H.B. No. 1372
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to venue for the offense of thwarting the compulsory
    1-3  school attendance law.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section  4.25(a), Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  If any parent or person standing in parental relation to
    1-8  a child, within the compulsory school attendance ages and not
    1-9  lawfully exempt or properly excused from school attendance, fails
   1-10  to require such child to attend school for such periods as required
   1-11  by law, it shall be the duty of the proper attendance officer to
   1-12  warn, in writing, the parent or person standing in parental
   1-13  relation that attendance must be immediately required.  If after
   1-14  this warning the parent or person standing in parental relation
   1-15  intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence
   1-16  fails to require the child to attend school as required by law, the
   1-17  parent or person standing in parental relation commits an offense.
   1-18  The attendance officer shall file a complaint against him in the
   1-19  county court, in the justice court of his resident precinct, or in
   1-20  the municipal court of the municipality in which he resides or in
   1-21  any <the> municipality or justice of the peace precinct in which
   1-22  the school district is located.  In addition, if the child has been
   1-23  voluntarily absent from school for 10 or more days or parts of days
   1-24  within a six-month period or three or more days or parts of days
    2-1  within a four-week period without the consent of his parents, the
    2-2  attendance officer shall refer the child to the county juvenile
    2-3  probation department for action as conduct indicating a need for
    2-4  supervision under Section 51.03(b), Family Code.  A court in which
    2-5  a complaint is filed under this subsection shall give preference to
    2-6  a hearing on the complaint over other cases before the court.  An
    2-7  offense under this section is punishable by a fine of not less than
    2-8  $5 nor more than $25 for the first offense, not less than $10 nor
    2-9  more than $50 for the second offense, and not less than $25 nor
   2-10  more than $100 for a subsequent offense.  Each day the child
   2-11  remains out of school after the warning has been given or the child
   2-12  ordered to school by the juvenile court may constitute a separate
   2-13  offense.  If the court probates the sentence, the court may require
   2-14  the defendant to render personal services to a charitable or
   2-15  educational institution as a condition of probation.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-17        SECTION 3.  (a)  This Act applies only to the prosecution of
   2-18  an offense under Section 4.25, Education Code, for an offense
   2-19  committed on or after the effective date of this Act.  For the
   2-20  purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
   2-21  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   2-22  before the effective date.
   2-23        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   2-24  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
   2-25  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-26        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-27  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.