Time is of the essence and this bill has been placed on the fast track!
SB 1489 is scheduled for testimony before the
House Corrections Committee on Wednesday on May 11th at 8 AM.
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Actively Oppose SB 1489. The first step to doing this is by contacting each of members of the House Corrections Committee whose names and contact information is listed below.
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Support TMCA’s Proposed Substitute to SB 1489. Encourage Chairman Madden and the other members of the House Corrections Committee to support TMCA’s Proposed Substitute.
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Spread the word by all means necessary.
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Show up in person or send a representative to oppose the bill in its present form and/or to advocate for TMCA’s substitute language.
S.B. 1489 (Whitmire) – Truancy would:
(1) require a police officer serving as an attendance officer to file a complaint against a student in court if the student has a certain number of absences and the student is seventeen years of age or older; (2) does away with the juvenile case manager fee; and (3) removes failure to attend school cases for students from municipal courts and requires that most cases be filed in justice court.
TMCA Commentary: The Texas Municipal Courts Association respectfully opposes S.B. 1489 in its current version.
Many people agree that decriminalizing truancy is a needed step in the right direction. SB 1489, as initially filed was a step in that direction. However, SB 1489, in its current form, is not that step. Rather, it’s a step in the wrong direction!
The bill as it emerged from the Senate:
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Strips municipal courts of concurrent jurisdiction to hear Failure to Attend School (FTAS) cases and shifts the burden of criminally adjudicating such cases solely to justice courts and county courts (in select counties).
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Eliminates the authority of municipalities to have a juvenile case manager program and ends the ability of municipalities to collect a juvenile case manager fee.
Our Position (Things We Want Policy Makers to Know)
While data from the Office of Court Administration suggests that more FTAS cases are currently being filed in justice courts than municipal courts, this hardly justifies mandating the predominant shift to justice courts. Increasingly more of these cases are being filed in municipal courts. From 2006 to 2010, municipal courts saw an increase in FTAS cases of 189%, compared to an increase of only 16% for justice courts. Why may these numb ers be shifting?
Some of the most commended efforts in Texas to address the problem of school attendance involve efforts by municipalities and municipal courts. Two examples include the Corpus Christi Juvenile Case Manager Program and the Fort Worth School Attendance Court. TMCA encourages the Legislature to increase support of such efforts at the municipal level, don’t kill them.
The Texas Legislature created municipal courts at the turn of the last century to accommodate the high volume of Class C misdemeanors filed at the local level. For more than 100 years, municipal and justice courts have shared jurisdiction of Class C misdemeanors. Why, now, should FTAS be the only Class C misdemeanor w here the two courts no longer have concurrent jurisdiction? How shall Texas be better served if municipal courts can no longer hear these cases?
SB 1489 substantially curtails the ability of Texas schools districts to decide where to file such cases by reducing the number of courts with jurisdiction in Texas to hear FTAS cases by 58 percent. Consider the following:
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School districts are often entirely within a city limit and the municipal court is the most responsive and specific court for that district.
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In some parts of the state, school districts file these cases in both justice and municipal courts in order to more effectively manage the case load.
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Many cities supply school resource officers to the school districts and the officers typically file violations in the municipal courts. Thus, SB 1489 severs effective working relationships between schools and cities.
Our Proposal
TMCA is committed to working with Senator Whitmire and child advocates to address real inequities in how children are adjudicate d in criminal courts for fine-only misdemeanors.
TMCA has prepared a bill substitute and presented it to Chairman Madden. It is a substitute with three primary components that child advocate groups have endorsed, but that has only been partially accepted by Senator Whitmire and Chairman Madden (who will likely be sponsoring SB 1489 in the House.)
In a nutshell, TMCA’s proposal:
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Maintains and enhances the bills meaningful reforms relating to the criminalization of school attendance and the imposition of fines on children;
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Preserves mu nicipal court concurrent jurisdiction of FTAS with justice and county courts; and,
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Preserves the ability for municipalities to have a juvenile case manager program and have a juvenile case manager fund.
The bottom line is that the decision as to where FTAS cases should be filed is best left to school officials at the local level and that such cases should be filed in the local trial court with the best programs (be it a municipal, justice, or county court).
TMCA believes that even greater reforms of the criminal juvenile justice system should be considered betwe en now and the next session. However, contrary to SB 1489 in its current form, municipal courts are not the problem but rather are part of the solution.
HOUSE CORRECTIONS COMMITTEE
Chairman Jerry Madden (R-Plano) 512-463-0544 (Fax) 512-
Vice Chairman Dr. Alma A. Allen (Houston) 512-463-0744
Erwin Cain (R-Como) 512-463-0650
Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) 512-463-0672
Marisa Marquez (El Paso) 512-463-0638
Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound) 512-463-0688
Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) 512-463-0542
James White (R-Woodville) 512-463-0490
Paul Workman (R-Spicewood) 512-463-0652
To obtain House Corrections Comm ittee members fax numbers and mailing addresses, click on the link below and then on the Representative's photo. http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/committee/?committee=200&session=82
