It's that time of year again when lots of folks are getting ready for the holidays. My family however, is trying to deal with and prepare for being sick for the next 5 months and it's already starting. I have four children who seem to catch colds and spread germs easily, so if one of them gets sick, they usually all get sick. From the end of October to the middle of March are the months when we go through a lot of tissues, cough medicine, antibiotics, and etc. For some reason after having four children, my immune system isn't functioning as well as it used to and for the last few years I have been getting sick quite a bit. Being sick while trying to care for sick children is a horrible and exhausting task. I try to avoid people who are sick and I consume plenty of vitamin C, but it doesn't help when I have kids bringing home germs with them from school. I've learned that kids are amazing at spreading illness to other people. My kids being sick so often is going to be tough on all of us this year. Last year the state of Nebraska passed a new truancy law stating that if your child misses more then 20 days of school in a year you and your child get reported to the county attorney. A lot of states have these laws and I understand the reason behind them, however Nebraska is the only state with a truancy law that doesn't excuse school absences due to illness. So, what's the result of this you may ask? Well, our justice system is being cluttered up with these cases, it's costing our state a ton of money, the cases of parents in our state being investigated for child abuse and neglect has quadrupled under this law, our state has had a major increase in children being taken from their homes and being put in the state's custody due to this law. There have been a lot of parents angry over this new law and rightly so. I think it's outrageous that families that have kids with cancer, HIV, and other illness that compromise their immune system are being hauled into court over their children being sick. And, they have to take their kids out of school to go to court. That doesn't make sense either. There are thousands of kids across this state that get serious illnesses or have chronic and incurable diseases and illnesses and miss more then 20 days of school a year because of it. How can our state say that these cannot be excused and that parents should lose there children due to being sick? How can anyone in this state not be upset by this or think it's OK? Personally, it outrages me, because my children are in that category of kids who miss a lot of school, because they are sick. My children still do very well in school, but this year I'm afraid of losing them thanks to this outrageous law. I don't think any child should be ripped away from their family and thrown in foster care or juvie for missing school from being sick. I don't think parents should be fined or thrown in jail, because their kids are sick. I'm scared for my children. Right now two of my children are battling bronchitis and have missed a number of days because of it. Earlier this year they missed a few days, because they had the stomache flu. If things keep going like this my kids might go over that 20 day limit, and there is nothing I can do. I'm not allowed to send them to school when they are sick, but I can lose them if I don't. It makes no sense to me. I will continue to care for my kids and try to keep them from becoming sick, but there is only so much a parent can do. I love my kids and don't want to lose them and I hope Nebraska changes this law soon, so that illnesses will be considered excused absences. I think the law as is should be repealled. I'm hoping I do not lose my children or go to jail and get fined because our state lawmakers think they know what's best for everyone else's lives.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20111002/NEWS01/710029894
http://nfpf.blogspot.com/p/current-issue-repeal-new-truancy-law.html
http://www.omaha.com/article/20111002/NEWS01/710029910/0#parents-chafe-at-truancy-oversight
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