BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1643
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Date of Hearing: April 9, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1643 (Buchanan) - As Amended: April 2, 2014
SUBJECT : Pupil attendance: school attendance review boards
SUMMARY : Requires the establishment of county school
attendance review boards (SARBs); specifies that the primary
purpose of county SARBs shall be to develop guidelines, polices,
or programs and adopt plans; and adds a representative of the
county district attorney's office to county and local SARBs.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires, rather than allows, the establishment of county
SARBs and specifies that the primary purpose of county SARBs
shall be to develop guidelines, policies, or programs to
administer the county and local SARBs and adopt plans to
promote interagency and community cooperation and to reduce
the duplication of services provided to youth in order to
address pupil attendance and behavioral problems.
2)Specifies that a county SARB may accept referrals or requests
for hearing services from one or more school districts within
its jurisdiction and that nothing in the bill prohibits any
two or more counties from forming a SARB consortium or
partnership.
3)Adds a representative of the county district attorney's office
to the county SARBs, or, if more than one county is
represented, a representative from each county's district
attorney's office may be included. Specifies that the
required composition of the county SARBs shall be for the
purpose of developing guidelines and policies.
4)Specifies that for the purposes of conducting hearings, the
chairperson of the county SARB is authorized to determine the
members needed at a hearing, based on the needs of the pupil,
in order to address attendance or behavioral problems.
5)Specifies that the requirement for a county superintendent of
schools to convene a meeting of the county SARB at the
beginning of each school year is for the purpose of developing
guidelines and policies and adopting plans.
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6)Requires the county SARB to meet at least three additional
times each school year to assess the effectiveness of services
and supports that its SARBs provide to youth and their
families.
7)Specifies that for the purposes of conducting hearings, a
county SARB shall meet as needed.
8)Adds a representative of the county district attorney's office
to the local SARBs, or if more than one county is represented,
a representative from each county's district attorney's office
may be included.
9)Strikes the provision specifying that in any county in which
there is no county SARB, a school district governing board may
elect to establish a local SARB, which shall operate in the
same manner and have the same authority as a county SARB.
10)Specifies that local SARBs shall be bound by the rules and
regulations established by county SARBs.
11)Requires county SARBs to provide oversight and ensure that
local SARBs comply with the policies and procedures
established by county SARBs.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that each person between the ages of 6 and 18 years,
not otherwise exempted, be subject to compulsory full-time
education and attend the public full-time day school or
continuation school or classes in which their parent or
guardian resides, and that each parent, guardian or other
person having control or charge of the pupil ensure that
pupil's enrollment and attendance. (Education Code (EC)
Section 48200)
2)Defines a "truant" as any pupil subject to compulsory
full-time education or to compulsory continuation education
who is absent from school without a valid excuse three full
days in one school year or tardy or absent for more than any
30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse
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on three occasions in one school year, or any combination
thereof. (EC Section 48260)
3)Requires a school district, upon a pupil's initial
classification as a truant, to notify the pupil's parent or
guardian and provide them with specified information. (EC
Section 48260.5)
4)Defines a "habitual truant" as any pupil who has been reported
as a truant three or more times per school year, where an
appropriate district officer or employee had made a
conscientious effort to hold at least one conference with a
parent and the pupil, after the filing of either a truancy
report to the attendance supervisor or district
superintendent. Specifies that a habitual truant may be
referred to a SARB or a truancy mediation program. (EC
Section 48262)
5)Authorizes a SARB to be established at the local and county
level to provide intensive guidance and coordinated community
services to meet the needs of pupils with school attendance or
school behavior problems. (EC Section 48320)
6)Requires the county SARB and authorizes the local SARB to
include, but need not be limited to, specified members
representing parents, local educational agencies, law
enforcement officials and county and community service
providers. (EC Sections 48321)
7)Authorizes a SARB to notify the district attorney or probation
officer, if it is determined that services cannot solve the
problem, or if the pupil and/or parent have failed to respond
to directives. (EC Section 48263.5)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : California's compulsory education law requires all
students between the ages of six and 18 to attend school
full-time and their parents and legal guardians to be
responsible for ensuring that children attend school. A student
who is absent from school without a valid excuse for more than
30 minutes on three days in a school year is considered a
truant. Parents or legal guardians are notified when their
children has been classified as a truant and are reminded of
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their obligation to compel the attendance of pupils at school.
Upon a pupil's third truancy in a school year and following a
district's conscientious effort to hold a conference with the
parent or legal guardian of the pupil and the pupil, a pupil is
classified as a habitual truant and may be referred to a SARB or
to the local probation officer. Upon a fourth truancy, students
and/or their parents or legal guardians may be fined. In
2011-12, the California Department of Education (CDE) reported a
truancy rate of 28.5%, with 1.829 million students out of a
total enrollment of 6.2 million considered truants.
According to the CDE, students who are chronically absent in
lower grades are much less likely to be proficient readers and
have higher levels of suspensions. Chronic absence in the sixth
grade is the most predictive indicator that a student will not
graduate from high school.
SARBs . California established a SARB process over 30 years ago
to provide intensive guidance and coordinated community services
to meet the needs of students with school attendance or school
behavior problems in an effort to prevent a student from
dropping out of school. A county superintendent of schools may
convene a county SARB. A county SARB or a local school district
governing board located in areas where there is not a county
SARB may authorize the establishment of one or more local SARBs.
Some areas of the state have both county and local SARBs while,
in other areas, a county or regional local SARB provides
services to multiple school districts. The Superintendent of
Public Instruction is required to coordinate and administer a
state SARB to encourage the cooperation, coordination and
development of strategies to support county SARBs in carrying
out their responsibilities to establish local SARBs, which may
include training of SARB personnel.
SARBs meet with referred pupils and their parents/legal
guardians to assess their personal and family situations that
may cause pupils to be tardy or absent from school on a regular
basis and identify community/public resources that may help
pupils improve their attendance in school, or refer pupils to
law enforcement agencies, if necessary. Successful SARBs are
those that have a prevention and intervention focus with the
goal of getting students back in school.
Existing law requires county SARBs and authorizes local SARBs to
include, but need not be limited to, specified members from
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school, local law enforcement, and community and county service
agencies, as follows:
1. A parent
2. A representative of school districts
3. A representative of county probation department
4. A representative of county welfare department
5. A representative of county superintendent of schools
6. A representative of law enforcement agencies
7. A representative of community-based youth service
centers
8. A representative of school guidance personnel
9. A representative of child welfare and attendance
personnel
10. A representative of school or county health care
personnel
11. A representative of school, county, or community
mental health personnel
When SARBs were initially established, county SARBs received
funding from the state. Due to budget constraints, funding was
eliminated over 20 years ago. Some county SARBs have been
eliminated as a result of the loss of funding. There is no
statewide data available, but it is estimated that between 30% -
50% of the 58 counties do not have SARBs. It is unclear how
many local SARBs are established in counties where there are no
county SARBs.
This bill requires, rather than allows, the establishment of
county SARBs. The bill also adds a representative from the
county district attorney's office to the composition of county
and local SARBs. One of the important aspects of this bill is
that it puts an emphasis on the role of county SARBs as the body
that establishes guidelines, policies or programs to administer
the county and local SARBs and adopt plans to promote
interagency and community cooperation, in order to reduce the
duplication of services provided to youth in order to address
student attendance and behavior problems. The bill gives county
SARBs oversight responsibility to ensure that local SARBs are
effective and operating in accordance with the guidelines and
policies they established.
A county SARB may continue to accept referrals or requests for
hearing services from one or more school districts within its
jurisdiction if the county SARB determines that it is best to
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serve the pupils in that county through a single board.
However, according to the author, local SARBs are more familiar
with the school community and are the best body to conduct
hearings. The composition of county SARBs is mandatory, to
ensure that agencies providing a wide range of services are
involved, and processes are established with their input. The
composition of local SARBs remains permissive to give local
SARBs the flexibility to determine the type of services that are
needed to address a pupil's specific needs. This bill also gives
the chairperson of a county SARB the flexibility to determine
who is needed at a specific hearing. The bill maps out the
following for the two roles of county SARBs:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| County SARBs |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Developing Guidelines, Policies | Conducting Hearings |
| and Plans | |
| (primary purpose) | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Required composition as | Composition determined |
| specified in law with the | by the chairperson based |
| addition of a | on needs of pupils to |
| representative from the | address attendance and |
| county district attorney's | behavioral problems. |
| office. | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Meet four times a year | Meet as |
| to develop guidelines and |needed. |
| policies and adopt a plan | |
| to coordinate county and | |
| local SARB processes, and | |
| to assess the | |
| effectiveness of services | |
| and supports provided by | |
| local SARBs. | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The author states, "By requiring every county to establish a
SARB, this bill will ensure that a plan is adopted in every
county to keep students in school. Research shows that a focus
on the underlying causes of truancy is crucial to eliminating
barriers that prevent a child from attending school on a regular
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basis. Early intervention - addressing the problem in
elementary school, and before it becomes chronic - will help
correct attendance issues and ensure students graduate from high
school. SARBs can help connect students and their families with
important community resources to help address challenges they
face."
This bill is part of a package of truancy-related bills
sponsored by Attorney General Kamala Harris. Last fall, the
AG's office released a report titled "In School and On Track" on
truancy of elementary school kids. Calling it a crisis, the AG
argues that truancy at the elementary level has negative impacts
on the students, who are more likely to drop out of high school;
on public safety, when students become more likely to become
involved with gangs, substance abuse, and incarceration; on
school districts, who lose attendance dollars; and on the
economy, due to lost economic productivity and revenues.
Arguments in support . Kings County Superintendent of Schools
Tim Bowers supports the bill and states, "The Kings County
Office of Education has a well-functioning County SARB. School
districts in California would only benefit with the
establishment of a County SARB by their County Offices of
Education. A County SARB exists to create procedural and
operational uniformity in all aspects of each Local SARB."
The California School Boards Association (CSBA) has a support if
amended position. CSBA states that a large majority of counties
have SARBs and that in some counties, it may make more senses
and be more effective to have local district or regional
consortia establish SARBs. CSBA seeks amendments that focus on
ensuring that SARB services are available to serve students as
needed instead of requiring every county to have a SARB and
encourage SARBs to meet as often as necessary rather than a
blanket requirement to meet four times a year.
Committee amendments :
1)To better express the intent of the purposes of county SARBs,
staff recommends adding cross references to the intent
provisions in EC Sections 48320 and 48325 and language to
clarify that the goal of the policies and plans adopted by
county SARBs is to improve the coordination and level of
community and school-based programs provided to youth and
their families and prevent entry into the juvenile justice
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system.
2)Concerns have been raised about adding a representative of the
county district attorney's office without also adding a
representative of the public defender's office to the county
and local SARBs. Staff recommends adding a representative of
the public defender's office.
3)In addition to assessing the effectiveness of the services and
supports provided by local SARBs, staff recommends requiring a
county SARB to evaluate whether local SARBs are improving
pupil attendance and educational outcomes.
Related legislation . AB 1672 (Holden), pending in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee, requires the governing board of each
school district to adopt rules and regulations to require the
appropriate officers and employees of the school district to
gather and transmit specified data to the county superintendent
of schools and the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
AB 1866 (Bocanegra), pending in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, adds truancy-related elements to the pupil attendance
data that the CDE is required to collect and report through the
CALPADS.
AB 2141 (Hall and Bonta), pending in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, requires state and local authorities conducting
truancy-related mediations or prosecuting a pupil or a pupil's
parent or legal guardian to provide the outcome of each referral
to the agency that made a referral.
SB 1107 (Monning), pending in the Senate, requires the AG and
the CDE to jointly issue an annual report on elementary school
truancy and chronic absenteeism.
Previous related legislation . AB 2616 (Carter), Chapter 432,
Statutes of 2012, made several changes to the truancy
provisions, including clarifying what constitutes a valid
excuse; authorizes, rather than requires, a pupil to be referred
to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court upon a fourth truancy;
and lowers the fine associated with a fourth truancy from $100
to $50.
AB 614 (Bonilla), Chapter 71, Statutes of 2011, requires county
SARBs, and authorizes local SARBs, to include a representative
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of school, county or community mental health.
AB 980 (Bonilla), held by the author in the Assembly Education
Committee in 2011, authorizes members of a SARB to disclose and
exchange information or writing to other members of the SARB the
member believes is relevant in the prevention, identification or
treatment of a pupil's truancy.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris (sponsor)
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. O'Malley
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Association of Black Correctional Workers
California Federation of Teachers
California School Boards Association (if amended)
Continuing the Dream, California Department of Corrections &
Rehabilitation
District Attorney of Santa Barbara County Joyce E. Dudley
Kings County Office of Education
Kings County Superintendent of Schools Tim Bowers
Lincoln Child Center
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer
Los Angeles District Attorney's Office
Los Angeles Unified School District
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon
Service Employees International Union
SIATech
Special Needs Network
Stockton Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Steven
Lowder
Several individuals
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087
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