DEPARTMENT: Municipal Court
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Presiding Judge John Bull
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
Truancy Intervention and Prevention Program Grant submission, in the amount of up to $1,400,000.00, from the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor's Office
SUMMARY:
This ordinance approves the submission of a Truancy Intervention and Prevention Program grant application of up to $1,400,000.00 from the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor's Office for the period of August 1, 2017 to July 31, 2018. Municipal Court, in accordance with the San Antonio/Bexar County Joint Committee on Truancy, recognizes the significance of intervention and prevention services for youth. Addressing the underlying challenges families encounter is the key to success. Funding would allow an increase in the number of juvenile case managers assigned to schools throughout Bexar County and increase programming.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Truancy limits students' educational opportunities, increases the likelihood of students engaging in harmful behavior and reduces the amount of funding that local school districts receive through the state's school finance system. In Bexar County, efforts to address truancy are complicated by the large number of local jurisdictions, disparate filing methods, and a high level of student mobility among school districts. Over fifteen independent school districts were filing truancy cases using different approaches and were filing cases with any one of six justice of the peace courts or with Municipal Court. In 2013, HB 1479 (83rd legislative session) was signed into law, which mandated the creation of a truancy committee to develop a uniform process for administering, tracking and reducing truancy for the fifteen school districts in Bexar County. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and then Mayor Julian Castro appointed a Truancy Committee of eleven members, which recommended an addendum to the Master Interlocal Agreement between ...
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