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Senate Bill 1234 |
Senate Author: Whitmire |
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Effective: Vetoed |
House Sponsor: Price |
Senate Bill 1234 amends the Education Code to authorize a school district, as a truancy prevention measure, to impose a behavior improvement plan or school-based community service on a truant student or to refer the student to counseling, community-based services, or other services aimed at addressing the student's truancy. The bill requires a school district to either employ a truancy prevention facilitator or designate an existing district employee to implement truancy prevention measures and requires the facilitator to meet at least annually to discuss effective truancy prevention measures with a case manager or other individual designated by a juvenile or criminal court to provide services to district students in truancy cases. The bill prohibits a school district from revoking the enrollment of a person who voluntarily enrolls in or attends school after the person's 18th birthday and who has more than five unexcused absences in a semester on a day on which the person is physically present at school and requires the district to issue a warning letter to the person after the third unexcused absence regarding potential enrollment revocation. The bill authorizes a school district to impose a behavior improvement plan as an alternative to revoking such a person's enrollment. The bill requires the establishment of a committee in certain counties to recommend a uniform truancy policy for each school district located in the county and provides for the appointment of committee members and the committee's duty to make recommendations for uniform truancy policies and issue a report regarding district compliance with the recommendations and state truancy laws. The bill makes the Class C misdemeanor offense of failure to attend school punishable by a fine ranging from $100 for a first offense to $500 for a fifth or subsequent offense and clarifies the process for filing a complaint against both a student and the student's parent for that offense.
Senate Bill 1234 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to remove a school district from the entities authorized to employ a juvenile case manager and to authorize those entities, as an alternative to jointly employing a case manager with any appropriate governmental entity, to jointly contribute to the costs of a case manager employed by one governmental entity.
Reason Given for Veto: "Senate Bill 1234 attempts to change how truancy is handled by placing progressive sanctions on students based on recommendations established in a behavioral improvement plan. While these plans are meant to hold students accountable for attendance and behavior management, they do not track the child from district to district and are lost as a student transfers from one school to another, which is common for chronically truant students.
"Senate Bill 1234 will hurt established local programs and prevent schools from identifying and helping address the issues students are facing. Additionally, SB 1234 conflicts with other legislation, such as SB 393, concerning which truancies are considered a ticketable offense."