Parents are already on a different hook, by law. By law, parents must make sure their children are in school if they are under 16. Unfortunately, too many school districts don't pay much more than lip service to enforcing truancy laws anymore. A truancy court has been established in Delaware's magistrate court system but, good intentions notwithstanding, it is only nibbling at the edges of the problem. School attendance is only spottily enforced by Delaware schools.
Some districts are tougher than others, but none are as tough on absenteeism as schools used to be.
And so it comes full circle. But teachers aren't only complaining about absenteeism. Too many kids, they say, are unprepared to learn and distracted by adverse conditions in the home. But teachers are professionals. So are doctors and lawyers.