'I've had enough' - foster mum of truant

A pensioner says she'll give up fostering children after she was prosecuted over a failure of a 13-year-old in her care to show up to school. Photo / file

A 72-year-old woman prosecuted for being unable to get her truant foster child to go to school says she won't be giving homes to any more children.

In Wellington District Court yesterday the pensioner, whose name was suppressed, pleaded guilty to not having the 13-year-old girl in her Porirua school and allowing her to be unlawfully absent, Fairfax Media reported.

A summary of the facts of the case said the girl had been absent from school for 46 days between May 24 and August 18 last year.

Measures taken by the school principal, a truancy officer and a social services organisation, including arranging to pick the girl up every morning, could not keep her in school.

Outside the court the woman said that the school had wanted her to sit with the girl at school all the time.

"That's ridiculous, and embarrassing for her. I had done what I could."

She said she had taken 52 children into her home since she began raising foster children when she was 28, but the court action had prompted her to stop.

"I have had enough."

Her lawyer, Jo Murdoch, will today ask the court to discharge the foster mum without conviction.

- NZPA