It was mandated when I was school age. We had truant officers. I guess they no longer have those anymore???

@FEWI Had to google that. hehe

Definition of truant officer

: a person employed by a public-school system to investigate the continued absences of pupils

— called also attendance officer, truancy officer

Truancy officers, also called attendance officers, play a critical role in America’s educational system and help protect child welfare. Most states dictate compulsory school attendance for children 5 to 17, although laws vary by state and some cap required turnout at 10th or 11th grade.

A truancy officer may be employed by a law enforcement agency, the courts or the school system. You must be interested in working with children of all ages, parents and educators to be a successful truancy officer. No matter who employs you, if you pursue a career as a truant officer, you fulfill a critical role and serve as a liaison between the school, teachers, administrators, parents, and possibly the court system.

One of the best ways to get started is to earn a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Let’s look at what you can expect if you work as a truancy officer, skills required and why this career is vital to communities.

Truancy Officer Job Description

The core function of a truancy officer is to ensure compliance with state and local school attendance laws. You usually won’t get involved when a student has a handful of absences but you will investigate occurrences of ongoing truancy. Ultimately, your role as a truancy officer is not to punish students that miss school, but to determine the cause and help resolve chronic absenteeism.

Was that it?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

In many countries schooling up to first 8 years or so in mandatory, including my country of Croatia. Few countries only don't have mandatory schooling. Some allow it to be home schooling, but I think there are some testes that are required to pass.

Countries without compulsory education

Bhutan[102]
Oman[103]
Papua New Guinea[104]
Solomon Islands[105]
Vatican City

Compulsory education
[en.wikipedia.org]

Homeschooling in the United States
[en.wikipedia.org]

@Krunoslav The results or actions of the truant officers depended on the cooperation of the parents and student. If either or both were combative which most of the kids that required the attention of the truant officer were… the local police got involved and most of them ended up in reform school. The wealthy kids were sent to either a boarding or military school, or drug rehab.