Senator Fulton introduces school truancy bill
by
Josh Egbert
Story Created:
Feb 13, 2012 at 5:51 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Feb 13, 2012 at 6:33 PM CDT
A busy day for lawmakers in Lincoln. They heard 32 bills. One would get parents more involved in their children's educations and hopefully keep kids in school.
The truancy measure is one of the major issues lawmakers are tackling this session.
With nearly 22,000 Nebraska students missing more than twenty days of school last year, state lawmakers are taking it into their own hands to try and prevent that.
The bill goes farther than just talking with parents, it gets the county attorney involved.
It's a way to help reduce the number of days students miss each school year.
"Senator Fulton's bill, which I'm here to support, is 10 unexcused absences per year," said Brenda Bossik, Miller Public Schools.
Senator Tony Fulton introduced LB1165 to provide a means for addressing truancy that best respects the involvement of parents in the education of their children.
The bill would require written notice to parents or guardians when children are truant according to the district policy.
"The 20 days I think is good for making sure there's some sort of definitive line where there has to be communication," said Hall County Attorney Mark Young.
A statewide truancy law is currently being tested in public schools, which gets the county attorney involved if a student misses too many days.
"We don't want to keep the parent from getting the help their reaching out for," said Young.
Schools in Grand Island are participating in the truancy test and Hastings Public Schools has a similar program called STARS.
But not all districts are for the bill.
"The mission of the superintendent's plan is to address absenteeism and at risk behavior prior to the 20 day threshold without the creation of additional government bureaucracy," said Kevin Rley, Groton Public Schools.
Also at the capitol Monday morning, the Executive Board advanced a measure that would expand term limits from 8 years to 12 years.
This is a constitutional amendment and will be discussed by the whole legislature.
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