The bill amends the Education Code to include chronically absent students as a category of students at risk of dropping out of school. Specifically, it adds a new definition for "chronically absent student," which refers to any student who is absent for more than 10% of the school operation time allocated for instruction within a school year or a six-week grading period. Additionally, the bill modifies the existing definition of "student at risk of dropping out of school" to include these chronically absent students, thereby expanding the criteria used to identify at-risk students.

Furthermore, the bill mandates that school districts and open-enrollment charter schools report data on chronically absent students through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). This includes disaggregated data by race, ethnicity, and various student statuses, such as special education and emergent bilingual students. The Texas Education Agency is also required to aggregate and publicly share this data annually, ensuring transparency and accountability regarding student absenteeism. The provisions of this act are set to take effect on September 1, 2025.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: Education Code 29.081, Education Code 48.009 (Education Code 29, Education Code 48)