(a) Any child of compulsory school age, who is found anywhere other than on the school’s premises in which the child is enrolled, during school hours, without an acceptable excuse having been furnished by a parent or guardian to the appropriate school official, or who is not enrolled in a school as required by law, must be taken into custody by any teacher, principal, attendance officer, or other school official, or by any police officer, peace officer, or truant officer, and must be held until a parent or guardian is summoned or appears and secures the child’s release. The child may be released at the request of the Commissioner of Education, or placed in school as directed by the Commissioner or the Insular Superintendent.
(b) Subsection (a) is not applicable to children:
(1) who are home-schooled;
(2) who are accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other adult person authorized to have the care and custody of the child;
(3) who are on supervised school trips;
(4) who are on any school-to-work assignment; or
(5) who have graduated from high school before the age of 18.
(c) Subsection (a) is not applicable on holidays provided for in title 17 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 7, sections 62, 63, and 64 and on other holidays, vacation times, administrative leave days, teachers’ professional developmental days or any other day that schools are not in session, as may be designated by the Commissioner of Education or the head administrator at a private or parochial school.
(d) At the discretion of the Department of Education, any child demonstrating problems of truancy may be referred to the Department of Human Services for Children, Youth and Families. Pursuant to such referral the Department of Human Services shall provide the necessary social services and make such reports to the Department of Education as may be necessary or helpful to the proper educational and social development of the child. If, as a result of a joint determination by the Department of Human Services and Education, the child appears to be an incorrigible truant, the Department of Education shall file a complaint with the Family Division of the Superior Court of the jurisdiction in which the child resides. For the purposes of this section, an incorrigible truant shall mean a child of compulsory school age who wilfully, deliberately, and continuously absents himself from school and who fails to respond in a positive by the Departments of Education and Human Services.