One year, during the first week of school, I gave my students an assignment every day for a week. One or two were to be done in class, the rest were homework. I graded each assignment on percent completion, not on whether or not the answers were correct - if there were 5 questions, and the student attempted to answer all 5, he or she received "100" for that assignment.
At the end of the week, about 20% of the students were failing, because either they hadn't bothered to do the work, or they hadn't turned it in. Some had an average of zero.
At that particular school, we were not allowed to punish students for not working, as long as they weren't disrupting other students - i.e., if Judy came in each day, put her head on her desk, and did nothing but sleep, there was nothing I could do about it other than ask Judy to sit up and do her work, and/or phone her parents.
I also found out that some parents weren't worried about it, as long as their child wasn't on the street or home alone.
I believe the NEA is the mortal enemy of America's children. Until its back is broken (i.e., via vouchers) there can be no hope for our kids.
FReegards.