In re V.Z. CA2/8

FACTS

Welfare and Institutions Code section 601, subdivision (b) (section 601) provides that if a minor has four or more truancies within one school year, as defined in Education Code section 48260, or if “a school attendance review board . . . determines that the available public and private services are insufficient or inappropriate to correct the habitual truancy of the minor, . . . or if the minor fails to respond to directives of a school attendance review board . . . , the minor is then within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court which may adjudge the minor to be a ward of the court.” In February 2012, the Los Angeles County District Attorney filed a petition alleging the minor came within the provisions of section 601 as a habitual truant. The petition identified 20 days in the late summer and fall of 2011 during which the minor was absent or tardy without valid excuse, and also alleged the minor and her parents had been referred to the school attendance review board in December 2010 and to the district attorney’s mediation program in September 2011, all to no effect. The minor declined to admit she was truant from school and a hearing ensued. Scott Anderle, the…