SB 498 - Current law requires that the parent or legal guardian of every child between the ages of seven and sixteen years shall ensure that the child is enrolled in full-time equivalent attendance at public, private, parochial, parish schools or a combination of such schools or home school. The bill raises the age for mandatory school attendance from sixteen to eighteen years, but any child who has graduated from high school shall be exempted from the requirement.

Current law allows the district superintendent, or the court, to excuse a child between fourteen and sixteen years of age from school attendance if the child has obtained legal employment which is found desirable. The act allows a child between fourteen and eighteen years of age to be excused if the child has joined a branch of the military service of the United States or is married and has at least one child and has obtained legal employment which is found desirable.

This act is identical to SB 20 from 1995.
OTTO FAJEN