This note reviews the debate regarding status offenders and their institutionalization; discusses the history of California law; examines the correlation between truancy and the prison population; considers alternatives currently implemented and suggested in California to combat truancy, including the Abolish Chronic Truancy program; and concludes that it is time to reconsider secure placement for status offenders when lesser methods are not successful. The author agrees with calls for the release of wayward children from confinement with adult criminals or with juvenile delinquents. However, she considers calls to keep chronically truant children free a matter of reckless disregard for the welfare of those children and society, and opines that the recommendations of the California Status Offender Task Force to track, treat, and back up the treatment of status offenders, especially chronic truants, should be funded and implemented. Footnotes