Enforcement of Truancy Law Delayed : Schools: New L.A. city ordinance will be implemented Oct. 1. Police say the move gives them time to educate the public and work out details.

A new Los Angeles city law allowing police to cite truant students will not be enforced until Oct. 1, giving officers time to mount an education campaign and to work out details of enforcement.

Police officials told members of a City Council committee Monday that it would be better to begin enforcing the anti-truancy ordinance in the fall, when all city schools are in session, than summer, when only year-round campuses are open.

The delay, agreed to by the Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District, will permit police to inform parents and children of the new law and to adopt uniform enforcement procedures across the city.

The City Council passed the ordinance in May, aiming to curb juvenile crime by stiffening the penalties for students caught skipping class. The law authorizes police to issue citations to truant youths, who must appear with a parent or guardian before a traffic court judge. Infractions could result in fines, community service work or even revocation of driving privileges for repeat offenders.

Opponents of the toughened policy fear that minority students in poorer areas and youths with valid reasons for being out of school will be unfairly targeted by police.

To answer those concerns, city officials sought assurance Monday from police that officers would not enforce the law in a discriminatory way or employ “new techniques” for corralling youngsters that would infringe on their civil liberties, said Marvin Braude, chairman of the council’s public safety committee.

Police officials are scheduled to report back to the City Council on Friday. But by waiting until fall before enforcing the measure, the LAPD already effectively sidesteps some of the consternation over possible unequal treatment of minority youths.

Because most students on year-round campuses are minorities, starting immediately would almost automatically mean a higher-than-usual incidence of citations for minority students.

Summer was also inadvisable for enforcement because many of the year-round campuses in the school district actually lie outside city boundaries and the jurisdiction of Los Angeles police, said Capt. Stewart Maislin, who works in the department’s juvenile division.

The new law authorizes police to cite any youth under 18 found loitering between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on school days. A traffic court judge could levy a fine of up to $50 or sentence the student to community service. The penalties would be waived if the student stayed in school over the next 60 days.

In the past, students caught skipping class were simply returned to their campuses, where they faced punishments ranging from parental conferences to expulsion.

Last year, the Los Angeles school system had a 4% rate of absences not recognized as legitimate by the state. Those absences include truancies.