Chapter codifies the practice and prevents legal challenges that could potentially arise. Additionally, Chapter retained pre-existing legal penalties that allowed courts to levy lesser fines for truancy violations or, in lieu of these fines, to place a parent in a parent education and counseling program.
Later in the report, we discuss other legal options that courts may use against noncompliant parents; however, the focus of this report is on the use of Chapter and the penalties within Education Code Section Sanctions Include:.
Fines, which increase for each infraction or conviction. Mandatory participation in parent education or counseling program often in lieu of a fine. Court order to immediately enroll child in school. Violations are infractions that is, a court cannot require jail time. Jail time not to exceed one year in a county jail.
Both fine and jail time. Violations are misdemeanors. Applicable to: Pupils failing to comply with the state's attendance laws. Attend school and be placed on probation. Perform court-approved community service. Attend court truancy prevention program. Suspension or revocation of driving privileges. Chapter Highlights Unresolved Questions Relating to Homeschooling Law Within the context of the state's compulsory education laws, homeschooling remains a controversial issue.
This is because statute is silent as to whether homeschooling satisfies mandatory attendance laws. She asserted that children in these settings could be determined to be truant, thereby placing homeschooling families at greater risk of being referred for truancy prosecution. Statute Currently Authorizes Some Nonpublic-School Options Although statute is silent regarding homeschooling, it does include two provisions authorizing nonpublic-school educational options.
These are: 1 the private school exemption for children enrolled full time in a private school, and 2 the private tutoring exemption for children who are instructed at least three hours each day and days per year by a teacher holding a valid California teaching credential. In addition to these exemptions, homeschooling families may participate in independent-study and distance-learning programs supported by public schools.
Homeschooling families, however, typically claim the first exemption listed above because they prefer the independence and flexibility of schooling at home without any government regulation. During deliberations on SB , the homeschooling community raised concerns that the bill as then drafted would negatively affect parents engaged in the homeschooling of their children.
These homeschooling advocates argued that SB would provide governmental agencies greater latitude in which to refer homeschooling families for truancy prosecution and would impede their rights to educate their children. As a result of these concerns, the Legislature included the following provisions in the bill: 1 a sunset date January 1, on the court's authority to order a person who had violated compulsory education laws to immediately enroll the child in the appropriate school or program, and 2 a requirement that LAO report to the Legislature prior to the sunset date on the implementation of Chapter These provisions were primarily included to determine the impact of Chapter on homeschooling families and to provide an automatic mechanism for repealing Chapter if it was found to adversely affect homeschooling families.
The counties selected were a stratified sample representing a mix of small, medium, and large counties. Of the 20 counties from which we requested information, 15 provided us with data to complete this report. County district attorney offices provided us with information on the total number of SARB-referred cases prosecuted and their outcome.
Below, we summarize the information we received and discuss our findings. Information About Truancy Violations Is Inadequate Using the data sources discussed above, we found that: 1 a majority of the counties surveyed do not collect or report countywide SARB information, 2 the actual number of cases prosecuted by district attorneys is unavailable, 3 the number of cases referred to traffic court is unavailable, and 4 agencies do not regularly share truancy information or coordinate follow-up efforts.
We discuss each of these findings below. State law requires school districts to gather and transmit to their COE: 1 the number and types of referrals to local SARBs and 2 the number of referrals to the district attorney. The COEs are responsible for annually summarizing this information in a reportable format. These reports provide the public with information regarding countywide truancy violations and intervention actions. More importantly, they highlight the role that SARBs serve in ensuring that troubled youth and their families receive the services they require to comply with the attendance laws.
Figure 2 shows the number of cases referred to SARBs, by county. As the figure indicates, a majority of the counties that participated in our survey do not collect or report this SARB information.
While many of these counties offered to collect this information for the purposes of this report, only seven of the 20 counties already had collected this information in a reportable format. Technically, the failure to collect and summarize this information is a violation of state law.
No penalty, however, exists for noncompliance because SDE currently is not required to monitor the collection of these data. Los Angeles a. San Bernardino. San Diego b. San Luis Obispo. Santa Barbara. Santa Clara. While those SARB reports that are completed typically contain the total number of cases referred to the district attorney's office for legal intervention, the reports do not contain: 1 the actual number of cases prosecuted by the district attorney or 2 the filing option used in the prosecution procedure.
To collect information regarding the actual number of cases prosecuted under Education Code Section , we contacted the county district attorneys in our survey group. We found that none of them collected or reported this information in an accessible form.
Furthermore, none of the district attorney offices reported this information back to the COE. For the most part, in response to our data requests, district attorney offices had to undertake manual counts of all prosecuted truancy cases. However, if the facts about why the child is living in your household are in dispute, and it seems like the child is with you only to go to school in your school district, then the school may require you to establish custody.
Legal proof of custody would be court papers showing that you have been granted custody in a paternity, dissolution, CHINS or guardianship proceeding. If you can prove to the school that the child has been living with you, that you have been providing for the child's needs, and that you do not have the child in your household simply to allow the child to attend school in your district, the school should not require legal proof of custody.
Evidence that will be helpful to show the child has been living with you and cared by you can include the following:.
My nephew is staying with me because his parents can't take care of him. I filled out the form and gave it to the school, but they still won't let me enroll him in school. What do I do now? If the school refuses to enroll the child, contact the Indiana Department of Education at or an attorney for help.
The school is required to accept the child as a student unless there are other reasons for not enrolling the child. My ex-wife has legal custody of our children, but they are living with me and I want to enroll them in school in my district. What should I do? Generally, the children should attend school in the district where the custodial parent resides.
However, if the children are living with the non-custodial parent, the children should be able to enroll in school in the non-custodial parent's school district.
There is another form, similar to the one discussed above, for the non-custodial parent to use. Give the form to your school. This form should be enough to get your children enrolled in school in your district. What if a child is living with me only so he can go to school in my district? How do I enroll that child?
You may not be able to enroll that child in your district. When a parent falls out of compliance, school districts are permitted to take action that varies by state. Usually, parents receive a letter notifying them that their youngster is truant, with instructions for further action. Some states, such as Iowa, can delay a habitually-truant teen's driver's license until age More aggressive states such as Florida might involve the district attorney to begin legal intervention proceedings against the parents.
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