2006 Utah Code - 53A-11-101 — Responsibility for minor required to attend school -- Penalty for violation.

     53A-11-101.   Responsibility for minor required to attend school -- Penalty for violation.
     (1) For purposes of this part:
     (a) "Habitual truant" is a school-age minor who has received more than two truancy citations within one school year from the school in which the minor is or should be enrolled and eight absences without a legitimate or valid excuse or who, in defiance of efforts on the part of school authorities to resolve a student's attendance problem as required under Section 53A-11-103, refuses to regularly attend school or any scheduled period of the school day.
     (b) "Minor" means a person under the age of 18 years.
     (c) "Parent" includes:
     (i) a custodial parent of the minor;
     (ii) a legally appointed guardian of a minor; or
     (iii) any other person purporting to exercise any authority over the minor which could be exercised by persons listed under Subsections (1)(c)(i) and (ii) above.
     (d) "School-age minor" means a minor who has reached the age of six years but has not reached the age of eighteen years, but does not include a minor emancipated by marriage.
     (e) "Truancy citation" is an administrative notice to a truant minor requiring an appearance before the school truancy control officer or body from which the minor is truant.
     (f) "Truant minor" is any school-age minor who is subject to the state's compulsory education law and who is absent from school without a legitimate or valid excuse.
     (2) A parent shall enroll and send a school-age minor to a public or regularly established private school during the school year of the district in which the minor resides.
     (3) It is a class B misdemeanor for a parent to knowingly:
     (a) fail to enroll a school-age minor in school; or
     (b) refuse to respond to a written request which is delivered to the parent pursuant to the provisions of Subsection 53A-11-103(1)(b) by a local school board or school district.
     (4) The provisions of this section do not apply to a parent of a school-age minor who has been declared by the local school board to be exempt from school attendance in conformity with Section 53A-11-102.
     (5) A local board of education or school district shall report violations of Subsection (3) to the appropriate city, county, or district attorney.

Amended by Chapter 99, 1999 General Session