1.   Claiming truancy has risen significantly and is linked to crime, he encouraged local authorities to prosecute parents who fail to ensure children are at school.

2.   But a parent is rarely prosecuted unless the infant is left in a dangerous place or is abused.

3.   Deciding to prosecute parents, however, can be very difficult, Fernow said.

4.   He has prosecuted the parents of an infant boy for failing to seek medical help before he died of bacterial meningitis.

5.   Opponents of the measure charged it would hamper access to sex education, health education and abortion and could make it harder to prosecute parents for child abuse.

6.   Prosecuting deadbeat parents is nothing new.

7.   Some have even suggested that the wrong parent was being prosecuted.

8.   The ordinance allows the city to prosecute parents of truants in municipal court for violating the attendance law.

9.   Under Colorado law, a parent can be prosecuted for the death of a child if medical care was not provided, even for religious reasons.

10.   Until now, district attorneys have been able to criminally prosecute parents who fall behind on their payments, but the process is long and expensive.