| TO: | Honorable David Dewhurst, Lieutenant Governor, Senate |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1234 by Whitmire (Relating to the prevention of truancy and the offense of failure to attend school.), As Passed 2nd House |
This bill would allow a school district, court, or juvenile probation department to employ a case manager to provide case services for juveniles. School districts would be required to employ a truancy prevention facilitator or designate an existing employee to implement truancy prevention measures.
The bill would allow school districts to adopt additional truancy prevention measures. The Class C misdemeanor offense for failure to attend school would be limited to a fine not to exceed $100 for the first offense and increasing by $100 per offense up to $500 for the fifth offense.
No significant fiscal impact to the state is anticipated.
Local governments would be required to employ a truancy prevention facilitator or designate an existing employee for these purposes.
The bill also prescribes maximum fines from $100 to $500 for failure to attend school based on the number of prior offenses; however, since fines rarely exceed $100 currently this provision is not anticipated to have a significant fiscal impact.
The Conference of Urban Counties and the Texas Association of Counties reported no significant fiscal impact to local governments associated with the bill.
| Source Agencies: | 212 Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council, 304 Comptroller of Public Accounts
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| LBB Staff: | UP, ESi, KKR
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