At the same time, it is not clear that more stringent laws or punishments would do much to alter the situation, and short of creating a school system that is as closely guarded as a prison it will be all but impossible to keep all students at school all the time. Laws in this area are this an adequate mix of liberal policy and expedience. It is not likely that a great deal of police time is spent on this type of status offending on its own; if truant adolescents are not engaging in activity that would draw attention to themselves (such as engaging in other illicit or illegal acts), it would be very difficult to determine probable cause to approach and arrest them. Some time is definitely taken up in dealing with these...

Prevention is the only practical goal of truancy laws and enforcement, and it is not clear that police efforts are successful at preventing truancy while they are effective at stopping crime once it is detected.
The general public seems to have the idea that children and adolescents ought to be in school, yet no one is at all surprised by teenagers skipping school. Seen as both a rite of passage and a way of life, truancy is not considered a very serious offense by most people. This is perhaps part of the problem of this status offense.