Truancy prevention data reported to the Texas Education Agency is not proactively monitored, 2 Investigates discovered. State law requires school districts to engage in truancy prevention efforts and then report those efforts to the TEA.

“Truancy is like a nagging problem that stays with you year after year and we need to address it,” said State Sen. Paul Bettencourt/(R) Dist-7.

In Texas, a student is truant if they have 10 or more unexcused absences in six months. An analysis of truancy data submitted to the TEA shows approximately 1 million children were reported truant every year for the 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years.

In Feb, we also reported TEA data released under the Texas Public Information Act showed 13-14 percent of districts reported zero truan

See Full Page