Bill would let districts set attendance policies

SHERIDAN — The Joint Education Committee advanced a bill that gives school districts increased power to determine disciplinary policy for absences and increasing penalties for absenteeism and truancy.

The bill grants school districts the power to define an “unexcused absence” and determine the number of unexcused absences that constitute “habitual truancy” and “willful absenteeism.”

The bill defines “habitual truant” as “any child who, disobeying reasonable and lawful demands of the child’s parent, guardian, custodian or other proper authority, obtains more than the l...