Outline of the state of Kentucky
State
Kentucky
Encourages or requires comprehensive student supports

Category
Chronic Absenteeism Early Warning Systems

Category
Chronic Absenteeism Early Warning Systems

State law encourages or requires districts to address truancy or chronic absenteeism through the provision of comprehensive student support services.

Early Warning Best Practice Tips

A set of tools and indicators that take into account absenteesim.

Policy Type
Non-codified

Kentucky Revised Statutes 159.150 Definitions of truant and habitual truant

(1) Any student who has attained the age of six (6) years, but has not reached his or her eighteenth birthday, who has been absent from school without valid excuse for three (3) or more days, or tardy without valid excuse on three (3) or more days, is a truant.

(2) Any student enrolled in a public school who has attained the age of eighteen (18) years, but has not reached his or her twenty-first birthday, who has been absent from school without valid excuse for three (3) or more days, or tardy without valid excuse on three (3) or more days, is a truant.

(3) Any student who has been reported as a truant two (2) or more times is an habitual truant.

(4) For the purposes of establishing a student’s status as a truant, the student’s attendance record is cumulative for an entire school year. If a student transfers from one (1) Kentucky public school to another during a school year, the receiving school shall incorporate the attendance information provided under KRS 159.170 in the student’s official attendance record. (5) A local board of education may adopt reasonable policies that:

  • (a) Require students to comply with compulsory attendance laws;

  • (b) Require truants and habitual truants to make up unexcused absences;

  • (c) Impose sanctions for noncompliance; and

  • (d) Collaborate and cooperate with the Court of Justice, the Department for Community Based Services, the Department of Juvenile Justice, regional community mental health centers, and other service providers to implement and utilize early intervention and prevention programs, such as truancy diversion, truancy boards, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution to reduce referrals to a court-designated worker.

Policy Type
Statute