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Testimony presses committee to keep BECCA funding as bill would shift truancy petition timeline

3103452 · April 23, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

House Bill 2,044 would change the timeline and process for filing truancy petitions and expand use of community engagement boards; juvenile court administrators, judges, school officials and advocates told the committee they fear the bill will remove or reduce BECCA‑related funding and weaken early‑intervention safeguards for vulnerable youth.

The Ways & Means Committee took testimony April 23 on House Bill 2,044, which would alter the state’s truancy process by changing when schools must file truancy petitions and by making community engagement boards a required option earlier in the process. Testimony focused heavily on funding for BECCA‑related supports and whether the bill would effectively defund local early‑intervention programs.

Kayla Hammer, staff to the committee, summarized the bill: it would require a school district to either enter into an attendance agreement or refer the child to a community engagement board after a student’s fifth unexcused absence within any month, and would require a truancy…

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