “between 6th and 16th birthdays.” Official Code of Georgia Annotated 20-2-690.1. That means that it is not “mandatory” nor “enforced” for a child to attend school before their 6th birthday, nor after their 16th.

I can understand Fayette County’s desire to keep all children in school until their 18th birthdays (heck, if the entire state tried to do that, maybe Georgia would fare a little better on SAT scores). But, the law states that the compulsory attendance age is 16. I’m just curious as to how Fayette County is going to work around this law.

Andi McGee

Hampton, Ga.

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