73R5673 ESH-F
By Turner of Harris H.B. No. 1372
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
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.