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.