BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 260

By: Davis

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law requires a school district to excuse a student from school for events such as religious holy days, required court appearances, and naturalization oath ceremonies. Students are allowed a reasonable time to make up work they may have missed during such absences, and districts are not penalized financially for those types of absences. Interested parties indicate that there is broad support for the extension of the same treatment for the absence of a student from school to visit with a parent or guardian who will be or has been deployed on active military duty. The supporters maintain that this will provide valuable time together for military families as they deal with the emotions of a parent's or guardian's departure and return from deployment. S.B. 260 seeks to provide for this type of excused student absence while preserving the average daily attendance funding a school district receives for students who are granted an excused absence under the bill.

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.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 260 amends the Education Code to require a school district to excuse a student for not more than five days in a school year to visit with the student's parent or legal guardian if the parent or legal guardian is an active duty member of the U.S. military and has been called to duty for, is on leave from, or has immediately returned from continuous deployment of at least four months outside the locality where the parent or guardian regularly resides. The bill requires such an excused absence to be taken not earlier than the 60th day before the date of deployment nor later than the 30th day after the date of the return from deployment.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.