That's such a weird thing.

The children have the cognitive capacity to comprehend that they should be in class during the time that class is in session, and if they make the decision to leave then they should be the one to suffer any consequences; not the parent.

I completely agree with you on this!
I know there are enough parents lacking proper parenting skills and kids don't have full brain capacity to oversee everything, but school is such a basic thing. Even kids know that they have to attend it.