BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  ACR 149
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          Date of Hearing:   July 3, 2014

                             ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES
                              Richard S. Gordon, Chair
                     ACR 149 (Weber) - As Amended:  June 19, 2014
           
          SUBJECT  :   School Attendance Awareness Month.

           SUMMARY  :   Designates the month of September 2014 as School  
          Attendance Awareness Month, and encourage public officials,  
          educators, and communities in California to observe the month  
          with appropriate activities and programs.  Specifically,  this  
          resolution  makes the following legislative findings:

          1)The Legislature and the Governor enacted a local control  
            funding formula and clearly established school attendance as a  
            matter of great state interest by explicitly identifying pupil  
            engagement, as measured by school attendance and chronic  
            absenteeism rates, as a state priority.

          2)Senate Bill 1357 of the 2009-10 Regular Session was enacted to  
            establish the definition of a "chronic absentee" as a pupil  
            who misses 10 percent or more of school for any reason, making  
            no distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

          3)The impact of chronic absenteeism hits low-income pupils and  
            children of color particularly hard if they do not have the  
            resources to make up for lost time in the classroom; and,  
            these pupils are likely to face systemic barriers in getting  
            to school, including unreliable transportation, lack of access  
            to health care, unstable or unaffordable housing, and even  
            unfair discipline policies.

          4)When schools, parents, and communities work together to  
            monitor and promote good attendance and address those hurdles  
            that keep children from getting to school, pupil attendance  
            improves, and chronic absenteeism is significantly reduced.

          5)Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Attorney  
            General Kamala D. Harris, Secretary of California Health and  
            Human Services Diane Dooley, Chief Justice Tani G.  
            Cantil-Sakauye, and others have joined efforts to combat  
            chronic absenteeism to encourage state and local action to  
            improve the overall health, safety, and well-being of our  
            children by promoting public awareness and reforms that  








                                                                  ACR 149
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            improve school attendance.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   None

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          None on file

           Opposition 
           
          None on file
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800