Florida Senate - 2025                                     SB 938
       
       
        
       By Senator McClain
       
       
       
       
       
       9-01097-25                                             2025938__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to student absences; amending s.
    3         1003.26, F.S.; requiring a student’s primary teacher
    4         to report to the principal, or his or her designee, if
    5         a student is chronically absent; requiring the State
    6         Board of Education to create guidelines relating to
    7         student absences; providing an effective date.
    8          
    9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   10  
   11         Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section
   12  1003.26, Florida Statutes, is amended, and subsection (6) is
   13  added to that section, to read:
   14         1003.26 Enforcement of school attendance.—The Legislature
   15  finds that poor academic performance is associated with
   16  nonattendance and that school districts must take an active role
   17  in promoting and enforcing attendance as a means of improving
   18  student performance. It is the policy of the state that each
   19  district school superintendent be responsible for enforcing
   20  school attendance of all students subject to the compulsory
   21  school age in the school district and supporting enforcement of
   22  school attendance by local law enforcement agencies. The
   23  responsibility includes recommending policies and procedures to
   24  the district school board that require public schools to respond
   25  in a timely manner to every unexcused absence, and every absence
   26  for which the reason is unknown, of students enrolled in the
   27  schools. District school board policies shall require the parent
   28  of a student to justify each absence of the student, and that
   29  justification will be evaluated based on adopted district school
   30  board policies that define excused and unexcused absences. The
   31  policies must provide that public schools track excused and
   32  unexcused absences and contact the home in the case of an
   33  unexcused absence from school, or an absence from school for
   34  which the reason is unknown, to prevent the development of
   35  patterns of nonattendance. The Legislature finds that early
   36  intervention in school attendance is the most effective way of
   37  producing good attendance habits that will lead to improved
   38  student learning and achievement. Each public school shall
   39  implement the following steps to promote and enforce regular
   40  school attendance:
   41         (1) CONTACT, REFER, AND ENFORCE.—
   42         (b)1. If a student has had at least 5 five unexcused
   43  absences, or absences for which the reasons are unknown, within
   44  a calendar month or 10 unexcused absences, or absences for which
   45  the reasons are unknown, within a 90-calendar-day period, the
   46  student’s primary teacher must shall report to the school
   47  principal or his or her designee that the student may be
   48  exhibiting a pattern of nonattendance. The principal shall,
   49  unless there is clear evidence that the absences are not a
   50  pattern of nonattendance, refer the case to the school’s child
   51  study team to determine whether if early patterns of truancy are
   52  developing. If the child study team finds that a pattern of
   53  nonattendance is developing, whether the absences are excused or
   54  not, a meeting with the parent must be scheduled to identify
   55  potential remedies, and the principal must shall notify the
   56  district school superintendent and the school district contact
   57  for home education programs that the referred student is
   58  exhibiting a pattern of nonattendance.
   59         2. If a student is absent for 10 percent of school days
   60  within the first 45 days of the school year, regardless of the
   61  absences being excused or unexcused, the student’s primary
   62  teacher must report to the school principal, or his or her
   63  designee, that the student is chronically absent.
   64         (6) STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION GUIDELINES.—The State Board of
   65  Education shall create guidelines for school districts to follow
   66  when creating policies relating to student absences. The
   67  guidelines must include policies for the determination and
   68  accounting of excused and unexcused absences.
   69         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.