ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 631
(By Senators Kessler, Dempsey, Hunter, Caruth, Deem, Lanham, McKenzie and
Weeks)
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[Passed March 9, 2006; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §18-8-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to process, service and parties
charged in summons or warrants for violations of compulsory
school attendance; authorizing charge of more than one parent,
custodian or guardian in single complaint; and continuing
attempts to serve until executed or end of school term.
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, all 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. They shall ascertain
reasons for inexcusable absences from school of pupils of
compulsory school age and students who remain enrolled beyond the sixteenth birthday as defined under this article and shall take
such steps as are, in their discretion, best calculated to correct
attitudes of parents and pupils which result in absences from
school even though not clearly in violation of law.
(b) In the case of five consecutive or ten total unexcused
absences of a child during a school year, the attendance director
or assistant shall serve written notice to the parent, guardian or
custodian of such child that the attendance of such child at school
is required and that within ten days of receipt of the notice the
parent, guardian or custodian, accompanied by the child, shall
report in person to the school the child 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 child; 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.
(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 child absent from
school, the attendance director shall have authority to require a
properly attested birth certificate or an affidavit from the
parent, guardian or custodian of such child, stating age of the
child. The county attendance director or assistant shall, in the
performance of his or her duties, have authority to take without
warrant any child absent from school in violation of the provisions
of this article and to place such child in the school in which such
child is or should be enrolled.
(e) The county attendance director 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 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 shall be responsible
under direction of the county superintendent for the efficient
administration of 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 shall also 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 enforcement of 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 shall be excluded for accountability purposes. The absences that shall be excluded by the rule shall
include, but 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 of education 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 the compilation of
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.