WEST virginia legislature
2017 regular session
ENROLLED
ENGROSSED
for
By Delegates
Westfall, Cooper, Ambler, Wagner, Moye, Atkinson,
Marcum and Higginbotham
[
AN ACT to amend
and reenact §18-8-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
documentation of unexcused absences from compulsory school attendance; limiting
the excused absences for personal illness or injury in the family to those of
student’s parent, guardian or custodian; requiring all documentation related to
absences be provided to school no later than three days of occurrence;
authorizing schools to have discretion whether to give notice in the case of
three unexcused absences; giving schools the discretion whether to give said
notice by written or other means to a parent after three absences; giving
discretion for attendance director or assistant to make a complaint against
parent after ten total unexcused absences; and clarifying responsibility of
administrative head or other chief administrator of school for meeting; and
making other technical clarifications.
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 unexcused 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;
(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;
(3) For the purposes of
this article, the following definitions apply:
(A) "Excused
absence" includes:
(i) Personal illness or
injury of the student;
(ii) Personal
illness or injury of the student’s parent, guardian, custodian, or family
member: Provided, That the excuse
must provide a reasonable explanation for why the student’s absence was
necessary and caused by the illness or injury in the family;
(iii) Medical or dental
appointment with written excuse from physician or dentist;
(iv) Chronic medical
condition or disability that impacts attendance;
(v) Participation in home
or hospital instruction due to an illness or injury or other extraordinary
circumstance that warrants home or hospital confinement;
(vi) Calamity, such as a
fire or flood;
(vii) Death in the family;
(viii) School-approved or
county-approved curricular or extra-curricular activities;
(ix) Judicial obligation or
court appearance involving the student;
(x) Military requirement
for students enlisted or enlisting in the military;
(xi) Personal or academic
circumstances approved by the principal; and
(xii) Such other situations
as may be further determined by the county board: Provided, That
absences of students with disabilities shall be in accordance with the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 and the federal and state regulations
adopted in compliance therewith; and
(B) "Unexcused absence"
means any absence not specifically included in the definition of "excused absence";
and
(4) All
documentation relating to absences shall be provided to the school no later
than three instructional days after the first day the student returns to
school.
(b) In the case
of three total unexcused absences of a student during a school year, the
attendance director or assistant may serve notice by written or other means to
the parent, guardian, or custodian of the student that the attendance of the
student at school is required and that if the student has five unexcused
absences, a conference with the principal, administrative head or other chief
administrator will be required.
(c) In the case of five
total unexcused absences, the attendance director or assistant shall serve
written notice to the parent, guardian or custodian of the student that within
five 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, administrative head or other chief
administrator of the school in order to discuss and correct the circumstances
causing the unexcused absences of the student, including the adjustment of
unexcused absences based on the meeting.
(d) In the case of ten
total unexcused absences of a student during a school year, the attendance
director or assistant may make a 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.
(e) 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.
(f) 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.
(g) 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.
(h) 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 set forth student absences that are
excluded for accountability purposes. The absences that are excluded by rule
shall include, but are not 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 in subsection-a of
this section, or if requested by the chief administrator, principal or
assistant principal; and
(9) Serve as the liaison
for homeless children and youth.