May multiple county courts in one county designate one county court to hear truancy cases, alleviating the requirement to adopt “uniform truancy policies?”
SECTION 10 of HB 2398 requires certain counties to adopt “uniform truancy policies.” The requirement applies only to counties “with two or more courts hearing truancy cases and two or more school districts.” Some counties would like to avoid going through the process of establishing uniform truancy policies. Can these counties avoid this process by deciding that only one court in the county will “hear” truancy cases even though the county may have multiple courts that are statutorily designated as truancy courts (e.g., a county with four justices of the peace)?
No. This would likely be an attempted end run around the statute. This would certainly be inconsistent with the legislative intent so it is not a suggested practice. (Ted Wood, Office of Court Administration)