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House Bill 2398 |
House Author: White, James et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-15 |
Senate Sponsor: Whitmire et al. |
House Bill 2398 amends Code of Criminal Procedure, Education Code, Family Code, Government Code, and Local Government Code provisions relating to truancy. Among other provisions, the bill repeals the offense of failure to attend school, removes school absences from the conduct considered conduct indicating a need for supervision under the juvenile justice code, and establishes a range of fines for the offense of parent contributing to a student's nonattendance. The bill establishes truancy court procedures for a child who is required to attend school and who is alleged to have failed to attend school on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year. The bill provides for the dismissal of parent contributing to nonattendance charges and the expunction of failure to attend school records. The bill changes the types of counties that must adopt a uniform truancy policy. The bill revises a school district's duty to impose truancy prevention measures, refer a truant student to court, or file a complaint against the student's parent. The bill provides for the establishment of local judicial donation trust funds to benefit children or families who appear before a court for a truancy or curfew violation or for a misdemeanor offense before the court.