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SALT LAKE CITY — A proposal to eliminate criminal penalties for parents of truant children was defeated Monday for a second time in the Senate after the bill's sponsor used a parliamentary procedure to bring it back for reconsideration.
Rep. Jake Anderegg, R-Lehi, said the bill dovetails the juvenile justice initiative legislation being carried by Rep. Lowry Snow, R-Santa Clara, which curbs use of juvenile detention.
A substituted version of SB115 was a defeated on a vote of 13-16.
Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, questioned whether there were any consequences for parents who keep a school-age child home from school to work.
Weiler said his father withdrew him and his brother from their school to work, although he enrolled him in an alternative school.
"I wanted to go to school. I was a good student. My opportunities were held back because the alternative school did not have the same opportunities as a high school," he said.
Anderegg said he understood concerns raised by Weiler and others, but Utah law has other mechanisms to address issues of neglect.
"If there were no other remedy, I would agree with them," he said.
