I just had to give another point of view here. As with every law, I truly believe there is a good reason for this one, unfortunately, it's being carried to extremes. These laws aren't just about money.
I'm a Jr/Sr. High special ed. teacher and I work with high risk kids. These students do not have mental handicaps, they have family handicaps. There is little to no family involvement. They skip school like you wouldn't believe. Hey, why not, there are no parents at home to get on their case. Skipping school has become a nationwide epidemic that even I wasn't aware of until I got this job in Sept. I live in a nice, quiet upper-middle class district and I was shocked to see what is going on right under my nose. You guys writing about these laws are obviously caring parents, but sadly there are way too many parents that aren't. They have no accountability for their children and severe measures of fines and protective services is the only thing that gets them out of the bars/gutters. Sadly, even these measures usually don't work. When a kid doesn't show up to school, we have a team that will show up at the kids homes and literally drag them out of bed to school. The funny thing is how great these kids are once they get to school and realize there are rules/boundaries and they are shown respect.
I'm not saying I agree with the law at all and if I wasn't a teacher, I'd be taking my kids out of school also, but I'm glad to see that someone is taking an interest in these kids lives. Unfortunately, there is no way to write a law for only a certain group of people, so it must encompass everyone.