My daughter has detention again due to tardies?

My 10 year old daughter has detention again due to tardies. For every three times that she is late she gets a detention. The first time this happened i wrote a note and called the attendance secretary and asked that on the same day in which my daughter was late a phone call be made to me so i could appropriately discipline her. They agreed. Now today i find out she had two tardies two weeks ago....I wrote another letter. i am not excusing my childs behavior. there is no excuse for it, but how do i as a parent help to curb the behavior if the school refuses to communicate with me. Should i or can i go above the principals head since this is the second time we have had this issue. Secondly not being a native texan i want to know why texas has theses overly strict policies that the majority of other states in the us dont utiliize... are they oblivious to educational practices in other states or are we just that backwoods?