§ 22-33-107 — Enforcement of compulsory school attendance - definitions

(1)
The board of education of each school district shall designate one or more of the
employees of the district to act as attendance officer for the district. It is the
attendance officer's duty in appropriate cases to counsel with students and parents
and investigate the causes of nonattendance and report to the local board of
education so as to enforce the provisions of this article which relate to compulsory
attendance.

(2) The commissioner of education shall designate an employee of the
department of education whose duty it is to assist the individual school districts and
to supervise the enforcement of compulsory school attendance for the entire state.

(3) (a) As used in this subsection (3):

(I) Repealed.

(II) Local community services group means the local juvenile services
planning committee created pursuant to section 19-2.5-302, the local collaborative
management group created by a memorandum of understanding entered into
pursuant to section 24-1.9-102, or another local group of public agencies that
collaborate with the school district to identify and provide support services for
students.

(b) The board of education of each school district shall adopt and implement
policies and procedures concerning elementary and secondary school attendance,
including but not limited to policies and procedures to work with children who are
habitually truant. The policies and procedures must include provisions for the
development of a plan. The plan must be developed with the goal of assisting the
child to remain in school and, when practicable, with the full participation of the
child's parent, guardian, or legal custodian. Appropriate school personnel shall
make all reasonable efforts to meet with the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of
the child to review and evaluate the reasons for the child's truancy. The appropriate
school personnel are encouraged to work with the local community services group
to develop the plan. The plan must be in compliance with section 22-33-108 (7) and
include appropriate sanctions other than placement in a juvenile detention facility
for a child who is habitually truant and who has refused to comply with the plan.
The policies and procedures may also include but need not be limited to the
following:

(I) (Deleted by amendment, L. 96, p. 1808, � 4, effective July 1, 1996.)

(I.5) Procedures to monitor the attendance of each child enrolled in the
school district to identify each child who has a significant number of unexcused
absences and to work with the local community services group and the child's
parent to identify and address the likely issues underlying the child's truancy,
including any nonacademic issues;

(II) Annually at the beginning of the school year and upon any enrollment
during the school year, notifying the parent of each child enrolled in the public
schools in writing of such parent's obligations pursuant to section 22-33-104 (5)
and requesting that the parent acknowledge in writing awareness of such
obligations;

(III) Annually at the beginning of the school year and upon any enrollment
during the school year, obtaining from the parent of each child a telephone number
or other means of contacting such parent during the school day; and

(IV) Establishing a system of monitoring individual unexcused absences of
children which shall provide that, whenever a child who is enrolled in a public
school fails to report to school on a regularly scheduled school day and school
personnel have received no indication that the child's parent is aware of the child's
absence, school personnel or volunteers under the direction of school personnel
shall make a reasonable effort to notify by telephone such parent. Any person who,
in good faith, gives or fails to give notice pursuant to this subparagraph (IV) shall be
immune from any liability, civil or criminal, which might otherwise be incurred or
imposed and shall have the same immunity with respect to any judicial proceeding
which results from such notice or failure to give such notice.

(4) On or before September 15, 2022, and on or before September 15 each
year thereafter, the board of education of each school district shall report to the
department of education the students' individual attendance information, including
total days attended, total days excused, total days unexcused, total possible
attendance days, and those who are habitually truant, as defined in section 22-33-102 (3.5), for the preceding academic year. The department shall post the
aggregated information for each school district on its website for the public to
access and may post additional information reported by school districts related to
truancy.

(5) The department of education may post on its website information
concerning effective, research-based, truancy- and dropout-prevention programs
for the benefit of school districts.

Legislative History

Source: L. 63: p. 864, � 8. C.R.S. 1963: � 123-20-8. L. 84: (1) amended, p. 601, � 1, effective April 5. L. 93: (3) added, p. 460, � 6, effective April 19. L. 96: IP(3)(b) and (3)(b)(I) amended, p. 1808, � 4, effective July 1. L. 2006: (3)(a) amended, p. 1213, � 5, effective July 1, 2007. L. 2007: (3)(a) amended, p. 71, � 3, effective July 1, 2008. L. 2008: (4) and (5) added, p. 517, � 2, effective August 5. L. 2013: (3)(a) and IP(3)(b) amended and (3)(b)(I.5) added, (HB 13-1021), ch. 335, p. 1947, � 2, effective August 7. L. 2015: (1) amended, (SB 15-099), ch. 99, p. 290, � 4, effective August 5. L. 2018: (3)(a)(I) repealed and IP(3)(b) and (4) amended, (HB 18-1156), ch. 378, p. 2286, � 4, effective August 8. L. 2021: (3)(a)(II) amended, (SB 21-059), ch. 136, p. 740, � 99, effective October 1. L. 2022: (4) amended, (HB 22-1374), ch. 273, p. 1971, � 4, effective May 31.