BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1014 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Patrick O'Donnell, Chair AB 1014 (Thurmond) - As Amended March 26, 2015 SUBJECT: Pupils: truancy: Our Children's Success-The Early Intervention Attendance Grant Program SUMMARY: Establishes the Our Children's Success - The Early Intervention Attendance Grant Program for the purpose of helping public schools resolve the attendance problems of pupils in kindergarten through grade 3. Specifically, this bill: 1)Specifies that the grant program shall be implemented upon the appropriation of sufficient funding. 2)Provides that a public school maintaining kindergarten through grade 3 seeking to participate in the grant program may apply to the California Department of Education (CDE) for a grant. Requires an application submitted by a public school to reflect a plan that includes, but is not necessarily limited to, all of the following: a) Establishment of a training program for key school officials and attendance staff to identify pupils with chronic attendance problems upon their second occurrence of tardiness or absence in a school year, and the mailing of AB 1014 Page 2 attendance letters to the pupil's home in a timely manner. b) Establishment of a phone call outreach program, including a minimum of two calls from a school official, not limited to a recording, to follow up on those pupils whose attendance problems continue during that school year after the attendance letters are mailed. c) Establishment of a parent advocate position or positions, designated for ongoing follow-up with the pupil and the parent throughout the school year to ensure the pupil's continued consistent school attendance. The number of these parent advocate positions may vary according to the school's needs, resources, and the parent advocate's ability to manage the workload. d) Establishment of an outreach worker position or positions whose primary job is assisting families with a child or children who have ongoing chronic attendance problems. The duties of an outreach worker include sending letters, making phone calls and home visits, and helping to connect the family to the appropriate local, state, or federal programs in order to resolve issues that are creating impediments to the child's consistent attendance in school. The number of these outreach worker positions can vary according to the school's needs, resources, and the outreach worker's ability to manage the workload. e) Determining that the applicant school's plan is instituted, to the best of the school's ability, before a pupil enters the school attendance review board (SARB) process. f) Establishment of a plan for teacher follow-up with AB 1014 Page 3 pupils with chronic attendance problems to make up for lost instructional time. g) Establishment of a plan to track pupil attendance and aggregate data on tardiness and attendance throughout the school year to determine whether improvement has been made. 3)Requires the CDE to give priority to applicant schools that have prioritized pupil engagement in their local control and accountability plans (LCAP). 4)Specifies that the grant program established by this section shall not be construed as a replacement of, or a substitution for, the SARB. 5)Appropriates an unspecified amount to the CDE for purposes of implementing the Our Children's Success-The Early Intervention Attendance Grant Program. Expresses the intent of the Legislature that the funds appropriated pursuant to this bill be drawn from sources that may include, but are not necessarily limited to, the General Fund, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund established by Proposition 47 on the November 2014 statewide general election ballot, federal and local government funds, and contributions from nonprofit organizations and other private entities. EXISTING LAW: 1)Requires that each person between the ages of 6 and 18 years, AB 1014 Page 4 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 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)Defines a "chronic truant" as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education AB 1014 Page 5 who is absent from school without a valid excuse for 10 percent or more of the schooldays in one school year, from the date of enrollment to the current date. (EC Section 48263.6) 6)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) FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown COMMENTS: Truancy. 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 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 2012-13, the CDE reported a truancy rate of 29.28%, with 1.9 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. AB 1014 Page 6 In 2013, the Attorney General's (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. Purpose of the bill. According to the author, this bill attempts to improve student attendance while generating needed revenue for schools, and creating brighter, long term outcomes for California's youth. Schools receive their funding based on average daily attendance (ADA). According to the AG's report, school districts lost approximately $1.4 billion in the 2010-11 school year due to absences. The author believes that early intervention will not only improve student attendance, it will be a good investment in increasing a school's ADA. This bill appropriates an unspecified amount of funds to establish the Our Children's Success - The Early Intervention Attendance Grant Program. The grant program is intended to provide outreach to pupils from kindergarten through grade 3. A school interested in receiving a grant must submit an application to the CDE. The application must include a plan that includes, but is not limited to all of the following components: a)Establishment of a training program for key school officials and attendance staff to identify pupils with chronic attendance problems upon their second occurrence of tardiness or absence in a school year, and the mailing of attendance letters to the pupil's home in a timely manner. AB 1014 Page 7 b)Establishment of a phone call outreach program, including a minimum of two calls from a school official, not limited to a recording, to follow up on those pupils whose attendance problems continue during that school year after the attendance letters are mailed. c)Establishment of a parent advocate position or positions, designated for ongoing follow-up with the pupil and the parent throughout the school year to ensure the pupil's continued consistent school attendance. The number of these parent advocate positions may vary according to the school's needs, resources, and the parent advocate's ability to manage the workload. d)Establishment of an outreach worker position or positions whose primary job is assisting families with a child or children who have ongoing chronic attendance problems. The duties of an outreach worker include sending letters, making phone calls and home visits, and helping to connect the family to the appropriate local, state, or federal programs in order to resolve issues that are creating impediments to the child's consistent attendance in school. The number of these outreach worker positions can vary according to the school's needs, resources, and the outreach worker's ability to manage the workload. e)Determining that the applicant school's plan is instituted, to the best of the school's ability, before a pupil enters the school attendance review board process. f)Establishment of a plan for teacher follow-up with pupils with chronic attendance problems to make up for lost instructional time. AB 1014 Page 8 g)Establishment of a plan to track pupil attendance and aggregate data on tardiness and attendance throughout the school year to determine whether improvement has been made. The plan's requirements. The bill requires schools to submit a plan. However, the components of the plan are already specified by the bill. It is not clear what components schools are required to develop. Staff recommends an amendment to specify that the components may be, rather than are required, to be part of the plan. Some of the components of the plan are already required in current law, including notification to parents by mail or phone call, which takes place upon an initial classification as a truant (tardy 30 minutes or absent without a valid excuse three times). Grant funds will be used for an outreach worker, whose job isn't just to send letters or make phone calls, but also to make home visits and help connect families with social services that may be the cause(s) of attendance problems. This is similar to the role of SARBs, which are established by a county superintendent of schools or a school district comprised of representatives of school districts, social services agencies, and law enforcement agencies to evaluate and address a student's attendance problems. Students are typically referred to SARBs after the third classification as a truant (9 tardies or absences). The outreach worker established by this bill would start the intervention earlier. It is not clear what the difference is between the outreach worker and the parent advocate. It is also unclear whether the parent advocate is a parent or a paid staff position. If it is a paid staff position, the author may wish to incorporate the parent advocate duties with the outreach workers' duties. If it's a parent, the author may wish to consider confidentiality AB 1014 Page 9 issues and providing training to parents. According to the author, the intent of the bill is to outreach to kids at an early age - between kindergarten through grade 3 - to prevent long-term absentee problems. Staff recommends an amendment to clarify that the funds shall be used for early intervention for pupils in kindergarten through grade 3. Selection criteria. The criteria CDE is required to use to select grantees is unclear. The bill specifies that the CDE is to give priority to applicants that have prioritized pupil engagement in their LCAP. It is not clear how that will be determined. The local control funding formula funds can be used for any purpose in accordance with the LCAP, which is developed locally to meet the needs of each district. The LCAP is required to meet eight state priorities. One of the priorities is "pupil engagement," as measured by factors such as school attendance rate and chronic absenteeism rate. It is not clear how CDE will determine whether pupil engagement is a higher priority in one school's LCAP over another. Staff recommends eliminating this criterion. Should the grant program be a pilot? Staff recommends establishing this grant program as a pilot in order to be able to gauge the impact of the early intervention strategies, with the following components: 1) Establish a six-year pilot with a three year minimum grant. 2) Require selection of a diversity of applicant schools in urban, rural and suburban areas. AB 1014 Page 10 3) Require selection of applicant schools in each region that have the highest truancy rates. 4) Require schools to submit a report to the CDE. 5) Require CDE to submit a report to the Legislature. Arguments in support. According to the author, this bill is modeled after an attendance program established by the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD), which spent $100,000 in the first year and saw an increase of $500,000 in ADA the following year. The author states, "The school district successfully brought the students back into the classroom, while at the same time helping their families address the challenges that lead to the students' attendance problems. Attendance levels at BUSD have remained high due to the school district's focus on holistic solutions to the complex set of problems that cause children to miss school regularly. Schools and school districts across the country are demonstrating the value of addressing student attendance prior to the point of delinquency. Early intervention and a broad set of tools is the best way to get children back into the classroom consistently." REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support Children Now AB 1014 Page 11 Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by:Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087