2011 Connecticut Code
Title 10 Education and Culture
Chapter 168 School Attendance and Employment of Children
Sec. 10-200. Habitual truants.

      Sec. 10-200. Habitual truants. Each city and town may adopt ordinances concerning habitual truants from school and children between the ages of five and eighteen years wandering about its streets or public places, having no lawful occupation and not attending school, and may make such ordinances respecting such children as shall conduce to their welfare and to public order, imposing penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars, for any one breach thereof. The police in any town, city or borough, bailiffs and constables in their respective precincts shall arrest all such children found anywhere beyond the proper control of their parents or guardians, during the usual school hours of the school terms, and may stop any child under eighteen years of age during such hours and ascertain whether such child is a truant from school, and, if such child is, shall send such child to school. For purposes of this section, "habitual truant" means a child age five to eighteen, inclusive, who is enrolled in a public or private school and has twenty unexcused absences within a school year.

      (1949 Rev., S. 1461; 1957, P.A. 13, S. 61; P.A. 78-218, S. 127; P.A. 95-304, S. 3, 9; P.A. 98-243, S. 18, 25; P.A. 00-99, S. 38, 154; 00-157, S. 6, 8; P.A. 01-195, S. 77, 181.)

      History: P.A. 78-218 replaced masculine personal pronouns with "such child"; P.A. 95-304 added new definition of "habitual truant", formerly defined in Sec. 10-198a, effective July 1, 1995; P.A. 98-243 lowered the age from 7 to 5, effective July 1, 1998; P.A. 00-99 deleted reference to sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, effective December 1, 2000; P.A. 00-157 changed the age from 16 to 18 in three places, effective July 1, 2001; P.A. 01-195 made technical changes, effective July 11, 2001.

      Cited. 36 CS 357.