‘Becca Law’ Could Jam Courts, Justice System Schools Required To File Charges Against Kids With Too Many Absences

Truants take heed: There’s a hickory stick lurking in the new teenage runaway legislation known as the “Becca Law.”

The measure was adopted by the Legislature this year to give parents more authority over rebellious children who vanish from home, some because of mental illness or drug problems.

School officials have long had the power to take habitual hooky players to court but rarely did so.

Now there’s no choice. They have to file a Juvenile Court petition whenever a student has five unexcused absences in a month or 10 in a school year.

“We’re trying to get to kids as early as possible,” said Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, who helped sponsor the measure. “A lot of us think truancy is a precursor to running away.”

Until now, excessive skipping of classes meant suspension.

Now those kids can be ordered back to school. Those who refuse can be sentenced to community service or a week behind bars for contempt of court.

Another alternative is electronic home monitoring, since many detention halls are full to bursting.

“I scramble to find beds,” said Lois Smith, Jefferson County juvenile court administrator in Port Townsend.

Parents of persistent truants may be fined or ordered to volunteer in their children’s school.

A survey last year by state school officials indicate 20,000 to 40,000 youngsters could wind up being referred to court this year, compared with 91 truancy cases last year.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Judith Billings estimates it will cost school officials $14 million to monitor truancy cases under the new law. The Legislature appropriated $3 million.

Hargrove dismissed Billings’ cost estimates as inflated.

“The point is, they haven’t been doing anything at all,” he said.

Pete Erickson, principal at Chief Moses Junior High in Moses Lake, said one employee would have to be assigned specifically to meet a requirement that truancy from the 850-student school be reported to Olympia. The report must include the outcome of each truancy court case and the efforts made to keep kids in school.

“It’s more bureaucratic paperwork,” Erickson said.

Bobbe Bridge, King County’s chief Juvenile Court judge in Seattle, said some chronic school-skippers react with “a new level of seriousness when you’re eyeball to eyeball with a judge.”

Another question is what constitutes an excused absence?

In many schools a parent’s OK is enough. Rural students often are excused for hunting or harvest. Less clear is the case of a teenager who stays home to baby-sit a niece, nephew, brother, sister or cousin.

Lawmakers have hired a think tank to consider whether a statewide definition is needed.

Some also question whether an absence under the law means a missed day or a missed class. Billings’ office says it has to be a day to count.