CJ C.S.H.B. 1606 75(R)    BILL ANALYSIS



JUVENILE JUSTICE & FAMILY ISSUES
C.S.H.B. 1606
By: HARTNETT    
5-1-97
Committee Report (Substituted)
        

BACKGROUND

 Truancy from school is often the first in a series of increasingly
serious crimes.   If a juvenile's truant conduct is timely and
appropriately addressed by a court, however, he may be steered towards
more positive behavior.  Courts that hear truancy cases must be given the
tools to timely and effectively deter truant conduct.  Rather than waiting
for a second truancy offense, H.B. 1606 allows a court to suspend or delay
issuance of a truant's driver's license on the first offense.  H.B. 1606
also facilitates the timely adjudication of cases by permitting filings by
school districts against truants in any municipal or justice of the peace
court county-wide.  Currently, a school district may file against a truant
only in the precinct where the person lives or where the person's school
is located.  This practice creates a significant backlog of cases in some
precincts that serve several schools while adjacent precincts have
virtually no truancy cases.    

PURPOSE

The purpose of H.B. 1606 is to facilitate the timely adjudication of
truancy cases by allowing more courts to be used in handling truancy
cases; to lift the venue restrictions. it also allows judges to use a wide
range of options.  It  permits courts to suspend or deny issuance of a
driver's license, pursuant to Family Code  54.042, on the first, rather
than the second, truancy offense.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any
additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or
institution.   

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1: Amends Family Code  54.021(c), (d), and (f) by stating that
conduct indicating a need for supervision includes conduct that violates
Education Code  25.094.   The list of options for the court to use as
required programs designed to correct the truant behavior is expanded.
And the venue for the justice court is expanded from the precinct to the
county where the school is located or the child resides  or to the
municipality of municipal courts where the child resides or the school is
located. 

SECTION 2: Amends Education Code  25.093(c) to clarify that venue is
county (rather that precinct) wide for the county of residence or location
of the school.    

SECTION 3: Amends Education Code  25.094(b) to state that an offense under
this section may be prosecuted in the municipal court (as well as justice
court) in the county (rather than precinct) in which the child resides of
in which the school is located. 

SECTION 4: The effective date of the Act is September 1, 1997.  Changes in
the law  made by this Act apply only to conduct that occurs on or after
September 1, 1997. Conduct that occurs before September 1,  1997,  is
governed by the law in effect at the time the conduct occurred.  

SECTION 5: Emergency Clause





COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

The original bill allowed venue of municipal courts to the county.  The
substitute changes the venue for municipal courts to the boundaries of the
municipality. 

The original bill permits the juvenile board to appoint a master to hear
truancy cases. This was deleted in the substitute. 

Both versions allow the suspension of drivers' license after one truancy
offense but the substitute also allow the judge to use of an expanded list
of program options after the first offense.