Parents of students in Hamilton County who are continually absent from school could be required to pick up trash under a new program at Juvenile Court.

Chris Albright, Juvenile Court administrator, said if the Saturday morning litter pickup is not effective, then jail would be the next option.

He said Juvenile Court is considering acquiring a van that would go out about once a month with parents of truants on board for trash pickup along the roadways.

However, County Commission members said one van may not be enough.

Commissioner Curtis Adams said there may be so many truants that "you may need three or four vans."

Commissioner John Brooks said there could be "thousands" of cases where the trash pickup may be in play.

Commission members said they need to hear from county school officials on the number of truant cases.

Commissioner Brooks said the state law on truancy applies not only to public schools, but also to private and parochial schools.

Mr. Albright said the public service would be aimed at parents of younger children and would be ordered only after the parents had been through a couple of required meetings with school officials on the issue. He said by the time it was ordered, there might be about 15 days of truancy. A child is considered truant after missing five days.

Mr. Albright said the local Juvenile Court has never sent a parent to jail for truancy though a law has been on the books for years allowing it to do so.

Several General Sessions Court judges have said they are ready to hear cases on truancy and consider the jail option.

Most commission members indicated they are ready to back the Juvenile Court effort, but Commissioner Greg Beck said he is opposed. He said, "We know who this is going to affect."

Commissioner Adams said, "I'd like to see us do something. When you don't send a child to school you are cheating the boy's future."

Mr. Albright said the court has tried fining parents of truants, but he said that doesn't work.

He said the parents don't pay the fines. "I hate to say it, but they just don't care."

Commissioner Brooks said he would like Juvenile Court to consider alternative punishment other than jail for those found guilty in child support cases.

He said when a parent is sent to jail over non-support it aggravates the financial problems. And he said jailing those guilty of non-support is costing the county $1 million a year.

General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon, who assembled several city and sessions judges in bringing attention to what he called "the serious truancy issues rampant in many of Hamilton County schools," said, "I am very appreciative and encouraged that remedial action 'may' finally be coming to Hamilton County by way of appropriate legal action to compel compulsory class attendance.

"This law has been ignored for more than 50 years. It is past time for Hamilton County Schools to shed its label as one of the most truant educational systems throughout the state of Tennessee. I have never sentenced a hardened criminal who was not truant first."

City Judge Sherry Paty said, "Seventy-five per cent of the two million inmates in prisons today dropped out of school and did not graduate. On this issue, there is no debate. The numbers speak for themselves."