Bill Text: WV HB2213 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to compulsory school attendance
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-10 - To House Education [HB2213 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2018-HB2213-Introduced.html
WEST virginia
legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on Education then the Judiciary.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §18-8-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
compulsory school attendance; and providing that five unexcused occasions on
which a student is tardy for school may equal one unexcused absence.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-8-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
§18-8-4. Duties of attendance director and assistant
directors; complaints, warrants and hearings.
(a) The county attendance
director and the assistants shall diligently promote regular school
attendance. The director and assistants
shall:
(1) Ascertain reasons for
inexcusable absences from school of students of compulsory school age and
students who remain enrolled beyond the compulsory school age as defined under
section one-a of this article; and
(2) Take such steps as are,
in their discretion, best calculated to encourage the attendance of students
and to impart upon the parents and guardians the importance of attendance and
the seriousness of failing to do so.
(b) (1) In the case
of five total unexcused absences of a student during a school year, the
attendance director or assistant shall Serve serve written notice
to the parent, guardian or custodian of the student that the attendance of the
student at school is required and that within ten days of receipt of the notice
the parent, guardian or custodian, accompanied by the student, shall report in
person to the school the student attends for a conference with the principal or
other designated representative of the school in order to discuss and correct
the circumstances causing the inexcusable absences of the student; and if the
parent, guardian or custodian does not comply with the provisions of
this article, then the attendance director or assistant shall make complaint
against the parent, guardian or custodian before a magistrate of the
county. If it appears from the complaint
that there is probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed and
that the accused has committed it, a summons or a warrant for the arrest of the
accused shall issue to any officer authorized by law to serve the summons or to
arrest persons charged with offenses against the state. More than one parent, guardian or custodian
may be charged in a complaint. Initial
service of a summons or warrant issued pursuant to the provisions of
this section shall be attempted within ten calendar days of receipt of the
summons or warrant and subsequent attempts at service shall continue until the
summons or warrant is executed or until the end of the school term during which
the complaint is made, whichever is later.
(2) For purposes of this
section five unexcused occasions on which the student is tardy for school may
equal one unexcused absence.
(c) The magistrate court
clerk, or the clerk of the circuit court performing the duties of the
magistrate court as authorized in section eight, article one, chapter fifty of
this code, shall assign the case to a magistrate within ten days of execution
of the summons or warrant. The hearing
shall be held within twenty days of the assignment to the magistrate, subject
to lawful continuance. The magistrate
shall provide to the accused at least ten days'
advance notice of the date, time and place of the hearing.
(d) When any doubt exists
as to the age of a student absent from school, the attendance director and
assistants have authority to require a properly attested birth certificate or
an affidavit from the parent, guardian or custodian of the student, stating age
of the student. In the performance of
his or her duties, the county attendance director and assistants have authority
to take without warrant any student absent from school in violation of the
provisions of this article and to place the student in the school in which
he or she is or should be enrolled.
(e) The county attendance
director and assistants shall devote such time as is required by section three
of this article to the duties of attendance director in accordance with this section
during the instructional term and at such other times as the duties of an
attendance director are required. All
attendance directors and assistants hired for more than two hundred days may be
assigned other duties determined by the superintendent during the period in
excess of two hundred days. The county
attendance director is responsible under direction of the county superintendent
for efficiently administering school attendance in the county.
(f) In addition to those
duties directly relating to the administration of attendance, the county
attendance director and assistant directors also shall perform the following
duties:
(1) Assist in directing the
taking of the school census to see that it is taken at the time and in the
manner provided by law;
(2) Confer with principals
and teachers on the comparison of school census and enrollment for the
detection of possible nonenrollees;
(3) Cooperate with existing
state and federal agencies charged with enforcing child labor laws;
(4) Prepare a report for submission
by the county superintendent to the State Superintendent of Schools on school
attendance, at such times and in such detail as may be required. The state board shall promulgate a
legislative rule pursuant to article three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code that sets forth student absences that are excluded for accountability
purposes. The absences that are excluded
by the rule include, but are not be limited to, excused student absences,
students not in attendance due to disciplinary measures and absent students for
whom the attendance director has pursued judicial remedies to compel attendance
to the extent of his or her authority.
The attendance director shall file with the county superintendent and county
board at the close of each month a report showing activities of the school
attendance office and the status of attendance in the county at the time;
(5) Promote attendance in
the county by compiling data for schools and by furnishing suggestions and
recommendations for publication through school bulletins and the press, or in
such manner as the county superintendent may direct;
(6) Participate in school
teachers' conferences with parents and
students;
(7) Assist in such other
ways as the county superintendent may direct for improving school attendance;
(8) Make home visits of
students who have excessive unexcused absences, as provided above, or if
requested by the chief administrator, principal or assistant principal; and
(9) Serve as the liaison
for homeless children and youth.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to provide that five unexcused occasions on which a student is tardy for school
may equal one unexcused absence.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law, and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.
