I agree that the judge should be ashamed of himself on this one. Texas has a record, btw, of going after truants even in situations where the parents have doctors notes. It's totally nuts!
Criminal Truancy Laws in Texas | eHow.com
This is from one of my local groups in 2011 (names deleted). The original post talked about having doctors treating her dd
My daughter and I have been hit with truancy charges. She ran a fever from 4/12 until 6/7. I was seeing and talking to the counselor, picking up work for her and turning in her completed work, communicating with her teachers, etc. She actually passed most of her classes - the one she didn't pass she still has to take a final in - Chemistry - so she still has a chance of passing.
We went to court on 6/24, where the judge declared that he would research and decide if she could have credit for the entire year. We are in a holding pattern right now. Meanwhile, she isn't finishing school work or taking finals because we don't know if she is going to get credit.
I was told that fever is a school issue and this is truancy court.
I am totally lost here. I thought I was communicating with the school, doing what I needed to do to help my daughter, scared to death because no one still knows what she had or when she would be well. I'm so thankful she is well.
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From another poster:
this is the 3rd instance I’ve heard recently of this happening where the student has a legitimate illness, well documented, and they are faced with (and in the other 2 cases I know of) had to pay the charges, even though their child was ill.
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And from another person who experienced a similar situation
I'm not sure what help I can offer, but I can tell you my daughter and I went through something very similar this year. I did my BEST to work closely with teachers, make sure I stayed in communication with staff and teachers about her heath situation(s). I had to practically beg some of the teachers (others
were great and very supportive)for work she could do at home, and even then some of them simply never returned emails or phone calls. Even though we went through 2 car accidents and a very strange virus that laid her out for almost 2 weeks -- and had doctor's notes for all that -- we got told if she missed even ONE SINGLE more day, we'd be slapped with truancy charges of $500 plus have to go to court. It was a nightmare. My daughter told me the truancy officers were very unprofessional -- they dogged her about her absences, threatened her with all kinds of trouble if they even just happened to see her in the hallway. I have to say at least the principal, ass't principal, and her counselor were VERY
kind and helpful - as much as they could be -- but the "truancy" deal when your kid genuinely has medical issues is just out of control.
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Update on what happened to the mom and child
My daughter was out of school with a fever from 4/12 until the end of school and even though I was in communication with the counselor, picking up work and turning work, the school filed truancy charges against my daughter and myself.
After a horrible, degraded and demoralizing day in court, we decided that ****** would complete her work as agreed upon by the counselor and her teachers, even though we had no idea if she would get credit. If the judge was going to pull her credits for the entire year, it seemed silly to be doing make up work. She completed her work and passed all her classes.
****** and I got called to visit with the counselor regarding her credits early August and I explained that when we went back to court, the judge was threatening to pull ******'s credits. The counselor didn't like that and started communicating with the outreach and attendance officer. The outreach and attendance office sent an officer to stay at the court until they could visit with the judge. The outreach and attendance officer ended up advocating for ****** to keep her credits with the judge, saying that ****** had done the work and they didn't want to take credits away from a kid who was doing the work. They also didn't like the fact that six weeks into the school year, the judge would try to move a kid from junior to sophomore status! More work for them.
After a couple more rounds, the school has dropped the charges. We don't have to go back to court. The judge has been informed that she has attended every day this year. Yeah! And my daughter gets to keep her credits and has been promoted.
I was misled by several people at the school. People telling me that if I got them such and such paperwork, they could drop the charges, etc. Told that they were just filing charges to cover their butt with the state. My trust in these people is way down! But I do want to praise ****** - the clerk in truancy court - she was wonderful, helpful, kind and accurate in her information and suggestions. The other person that was very helpful was ****** in the outreach and attendance office. I regret that I didn't not talk to her sooner, but after I felt like I had been lied to by a whole bunch of other ISD people, I didn't want to talk to another ISD person and I certainly didn't want to give them any more paperwork to turn and use against us. I want to include this information in case anyone else finds themselves facing false truancy charges, so hopefully, they can get help and information.
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