Honorable Senfronia Thompson, Chair, House Committee on Youth Health & Safety, Select
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB3931 by Dutton (Relating to truancy; increasing a criminal penalty.), As Introduced
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined because the number of cases that would occur each year are unknown.
The bill would remove a school district's ability to revoke the enrollment for the remainder of the school year of a student after their 19th birthday who has five or more unexcused absences in a semester. Further, the bill would require the school district to apply truancy prevention measures for at least one semester prior to referring the student to truancy court.
The bill would redefine truancy from absent from school for ten days or parts of days within a six-month period to absent from school for ten percent of the school's operation and instructional time.
The Office of Court Administration (OCA) assumes that the fiscal impact to the state court system cannot be determined because the number of cases that would occur each year are unknown.
In addition, this analysis assumes changing the penalty from a misdemeanor punishable by fine only to a Class C misdemeanor would result in an increased penalty for the 1st through 4th offenses; however, the fiscal impact to the state cannot be determined because the timing and number of cases that would occur each fiscal year is unknown.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) assumes that any costs associated with the bill could be absorbed using existing resources.
Local Government Impact
School districts would be required to update truancy determinations, notifications, forms, and procedures to comply with the new definitions.
Based on the analysis of OCA, no significant fiscal impact to local courts and units of government is anticipated.