There are laws about this. Illness, a death in the family, or an emergency is an acceptable excuse for missing a class or a whole day. schools are very serious about school attendance. There are laws that make the parents accountable if their children miss school. Parents can go to jail or pay a fine. in colorado, a fifteen-year-old girl went to jail for a month because she missed forty-three days of school and was late nineteen times. her parents also went to jail for ten days and paid a fine of $300.