1. DOCUMENT #9 House Bill 2398 Student Truancy Reporting
Simple Solution. Brighter Futures.
DOCUMENT #9 House Bill 2398 Student Truancy Reporting
SPRING 2016
Bryce Templeton, ITS SEDS

2. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
During the 84th legislative session (2015) HB was passed.
HB 2398:
Decriminalized student truancy.
Created truancy prevention measures.
Raised the compulsory school age to age 19 (must attend school through 18).

3. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
Many schools have expunged truancy data for truancy events that occurred prior to the school year in response to court orders received.

4. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
Truancy data, starting with the school year, is not criminal and therefore is not subject to the data expunction requirements as the prior years data.
Starting school year, it is no longer a criminal offense (only a civil offense) so going forward, they can keep the data as is.

5. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
TEA has expunged all truancy data prior to by replacing the Student IDs with an anonymous number.

6. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
The school year is the last year that the student truancy data will be collected. Due the adoption of the Every Student Succeeds Act (formerly No Child Left Behind), truancy data is no longer reported to the USDE after the school year.
The districts must keep this data for the federal government through for this purpose. But the new act that replaces NCLB does not require that.

7. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
For the school year the truancy reason codes in C165 have changed:
Old 44: Truancy (failure to attend school) – Student is at least 12 years old with 10 unexcused absences – TEC §25.094
New 44: Truancy (failure to attend school) – Student is at least 12 years old and less than 19 years old with 10 unexcused absences – Texas Family Code §65.003

8. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
For the school year the truancy reason codes in C165 have changed:
Deleted Code:
43: Truancy (failure to attend school) – Student is at least 12 years old with at least 3 unexcused absences – TEC §25.094

9. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
For the school year the truancy action codes in C164 have changed.
Deleted Codes: 16: Truancy (failure to attend school) charges filed in Juvenile Municipal or Justice of the Peace court and a fine was assessed
17: Truancy (failure to attend school) charges filed in Juvenile Municipal or Justice of the Peace court and no fine was assessed

10. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
For the school year the truancy action codes in C164 have changed.
Added Code: 29: Truancy Complaint Filed in Truancy Court (includes County Court, Justice of the Peace Court, or Municipal Court)
Deleted those 2 previous slide codes and added this one.

11. House Bill 2398– Student Truancy
Despite the fact that TEA will not be collecting truancy data in the school year, schools are still required to track and manage student truancy matters truancy prevention measures - filing truancy complaints -special circumstances for students
TEA wants to still encourage schools to track and manage this data. Even though this will not be reported to TEA at all. They replaced truancy with Chronic absenteeism which is less than 90% attendance. This will have to be collected at some point but not sure when this will be required.

12. Questions?
QUESTIONS?