BILL ANALYSIS SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Gloria Romero, Chair 2009-2010 Regular Session BILL NO: AB 796 AUTHOR: Carter INTRODUCED: February 26, 2009 FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: June 17, 2009 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Lynn Lorber SUBJECT : Excused absences: Participation in civic engagement activities. SUMMARY This bill adds participation in civic engagement activities offered by a non-profit organization or governmental entity to the list of reasons that justify a pupil's excused absence from school. BACKGROUND Current law specifies a number of reasons, such as illness or attendance at a funeral of a family member, which are to be considered "excused absences" and thereby exempt the pupil from being considered absent without excuse and subject to possible truancy sanction. When a pupil's absence is for a "justifiable personal reason" as specified in law, then the absence may be excused, but only if it is requested in writing by the pupil's parent or guardian and approved by the school principal acting under policies established by the school district governing board. Prior to 1997, the excused absence of a pupil would be included along with regular pupil attendance in the computation of average daily attendance (ADA) which is used to generate school revenue limit funding. SB 727 (Rosenthal, Chapter 855, 1997) eliminated excused absences from the ADA calculation and adjusted school district revenue limits to hold districts fiscally harmless from the resultant reduction in ADA counts. Therefore, the designation of an absence as "excused" no longer makes a difference with regard to "per pupil" school funding. Current law requires schools to allow pupils to complete AB 796 Page 2 all assignments and exams missed during an excused absence that can be reasonably provided, and requires that excused pupils, who complete such make-up work satisfactorily and in a reasonable time, receive full academic credit for that work. ANALYSIS This bill expands the list of reasons that justify an excused absence from school. Specifically, this bill: 1) Adds participation in civic engagement activities offered by a non-profit organization or governmental entity to the list of reasons that justify a pupil's excused absence from school. 2) Limits participation in civic engagement activities that count as an excused absence to no more than 10 days per academic year. STAFF COMMENTS 1) What are "civic engagement activities? " This bill does not define "civic engagement activities," nor does it provide any parameters for such activities. Should this bill be amended to include a definition of what are, or are not, considered civic engagement activities? Should individual schools or school districts develop a list of authorized civic engagement activities? 2) Related legislation . SB 520 (Pavley) authorizes a school district to offer one credit for each 12 hours of community service outside of regular school hours provided by a high school pupil, up to a maximum of 5 credits per pupil per semester, and for a maximum of 2 semesters. SB 520 requires a school district that elects to offer credit for community service to keep a list of suitable community service organizations from which a pupil may choose an organization whereto complete the volunteer hours. SB 520 is pending in the Assembly Education Committee. 3) Prior legislation . AB 2396 (Carter, 2008) was identical to this bill. AB 2396 was vetoed by the Governor, whose veto message read: AB 796 Page 3 While I recognize that there are many civic and other educational opportunities outside of the classroom, nothing under current law prohibits parents from working with a school to allow their child to participate in civic opportunities if they choose to do so, even without this measure. AB 750 (Carter, 2008) would have excused the absence of a pupil who has engaged in leadership or civic engagement activities an excused absence for the purpose of a school district calculating average daily attendance (ADA). The bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee's suspense file. AB 1320 (Carter, 2007) would have deemed a pupil who serves as a member of a precinct board (i.e., a high school pupil at least 16-years-old) or engaging in other leadership or civic engagement activities as participating in an independent study for the purpose of calculating ADA for a school district. AB 1320 was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee's suspense file. SB 278 (Lowenthal, Chapter 204, 2007) added "attendance at an educational conference on the legislative or judicial process offered by a nonprofit organization" to the list of reasons that justify a pupil's absence from school. SUPPORT Alliance for Education Solutions American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees California Association of Nonprofits Policy Council California Association of Student Council California Coalition for Youth California Teachers Association Youth Leadership Institute OPPOSITION None received.