NUECES COUNTY, Texas — If you have a student who is facing truancy charges in the Corpus Christi Independent School District, there's a bit of reprieve headed their way.
The CCISD filed a formal letter with the Justice of the Peace that handles the majority of truancy cases. The district asked that the court dismiss all 2019-2020 cases.
In a letter mailed to JP Judge Joe Benavides on June 1, the Director of Student Support Services with CCISD said "safety and the continuation of students education remain priorities. Therefore, the district is requesting that the courts dismiss all 2019-2020 truancy cases."
The request specifies all cases that have been filed, but not processed or assigned a court docket. The list of cases is long and numbers in the hundreds.
On June 12, Judge Benavides forwarded that request to District Attorney Mark Gonzalez asking that the dismissal be granted.
"When something like that comes to us, obviously we take it into consideration," D.A. Mark Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the request to dismiss during the time of the coronavirus pandemic just makes sense.
"We're doing it for many reasons, for one at the request of CCISD, in agreement with some of the JP judges, and then we wanted to keep the children safe," Gonzalez said. "Keep the community safe and dismissing those cases would further that."
Dismissed cases are just one side of the issue. CCISD is making it very clear that it's not a "get out of jail free" card.
"We will put those same students on notice this year," CCISD spokesperson Lyndall Gathright said. "They're gonna sign a contract with the understanding that they've had a problem in the past and that we're gonna keep an eye on them and try to keep them in school."
We checked with other Nueces County based school districts, including Calallen. That district there has more than 100 cases. Only some -- such as middle school and those graduating will be dismissed -- not all.
"We just feel that if we drop all these cases that word is gonna get out that 'hey it's no big deal,' so no, we're not gonna drop our cases." Dr. Arturo Almendarez Superintendent of Calallen ISD said.
Dr. Almendarez said the law makes districts accountable to conduct multiple intervention strategies with truant students. He said not dropping their cases just holds them accountable.
A quick clarification for parents who live in the CCISD school district, but participate in online schooling, this move does not apply to your student. For K-12, the online home school program is ran by the state, not the district.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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