Juvenile truancy provisions revised, CASA grants advance

Senators advanced a bill April 11 that would revise the juvenile truancy and excessive absenteeism policies and practices.

LB463, introduced by Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford at the request of Gov. Dave Heineman, would require that at least 50 percent of the learning community coordinating council operating funds be used for truancy intervention programs that incorporate evidence-based practices pursuant to a plan developed by participating superintendents. The funds would be provided until the learning community’s annual rate of truancy, or absenteeism of more than 10 days, is reduced by 50 percent from the rate in fiscal year 2010-11.

Under the bill, excessive absenteeism policies must include a provision indicating how the district and the county attorney will handle cases in which excessive absences are due to documented serious illnesses. The bill also would allow law enforcement agencies to have access to applicants’ sealed juvenile records.

Ashford said the state’s schools saw more than 23,000 truancies last year — a number he called “alarming.” This bill directly addresses the issue of truancy in schools by requiring early intervention with children who are excessively absent, he said.

Lincoln Sen. Kathy Campbell spoke in support of the bill, saying that student truancy should raise a concern.

“Truancy is one of those red flags, one of those things that first comes up in a young person’s life that can be the first step into a gateway in terms of entries into the juvenile justice system,” Campbell said.

A Judiciary Committee amendment would strike the original provisions of the bill requiring information sharing and the creation of a truancy intervention plan and instead would authorize the Learning Community Coordinating Council to administer pilot projects related to truancy initiatives that would share information regarding at-risk youth. It also would appropriate $150,000 from the learning community to the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice in FY2011-12 and $30,000 for each subsequent fiscal year for an information management system.

Also included in the amendment were provisions from LB79, a bill originally introduced by Lincoln Sen. Amanda McGill that would provide a grant program for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs). The grants would be funded by transferring $100,000 from the Commission on Public Advocacy Operations Cash Fund to the CASA Cash Fund in 2011 and $200,00 would be transferred in 2012.

Approximately 1,500 people in the state are currently receiving help and support from CASA volunteers, Ashford said, and these types of services are difficult to find in rural areas. Funding the programs is a “tremendous investment,” he said, because it could assist in recruiting volunteers to help more children throughout the state, making them less likely re-enter the system.

“Our goal in the committee over the last few years [has been] to unclog the juvenile system by preventing people from coming in,” he said. “That is what the truancy initiative is all about.”

Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist supported the amendment and the bill, saying that the data-sharing component and CASA program funding are critical. Many students in the learning community are state wards or are on probation, he said, so HHS and probation need to know when these students are absent from school.

Furthermore, Nordquist said, CASA volunteers serve a critical function of the state. Children with CASA volunteers spend four months less in out-of-home care than those without volunteers, he said, so the funds invested in CASA will come back many times over in savings to the state’s foster care system.

Ashford offered an amendment to the committee amendment, adopted 33-0, that also would require the learning community to establish goals to reduce excessive absenteeism and authorize the council to fund public or private entities in the juvenile justice system that would reduce excessive absenteeism and unnecessary involvement with the system.

The committee amendment was adopted 36-0 and the bill advanced from general file on a 36-0 vote.