Lakota Updates Attendance Policy Following State House Bill 96 Truancy Law Changes

What happened

The Board reviewed a first read of a revised attendance policy (Policy 5200) to align with new state House Bill 96, which replaces the prior House Bill 410 truancy framework and gives the district more local control over intervention steps before pursuing truancy court action for chronically absent students.

Why it matters to families

This changes how the district will handle chronic absenteeism and truancy cases for families, moving away from the prescriptive court-referral timeline of prior law toward more flexible, locally-determined intervention steps before court involvement.

The evidence

Board policy discussion: 'House Bill 96 has created some policy changes around attendance...will replace what we knew as House Bill 410...this puts more back on local control and empowering districts to create the steps that you feel that you need before you get to court action.'

The source