BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1014|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1014
Author: Thurmond (D)
Amended: 9/1/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 7-1, 7/8/15
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Monning, Pan, Vidak
NOES: Runner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
NOES: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 56-24, 6/3/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Pupils: truancy: Our Childrens SuccessThe Early
Intervention Attendance Pilot Grant Program
SOURCE: Attorney General
DIGEST: This bill establishes the Our Children's Success - The
Early Intervention Attendance Pilot Grant Program for the
purpose of helping public schools resolve attendance problems of
pupils in kindergarten or grades 1 to 3.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Makes, under the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act which was
approved by voters as Proposition 47 in November 2014,
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significant changes to the state's criminal justice system.
2)Reduces the penalties for certain non-violent, non-serious
drug and property crimes, and requires that the resulting
state savings be spent on mental health and substance use
services; truancy and dropout prevention; and victim services.
3)Requires that 25 percent of the Safe Neighborhoods School Fund
be allocated to the California Department of Education (CDE)
to administer a grant program to reduce truancy, high school
dropout, and student victimization rates.
This bill:
1)Makes various findings and declarations regarding the truancy
of students and its effects.
2)Establishes Our Children's Success - The Early Intervention
Attendance Pilot Grant Program under the administration of the
CDE.
3)Provides that the program shall not be implemented unless
there is an appropriation in the annual budget act or another
statute and that funding shall not be from savings identified
pursuant to Proposition 47-the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools
Act of 2015.
4)Provides that a public school, school district or county
office of education (COE) maintaining any of grades
kindergarten through grade 3 seeking to participate in the
grant program may apply to the CDE for a grant. Requires an
application submitted by a public school, school district or
COE to reflect a plan that may include, 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
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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 applicant'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) Determination that the applicant's plan is instituted,
to the best of the applicant's ability, before a pupil
enters the school attendance review board (SARB) process.
f) Establishment of a plan for teacher follow-up with
pupils with chronic attendance problems to make up for lost
instructional time.
g) Establishment of a plan to track both longitudinal,
pupil level and pupil attendance and aggregate data on
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tardiness and attendance throughout the school year to
determine whether improvement has been made.
h) Establishment of a plan to assess trends in attendance
and chronic absence rates among pupils who are English
learners, eligible for a free or reduced-price meal, or are
foster youth, and target resources towards those groups of
pupils who are most at risk for ongoing attendance
problems.
i) Submission of deidentified, aggregate data on chronic
absence and attendance rates to the Bureau of Children's
Justice within the Department of Justice for inclusion in
the report "In School + On Track" prepared by the Office of
the Attorney General. Defines "deidentified" as
information that cannot be used to identify an individual
student.
5)Requires an applicant to include an estimate for the amount of
the grant needed in the application and provide 20 percent
matching funds for any amount requested, as specified.
6)Specifies that the program established by this section shall
not be construed as a replacement of or a substitution for the
SARB.
7)Requires the CDE to give priority for awarding grants to those
applicants who demonstrate financial need for the grant and
with the highest truancy or chronically low attendance rates
in each of the following areas:
a) Urban areas.
b) Rural areas.
c) Suburban areas.
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8)Specifies the following regarding the grants:
a) The grants shall be awarded for three years and be used
to address the attendance problems of pupils in
kindergarten and in grades 1 to 3, inclusive, pursuant to
the plans submitted by the applicant.
b) Each grant shall be for no more than $500,000.
c) Requires the CDE to provide no less than 10 grants and
award no more than $5 million in grants.
9)Requires an applicant that receives a grant to submit a report
to the CDE at the conclusion of the grant. Requires the
report to specify how the grant funds were used and the
strategies employed to address pupil attendance problems.
Requires the report to include pupil attendance data measured
both before and after the implementation of the grant.
10)Requires the CDE to, on or before January 1, 2021, submit a
report to the respective Appropriations Committees and
Education Committees of the Assembly and the Senate. Requires
the report to evaluate the strategies and the attendance data
of the applicants that received funds from the grant program
established by this bill. Requires the report to include, but
not necessarily be limited to, a recommendation on whether the
grant program should continue.
11)Sunsets and repeals on January 1, 2022, unless a later
enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2022,
deletes or extends that date.
Comments
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Need for the bill. According to the author's office, this bill
attempts to improve student attendance while generating needed
revenue for schools, and creating brighter, long term outcomes
for California's youth. 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 average daily attendance the
following year. The author indicates that "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."
Truancy in schools. 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 have 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.
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Proposition 47. The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) released
a report on the Implementation of Proposition 47 in February
2015. In the report, the LAO indicates that while the state
savings that will result from Proposition 47 is subject to
significant uncertainty, annual savings will likely range from
$100 million to $200 million beginning in 2016-17. The LAO also
notes that although Proposition 47 states that these savings
shall be deposited into a new state fund, the new Safe
Neighborhood and Schools Fund (SNSF), and be allocated for grant
programs administered by specific departments, the Legislature
has the opportunity to provide direction on how the funds are
spent. Specifically, the Legislature could weigh in on 1) how
the individual departments should distribute the funds and 2)
how much state oversight to provide to ensure that the funds are
being spent effectively.
Proposition 47 requires that 25 percent of the SNSF be allocated
to the CDE to administer a grant program to reduce truancy, high
school dropouts, and student victimization rates. The LAO
estimates that the amount available for this grant program will
likely total between $25 million and $50 million annually
beginning in 2016-17. The LAO recommended in its report that
the Legislature allocate the grants for truancy, high school
dropout prevention, and student victimization rates to school
districts that have notably high concentrations of English
learners, low-income, or foster youth, as these students are at
higher risk for these concerning outcomes.
Attorney General's office report. 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill
results in the following:
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Cost pressure of up to $5 million to provide grant awards to
schools, school districts, and county offices of education.
Potential cost pressure to provide ongoing funding to support
continuation of the grant program. (Proposition 98)
The California Department of Education indicates the need for
four positions and about $379,000 to create and staff the
application review and implementation process of this grant
program according to the specified grant award priorities.
(General Fund)
SUPPORT: (Verified8/28/15)
Attorney General (source)
Alameda County Office of Education
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies
California Dental Association
California State PTA
Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families
Children Now
Ettie Lee Youth and Family Services
Fight Crime
Junior Leagues of California
Lincoln Child Center
Los Angeles Unified School District
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
Seneca Family of Agencies
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/28/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 56-24, 6/3/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
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Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian,
O'Donnell, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NOES: Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang, Dahle, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Jones, Kim, Lackey,
Mathis, Mayes, Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson,
Steinorth, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
Prepared by:Lenin Del Castillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
9/1/15 20:25:17
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