(a) A child engages in truant conduct if the child is required to attend school under Section 25.085, Education Code, and fails to attend school on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year.
(b) Truant conduct may be prosecuted only as a civil case in a truancy court.
(c) It is an affirmative defense to an allegation of truant conduct that one or more of the absences required to be proven:
(1) have been excused by a school official or by the court;
(2) were involuntary; or
(3) were due to the child's voluntary absence from the child's home because of abuse, as defined by Section 261.001.
(d) The affirmative defense provided by Subsection (c) is not available if, after deducting the absences described by that subsection, there remains a sufficient number of absences to constitute truant conduct.
(e) In asserting an affirmative defense described by Subsection (c), the burden is on the child to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the absence:
(1) has been or should be excused;
(2) was involuntary; or
(3) was due to the child's voluntary absence from the child's home because of abuse, as defined by Section 261.001.
(f) A decision by the court to excuse an absence for purposes of an affirmative defense under Subsection (c) does not affect the ability of the school district to determine whether to excuse the absence for another purpose.
Official text of the Texas Family Code as published by the Texas Legislative Council.