Dive Brief:

• A Texas truancy law allows schools to send students to court for unexcused absences, and Dallas County has long been a primary trier of truants — but that might change with a slate of new recommendations from Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and Judge Clay Jenkins.
• The Dallas Morning News reports the recommendations include using the courts as a tool of last resort, keeping more students in school, and asking lawmakers to clarify the rules laid out in state law about when schools have to refer students to truancy courts.
• The state softened its truancy law in 2015, making the offense civil rather than criminal, but students in Dallas County still get sent for missing certain classes rather than entire days — and some go because of paperwork errors, including lost doctor’s notes.

Dive Insight:

Texas’ truancy law is a “get tough” policy aimed at forcing students and parents to pay attention to school attendance because of serious consequences for unexcused absences. Other districts have passed similar laws, giving police the ability to issue fines to students as well as parents for missing school.

These laws are in opposition to efforts to limit the school-to-prison pipeline. More than 1,000 teenagers in Texas were sent to jail for unpaid truancy-related fines. The financial consequences can be seen as a powerful deterrent for some students, however. The question is whether those consequences are worth it. Students who come into contact with the criminal justice system once are significantly more likely to do it again.