New regs for Friday: School, finance, spearmint oil

Friday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new penalties for students who skip school, standards for spearmint oil and finance requirements.

Here’s what is happening:

School: The Department of Education is considering texting the parents of students who cut class.

The Education Department issued an information collection request Thursday as it looks to evaluate the effectiveness of “parent messaging strategies.”

“Most school districts have policies in place to systematically address student absenteeism, which remains a considerable problem across grade levels in many parts of the country. Typical attendance practices include parent notification by letters, phone calls, parent meetings, [and] home visitation,” the agency wrote in the Federal Register.

“Text messaging interventions are becoming increasingly popular — in fields such as public health,” it added. “School districts have increasing capacity to use technology to implement messaging interventions. Thus, an evaluation to determine whether a text messaging intervention can improve student attendance in a cost effective manner is warranted.”

The public has 60 days to comment.

Spearmint: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing new quality control standards for spearmint oil.

The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service said Thursday it will establish classes of spearmint oil produced out west.

The public has 30 days to comment.

Finance: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is moving forward with new electronic data gathering requirements.

This is part of the SEC’s update to the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval System (EDGAR).

The changes go into effect immediately.