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I live in Texas. My son (17) and I were served a summons by the local constable for truancy. The attached complaint says "Failure to Attend School" and is marked "ten or more days/parts of days in 6 mo period". My son has had many absences (often partial day/mornings) and always has as he suffers from asthma and chose to stop taking prescription meds after reading the documentation from the pharmacy about side effects (when he was in 4th grade). He does use/carry prescription rescue inhalers, he has too. He is an A/B/occasional C student. He has never had to be disciplined at school for any reason and is considered a "good kid" by his teachers. I know that all of his missed time at school has been related to sickness/asthma. There is no reason or benefit to taking him to his PCP every time he misses school. I assume this is the reason I/we are being charged with a crime! What should I expect to happen? Am I required/expected to "force" my sick/suffering child to go to school?
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Texas Already Tried: Searching online for similar situations.
I am sorry to hear you are going through this, but unless your has an IEP or some reasonable accommodation approved under the ADA for his problems, there is no excuse for undocumented absences even though they may be for alleged medical reasons. You would have needed to provide evidence of his medical condition to the school from doctors reports and then they would have to have approved some reasonable accommodation. Claiming this now without prior accommodation approval makes your case very difficult. You must get an attorney and you will have to bring medical records and get his doctor to testify and you will need to explain to the court as to why you did not seek reasonable accommodation under the ADA for his disability and you can expect a fine in most cases and it could lead to him being forced to repeat the grade for not meeting minimum attendance requirements. You also need to begin the process of seeking reasonable accommodations under the ADA with your medical reports and seeking home school tutoring for times when he cannot go to school because of his disability.
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What is an IEP? I could not have known in advance that this year would be any worse medically than any previous, he's been in school for 11 years without going over his "allotted days". Are these type od courts required to pass out penalty without individual considerations or does the judge get to decide each case?
Under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and the ADA, your son is entitled to an evaluation and accommodations for his disabilities. When he has a disability that requires him to not be able to attend school physically, under these Acts the school can be made to provide accommodations such as in home tutors to make up for the fact the child cannot attend. The judge will consider all factors in your case, but without documentation from a doctor that these absences were medically necessary based on a qualified disability, the judge may have no choice here but to issue some sanctions, even though you have some mitigating facts to minimize those sanctions. In the meantime you need to pursue the accommodations for the future through the school.
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