Parents jailed after children miss 299 days of school - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Parents jailed after children miss 299 days of school

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By WAFF.com Staff - email
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -

Two parents were arrested and sentenced for letting their children miss 299 days of school.

Sydney and Laurel Benson went before Madison County judge Claude Hundley on May 9th to face truancy charges.

The couple were charged with four counts of truancy for each of their four children.

Two of their children are in middle school and two are in elementary school.

The students missed a total of 299 days of school this year.

School officials said the family was issued an early warning as part of the school system's Early Warning Program.

Officials said they ignored the warning and moved to Madison County.

When Madison County Schools also pursued truancy charges against the Bensons, the family returned to Huntsville, according to a spokesperson.

The Bensons were sentenced to 270 days in jail each. They will serve ten days in jail with two years supervised probation, $100 court fine, $100 restitution to the school system, $100 restitution to Madison County plus court costs.

School officials said they have four more truancy cases pending in court. Forty parents had truancy issues during the 2011-2012 school year.

Copyright 2012 WAFF. All right reserved.

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Updated:

Huntsville City Schools handbook (pdf) The Early Warning Program is designed to reduce truancy, the number of student dropouts, and to provide an intervention program for student behavior at school.

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