The Georgia Senate passed a bill to add new penalties for students who skip class, with one punishment being a loss of a driver’s license or learner’s permit.
Senate Bill 513, the “Every Day Counts Act” comes from a Senate Committee report in November, where lawmakers studying chronic absenteeism in Georgia schools made a list of recommendations to curb truancy.
Now, with only recently elected state Sen. Jaha Howard of Cobb County voting against it, SB 513 is on its way to the Georgia House of Representatives for approval or modification.
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Described as a way to “provide for consequences for chronically unexcused students,” the bill would take away opportunities to participate in interscholastic and extracurricular activities.
The bill also would allow students’ instructional driving permits or driver’s licenses to be revoked by the Department of Driver Services.
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“Our work over the last few months has the power to transform our schools, strengthen our communities and improve outcomes for children across Georgia,” Macon Sen. John F. Kennedy, who chaired the committee, said in a previous statement. “Across every meeting, experts emphasized that overcoming the barriers our students face will take innovative, data-driven solutions.”
As part of the bill, should it pass, the Georgia Department of Education would need to draft a plan to use with the Department of Driver Services for how to handle licensing for chronically unexcused students to drive or learn to drive.
The bill states this would only impact minors ages 15 to 17.
For the purposes of the bill, a chronically unexcused student means:
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A student who misses more than five days of class unexcused in the first 50 days
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A student who has missed 10% of school days after 50th school day
Any student who is declared chronically unexcused would not be allowed to participate in school-sponsored activities that do not provide school or course credits, such as band, chorus, drama and theatre, sports and other interscholastic activities, as well as athletic activities.
School systems would also be required to establish new policies for supporting students to remain in school and incentivize attendance.
Schools would be required to keep the Department of Education updated on absent students for the purposes of the proposed legislation.
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