(1) The general assembly finds that: (a) Imposing a sentence of detention on a juvenile who violates a court order to attend school does not improve the likelihood that the juvenile will attend school and does not address the underlying causes of the juvenile's truancy; (b) The best methods to address truancy and its underlying causes and the resources needed to implement those methods are different in each community; (c) Since 2014, the juvenile courts in many judicial districts around the state have successfully reduced the use of detention for juveniles who are truant by implementing pilot projects through which the juvenile court imposes reasonable sanctions and, where possible, provides incentives to attend school, reserving detention as a sanction of last resort; and (d) These pilot projects need additional time to produce meaningful data regarding the effectiveness of the alternate sanctions and incentives and to determine whether they result in improved outcomes for juveniles and their families. (2) The chief judge in each judicial district, or his or her designee, shall convene a meeting of community stakeholders to create a policy for addressing truancy cases that seeks alternatives to the use of detention as a sanction for truancy. Community stakeholders may include, but need not be limited to: (a) Parents; (b) Representatives from school districts; (c) Representatives from county departments of human or social services; (d) Guardians ad litem; (e) Court-appointed special advocates; (f) Juvenile court judges; (g) Respondent counsel; (h) Representatives from law enforcement agencies; (i) Mental health-care providers; (j) Substance use disorder treatment providers; (k) Representatives from the division of criminal justice in the department of public safety; (l) Representatives from the state department of human services; and (m) Representatives from the department of education. (3) The chief judge in each judicial district shall adopt a policy for addressing truancy cases no later than March 15, 2016. In developing the policy for addressing truancy cases, the chief judge and the community stakeholders shall consider, at a minimum: (a) Best practices for addressing truancy that are used in other judicial districts and in other states; (b) Evidence-based practices to address and reduce truancy; (c) Using a wide array of reasonable sanctions and reasonable incentives to address and reduce truancy; (d) Using detention only as a last resort after exhausting all other reasonable sanctions and, when imposing detention, appropriately reducing the number of days served; and (e) Research regarding the effect of detention on juveniles. (4) The state court administrator's office shall report to the judiciary committees of the house of representatives and the senate, or any successor committees, no later than April 15, 2016, regarding the policy for addressing truancy cases adopted by each judicial district.
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