Absenteeism, juvenile justice

We had a hearing on two amendments this last week in the Judiciary Committee regarding school absenteeism and juvenile justice issues. We have literally come full circle on the school absenteeism issue and are making strides to improve, correct, and clarify juvenile justice issues related to last sessions LB561.

Specifically, I would like to talk about the changes in AM1674 and AM1734 dealing with school absenteeism.

If you have been watching the news over the last year or so, you might have seen some of the troubling results to the recent changes in the truancy laws to move us to an excessive absenteeism model. The results were not good, it took too much discretion away from parents and allowed some school districts in the state to misuse the new policy, clogging up the juvenile courts and overwhelming county attorneys. Many of the students and parents caught up in the mess had mostly excused absences, but were having legal actions taking against them. Some school districts were using zero common sense implanting their attendance policy.

Because of this, I worked with a statewide parents group to find a solution, and we were able to get changes put into AM1674 that would change the current 20 excused or unexcused absences trigger to report to the county attorney, to 20 unexcused absences.

Sen. Ashford, from Omaha, filed AM1734, which seeks to make further changes. One change would strike the requirement that all absences due to illness be documented. This was an obvious burden for the poor, and for students who just had the flu or a cold; forcing kids in these scenarios to go to school or an unnecessary doctor visit just doesn't make any sense.

The hearing was productive and everyone seems onboard to fix the obvious problems. So, if you have a child that ran into some attendance problems even with excused absences, I'm confident we are going to get this fixed.

Tuesday, the 11th, LB993 that I introduced will have its public hearing. This is a bill that will provide clarification that health care sharing ministries like Medi-Share or Samaritan Ministries are not considered insurance in Nebraska. This will make sure Nebraska law reflects the same exemption that the federal Affordable Care Act currently recognizes with health care sharing ministries.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, contact my office. Mark R. Christensen, PO Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, 402-471-2805 or mchristensen@leg.ne.gov.