## Facts

- Brandi B., a 14-year-old student, missed nine school days over roughly one month.
- Six absences resulted from school-imposed suspensions for fighting.
- A county truancy officer filed a juvenile petition alleging Brandi was a “habitual truant without good cause” under West Virginia law.
- The circuit court adjudicated Brandi a juvenile “status offender” based on habitual truancy.
- At disposition, the circuit court placed Brandi on juvenile probation.
- The circuit court ordered Brandi placed in the legal custody of the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) while leaving physical custody with her mother.
- The circuit court set probation to extend beyond Brandi’s eighteenth birthday.
- Brandi appealed, challenging the truancy adjudication and parts of the disposition.

## Issues

1. Whether absences caused by school disciplinary suspensions may be counted in determining “habitual truancy without good cause.”
2. Whether statutes authorizing probation and DHHR legal custody for a status offender are constitutional and within the circuit court’s dispositional authority.
3. Whether the circuit court (a) made sufficient findings to transfer legal custody to DHHR and (b) had jurisdiction to impose probation beyond age eighteen.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the status-offense adjudication for habitual truancy without good cause.
- The court held that “habitual” and “without good cause” determinations are made case by case, committed to circuit-court discretion subject to abuse-of-discretion review.
- The court upheld the constitutionality of the statutory scheme authorizing probation and custody-related dispositions for status offenders.
- The court reversed the transfer of legal custody to DHHR and remanded because the circuit court failed to make adequate, case-specific findings supporting that transfer.
- The court reversed the portion of the order extending probation beyond Brandi’s eighteenth birthday, holding the circuit court exceeded its jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory interpretation and constitutional questions are reviewed de novo.
- Final juvenile dispositional decisions are reviewed for abuse of discretion; factual findings are reviewed for clear error; legal conclusions are reviewed de novo.
- Whether a juvenile’s absences are “habitual” and “without good cause” under the habitual-truancy definition is determined on a case-by-case basis; disciplinary absences are not categorically “good cause.”
- Legislative enactments satisfy due process if they bear a reasonable relationship to a proper legislative purpose and are not arbitrary or discriminatory; when due process applies, the required procedures depend on the governmental function and the private interests affected.
- A dispositional order transferring legal custody of a status offender to a state agency must be supported by particularized findings explaining why the transfer is necessary under the circumstances.
- Juvenile-court authority to impose probation in a status-offense matter does not extend beyond the juvenile’s eighteenth birthday.

## Conclusion

The court sustained the truancy-based status-offense adjudication and upheld the statutory authority for probation and custody-related dispositions, but required specific findings before transferring legal custody to DHHR and held that juvenile probation cannot continue past age eighteen.


In re Brandi B., 231 W. Va. 71, 743 S.E.2d 882 (W. Va. 2013)