This is the Cator Daily Podcast for Friday, August 28th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Under normal circumstances, kids go to school,

and if they don't, their parents get a call from the school to make clear that their kids are truant.

How does that work now that kids are at home and attending classes online?

What is truancy in an age of public schooling from home?

Cato's Carrie McDonald comments.

Well, we all know that the general term truancy means frequent absences from school in violation of state compulsory school

attendance laws. So virtual truancy is a new term to describe students missing

their remote learning classes during the pandemic such as failing to log in to

Zoom for lessons.

And there have been sporadic reports over the past few months of parents being investigated

for virtual truancy

because their children missed remote classes in the spring.

The Boston Globe had an in-depth front-page feature article

this week detailing the experiences of several Massachusetts

parents who were interrogated by child protective services for child

neglect because their children missed virtual classes in the wake of the

Springs school shutdowns.

In these instances, it was school officials

who called child protective services on these parents.

This is troubling on many levels, of course,

...