The Public Education Amendment Act 1905 (5 Edw. VII No. 6) defined an ‘habitual truant’ as a child who was ‘constantly and habitually absent from school’ (s.3). The parents of those children accused of truancy could be brought before the court to ‘show cause why such child should not be sent to an industrial school’. The court could commit children to an industrial school until they reached the school leaving age of 14 years. This section repealed s.13 of the Public Education Act 1899.