HBA-MPM H.B. 2049 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2049
By: Burnam
Public Education
3/18/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law requires students to attend school, with certain exceptions,
until they are 18 years of age. School districts have the authority to
assign attendance officers to investigate unexcused student absences,
enforce the mandatory attendance law, and perform related duties such as
filing a complaint against a parent whose child does not comply with the
state's mandatory attendance policy and referring a truant student to
juvenile court.  However, because open-enrollment charter schools are not
defined as a school district, they cannot enforce attendance requirements
through an attendance officer.  House Bill 2049 authorizes open-enrollment
charter schools to select a school attendance officer to perform the same
duties as an attendance officer of a school district. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 2049 amends the Education Code to authorize the governing body
of an open-enrollment charter school (charter school) to select a school
attendance officer and provides that the officer may be compensated by
funds from the charter school.  If the governing body of a charter school
has not selected an attendance officer, the duties of the attendance
officer are required to be performed by the peace officers of the county
where the school is located.  

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001. The Act applies beginning with the
2001-2002 school year.