Abused children

"Jarrad's GP, Marko Zuvela, said the boy and his sister seemed well-nourished and presented well whenever he saw them, but that he was not aware until recently that Jarrad had not been attending school."

This is a sad, sad case. I don't want to discuss it. I want to stop it. We have people who have children and the children seem to be being used in an extreme way to provide cash or chemicals for the adults who are responsible for them. This boy had not been attending school and so that might have been a way to push alarm bells. Schools need to be able to routinely notify a central place / agency if children are not attending school. I always thought it was up to me to ensure children in this home were at school. I thought that is what I should be doing as a responsible adult...that it was between me and the children in my care. Some adults are not like that. They claim full time students who are not actually full time at school and they claim the money and perhaps the prescriptions as well. If absenteeism is a way of tracking abuse, then we have the technology to do it. Databases should be connected and there should be people who check absenteeism. They could contact the school in the first instance and if the school cannot provide an explanation , then the care providers of the child need to be doing that. It also gives a legitimate way for an outside agency to be in contact with people who are not caring for their children for whatever reason. Early intervention works. It just does.