SCH CD-TRUANT

Amends the School Code. Requires a school district to make reasonable efforts to provide ongoing professional development to teachers, administrators, school board members, school resource officers, and staff on the appropriate and available supportive services for the promotion of student attendance and engagement. In the Article governing compulsory attendance of pupils, provides that the term "valid cause" for absence includes when a person who has custody or control of a child withholds the child from school due to a bona fide dispute over special education services or placement that is being addressed through the child's individualized education program, federal Section 504 plan, mediation, or a due process hearing. Provides that a school district may not refer a truant, chronic truant, or truant minor to any other local public entity for the purpose of issuing the child a fine or fee as punishment for the child's absence from school; defines "local public entity." Allows a school district to refer any person having custody or control of a truant, chronic truant, or truant minor to a local public entity for the purpose of issuing the child a fine or fee for the child's absence from school if all appropriate and available supportive services have been exhausted and the person has knowingly and willfully permitted the child's truant behavior to continue.