THERE is no single answer to truancy. Every absentee is different. One pupil might be skipping school to avoid daily humiliation from the class bully. Another is hooked on alcohol or petrol fumes. A third prefers trashing allotments and threatening old people to a day in school.

Some need help and others need discipline. But they should all be in school.

It is up to the parents to get them there. Unfortunately, a significant minority set the worst possible example to their children.

A few years ago, York pioneered Truancy Watch, a weekday patrol which picked up children and took them back to school or to a safe house. Shockingly, this scheme revealed that up to half of those caught truanting were with their parents. Many of them had taken their child out of school to go shopping.

Such an irresponsible attitude teaches children to flout authority, to always put their desires first and to scorn hard work.

What can be done about such feckless parents? City of York Council can already fine them. Now it is taking up the power to jail persistently negligent parents.

This is a draconian step which should only be used as a last resort. But the mandate is necessary if new parental contracts are to carry any weight.

These contracts make explicit the duty parents have to impose boundaries and enforce discipline. For their children's sake, and the sake of those who suffer through their misbehaviour, we must hope the scheme is a success.

Updated: 10:59 Tuesday, November 22, 2005