BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 1643 (Buchanan) - School Attendance Review Boards
Amended: June 12, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 1643 requires each county to have a school
attendance review board (SARB), as specified.
Fiscal Impact (as approved on August 14, 2014):
Potentially significant local costs to counties that have
SARBs and elect to continue them, to ensure compliance with
these provisions.
Technical assistance: Likely minor additional costs to the
CDE to provide technical assistance to county offices of
education to ensure ensure a county SARB complies with the
requirements of this bill.
Background: Existing law defines a truant as a student who is
absent for 3 full days, or tardy or absent for more than a
30-minute period on 3 occasions, without a valid excuse in one
school year. Truants must be reported to the attendance
supervisor or superintendent of the school district. School
districts are required to notify the student's parent upon the
initial classification of truancy. (EC § 48260 et. seq.)
Existing law defines a habitual truant as a student who has been
reported as a truant 3 or more times per school year (absent or
tardy without an excuse for at least 5 days). It also requires
school districts to first make a conscientious effort to hold at
least one conference with a parent and the student prior to
classifying the student as a habitual truant. (EC § 48262)
Existing law authorizes, but does not require, a county and/or
local SARB to be established. If established, SARB membership
must include parents, school districts, county probation, county
welfare, county superintendent of schools, law enforcement,
community-based youth services, and personnel representing
school guidance, child welfare and attendance, school or county
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health care, and mental health. (EC § 48321)
School districts may refer the student to, and the student is
required to attend, a SARB or a truancy mediation program. The
student may be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court if
the student does not successfully complete the truancy mediation
program. (EC § 48264.5(c))
Existing law defines a chronic truant as a student who is absent
without a valid excuse for 10% or more of the schooldays in the
year, provided that the appropriate school district officer or
employee has complied with existing reporting and intervention
requirements. (EC § 48263.6)
Existing law also generally provides for the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court over a person under the age of 18 who
"persistently or habitually refuses to obey the reasonable and
proper orders or directions of his or her parents, guardian, or
custodian, or who is beyond the control of that person," or who
violates curfew offenses, as specified. These types of offenses
are known generally as "status" offenses - acts that are illegal
only if committed by juveniles. (Welfare and Institutions Code §
601)
Proposed Law: AB 1643 requires each county to establish and
maintain a county SARB. With regard to these SARBs, this bill:
1) Establishes the primary purpose of required county SARBs
as: a) to develop guidelines, policies, or programs; b) to
administer the county SARBs; c) to advise the local SARB;
and, d) to adopt plans to promote interagency, family, and
community cooperation and coordination in order to address
attendance and behavioral problems and to prevent entry
into the juvenile justice system.
2) Authorizes a county SARB to accept referrals or requests
for hearing services from school districts within its
jurisdiction, and authorizes a county SARB to be operated
through a consortium or partnership of a county with one or
more school districts or between two or more counties.
3) Deletes the authority of a county SARB to provide
consultant services to, and coordinate activities of, local
SARBs, and instead requires the county SARB to provide
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guidance to local SARBs.
4) Authorizes the chairperson of the county SARB to determine,
for purposes of conducting hearings, which SARB members are
needed at a hearing, based on needs of the student.
5) Adds as representatives that must be included on county
SARBs and may be included on local (school district) SARBs:
a) a representative of the county district attorney's
(DA's) office, and may include a representative of each
county DA if more than one county is represented in the
SARB; and, b) a representative of the county public
defender's (PD's) office, and may include a representative
of each county PD if more than one county is represented in
the SARB.
6) Changes the purpose of the county SARB meeting that is
required at the beginning of each school year, as
specified.
7) Requires county SARBs to meet three times each school year
in addition to the initial meeting, for the purpose of
assessing the effectiveness of services and supports that
its SARBs provide to youth and their families, and to
assess whether the local SARBs within the county are
improving the attendance and educational outcomes for
students.
8) Requires local SARBs to be bound by the rules and
regulations established in current law that are specific to
county SARBs.
9) States that county SARBs are to meet as needed.
Related Legislation: AB 1672 (Holden) expands the data that
local SARBs are currently required to submit to the county
superintendent of schools, to include specific data regarding
chronic absenteeism, and referrals to SARBs or other
interventions. AB 1672 will also be heard in this Committee on
August 4, 2014.
AB 1866 (Bocanegra) expands data in the California Longitudinal
Pupil Achievement Data System to include chronic absentee
numbers, and truancy numbers and rates. AB 1866 will also be
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heard in this Committee on August 4, 2014.
AB 2141 (Hall) requires a state or local authority conducting
truancy-related mediation or prosecuting a student or parent to
provide to school districts, SARBs, the county superintendent of
schools and probation department with the outcome of each
referral. AB 2141 will also be heard in this Committee on
August 4, 2014.
AB 2195 (Achadjian) allows truancy cases to be referred to the
Informal Juvenile and Traffic Court and be heard by a juvenile
hearing officer, as specified. AB 2195 will also be heard in
this Committee on August 4, 2014.
SB 1107 (Monning) 2014 would have required the California
Department of Education and Attorney General to report annually
on specific information regarding truancy and chronic
absenteeism in kindergarten through grade five. SB 1107 was
held on the Suspense File in this Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill enacts a substantial new mandate on
all counties. Currently, counties can elect to operate SARBS,
but are not required to do so. Making a currently optional
activity mandatory for all counties will be deemed by the
Commission on State Mandates to be a new reimbursable mandate.
The state will be responsible for reimbursing counties for
establishing and operating SARBS; even counties that already
have SARBs which they fund from local resources will be eligible
to receive state reimbursement for those activities. The state
will likely be responsible for personnel, meeting, and
coordination costs associated with the SARB. If every county had
just one staff person dedicated to administering the SARB, the
cost would be nearly $6 million statewide. Large counties are
likely to have more than one staff person for administration, as
well as additional staff for clerical support.
In addition to the general mandate to establish and maintain a
SARB, this bill mandates the following specific standards and
activities for each SARB which will increase the mandate costs:
Oversight : This bill requires the county SARB to provide
guidance to local SARBs. Staff time to coordinate with, and
train, local SARBs will be reimbursable. This bill also gives
the county SARB the authority to "determine" that pupil needs
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are best met by a single board and make itself that board. Any
expanded SARB workload to serve all students in the county would
be reimbursable.
Membership and Meetings : This bill specifies the required
membership of a SARB, but indicates that the SARB need not be
limited to those individuals. The SARB must meet three times
each school year in addition to an initial annual meeting, for
the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of services and
supports that its SARBs provide to youth and their families, and
to assess whether the local SARBs within the county are
improving the attendance and educational outcomes for students.
This bill further requires that county SARBs meet "as needed" to
conduct hearings. Coordinating a body of at least 13
representatives to meet at least four times per year will
require significant staff time, which will be reimbursable.
Local SARBs : This bill specifies that local SARBs are bound by
the rules and regulations of their county SARBs. School
districts are not required to have local SARBs, but many do;
this would place an existing local SARB under the authority of
an entity that may not even exist yet. This requirement will
likely create a disincentive for school districts to operate
local SARBs that could result in school district savings, at the
direct expense of the state.
Committee Amendments remove the requirement for every county to
establish and maintain a SARB. Amendments reduce the role and
authority of county SARBs, as appropriate for an optional county
program, and make other conforming changes.