School attendance officers; transfer responsibility of employment from MDE to local school districts.
HB 1610 reorganizes Mississippi’s school attendance enforcement system by shifting the employment and day-to-day supervision of school attendance officers from the State Department of Education to local school districts, effective July 1, 2025. The bill keeps the Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement and Dropout Prevention within MDE, but clarifies its role as a support and oversight office rather than the direct employer of attendance officers. It also provides for an executive director, preserves training and certification functions, and requires a joint report to the Legislature in 2027 on how the transition is working.
The bill also changes how attendance officers are staffed, paid, and assigned. It abolishes the three regional school attendance officer positions, transfers current state-employed officers to their local districts, preserves retirement and health insurance continuity, and moves unused leave with them. New local hiring standards and salary floors are established, including a minimum salary scale and authority for districts to supplement pay. The bill also requires state funding for one attendance officer per 3,000 compulsory-school-age children in a county, and it addresses shared officers for multiple districts, charter school coverage, background checks, and reporting timelines for unexcused absences.
HB 1610 amends Sections 37-13-81, 37-13-83, 37-13-85, 37-13-87, 37-13-89, 37-13-91, and 37-13-107 of the Mississippi Code. Its main legal effect is to transfer employment authority over school attendance officers from MDE to local school districts while preserving statewide standards, training, and oversight through the Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement and Dropout Prevention. It also revises compulsory attendance procedures by requiring schools to report unexcused absences to attendance officers within 24 hours, clarifies that attendance officers serve charter schools within their districts, and sets new rules for staffing, compensation, background checks, and inter-district sharing arrangements.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported in the House, passing 116-0 on February 6, 2025. The lack of recorded opposition and the unanimous vote suggest general agreement with the goal of decentralizing attendance officer employment while preserving attendance enforcement. The bill text and caption indicate an administrative restructuring measure rather than a major policy shift in compulsory attendance itself, which likely contributed to the favorable vote.
No committee transcript is available, so specific objections are not documented in the provided materials. The most likely points of concern are the transfer of personnel and fiscal responsibility from the state to local districts, the abolition of regional positions, and the salary increase for transferred staff and new minimum pay requirements. Another possible issue is how smaller or jointly served districts will share officers and costs, especially where charter schools are involved. The bill also tightens reporting deadlines for absences, which could raise administrative burden concerns for school districts.