BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 2815


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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING


          AB  
          2815 (O'Donnell)


          As Amended  May 19, 2016


          Majority vote


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          |Committee       |Votes|Ayes                  |Noes                 |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+---------------------|
          |Education       |7-0  |O'Donnell, Olsen,     |                     |
          |                |     |Kim, McCarty,         |                     |
          |                |     |Santiago, Thurmond,   |                     |
          |                |     |Weber                 |                     |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
          |                |     |                      |                     |
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          SUMMARY:  Authorizes a supervisor of attendance to provide  
          specified support services and take specified interventions.   
          Specifically, this bill:  


          1)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that in performing his  
            or her duties, a supervisor of attendance shall promote a  
            culture of attendance and establish a system to accurately  
            track pupil attendance in order to raise awareness of chronic  
            absenteeism, identify and address factors contributing to  
            chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, and ensure that  








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            pupils with attendance problems are identified as early as  
            possible in order to provide support services and  
            interventions.


          2)Authorizes a supervisor of attendance to provide support  
            services and interventions, including, but not limited to, any  
            or all of the following:


             a)   Hold a conference between school personnel, the pupil's  
               parent or guardian, and the pupil.


             b)   Promote cocurricular and extracurricular activities that  
               increase pupil connectedness to school, such as tutoring,  
               mentoring, the arts, service learning, or athletics.


             c)   Recognize pupils who achieve excellent attendance or  
               demonstrate significant improvement in attendance.


             d)   Refer a pupil to a school nurse, school counselor,  
               school psychologist, school social worker, and other pupil  
               support personnel for case management and counseling.


             e)   Collaborate with child welfare services, law  
               enforcement, courts, public health care agencies, or  
               government agencies, or medical, mental health, and oral  
               health care providers to receive necessary services.


             f)   Collaborate with school study teams, guidance teams,  
               school attendance review teams, or other  
               intervention-related teams to assess the attendance or  
               behavior problem in partnership with the pupil and his or  
               her parents, guardians, or caregivers.








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             g)   Identify barriers to attendance that may require  
               schoolwide strategies rather than case management in  
               schools with significantly higher rates of chronic  
               absenteeism.


             h)   Refer a pupil for a comprehensive psychosocial or  
               psychoeducational assessment, including for purposes of  
               creating an individualized education program for an  
               individual with exceptional needs, or plan adopted for a  
               qualified handicapped person as that term is defined in  
               regulations promulgated by the United States Department of  
               Education pursuant to federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973  
               Section 504 (29 United States Code (U.S.C.) Section 794).


             i)   Refer a pupil to a school attendance review board (SARB)  
               established by the county or by a school district or to the  
               probation department.


             j)   Refer a pupil to a truancy mediation program operated by  
               the county's district attorney or probation officer.


          3)Clarifies that county means a county superintendent of  
            schools.


          4)Replaces a reference to "board of school trustees of any  
            district of a county" with the "governing board of a school  
            district."


          5)Strikes the reference to "receiving the approval of the county  
            board of education" in the authorization of a school district  
            to contract with the county superintendent of schools for the  








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            supervision of the attendance of pupils in the school  
            district.  


          6)Makes minor, technical changes.


          FISCAL EFFECT:  None.  This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the  
          Legislative Counsel.


          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, is tardy for  
          more than 30 minutes, or any combination thereof, 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  
          (five absences and/or tardiness for more than 30 minutes) 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 2014-15, the California Department  
          of Education (CDE) reported a truancy rate of 31.43%, with 2  
          million students out of a total enrollment of 6.2 million  
          considered truants.  


          Students who are chronically absent in lower grades are much  
          less likely to be proficient readers and have higher levels of  
          suspensions.  According to the CDE, chronic absence in the sixth  
          grade is the most predictive indicator that a student will not  
          graduate from high school.  









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          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.


          This bill expresses the intent of the Legislature for attendance  
          supervisors, in addition to establishing a system to accurately  
          track pupil attendance, to promote a culture of attendance in  
          order to raise the awareness of the effects of chronic  
          absenteeism and truancy and to identify and address factors  
          contributing to truancy and absenteeism.   


          According to the author, the purpose of this bill is to update  
          the education code on the duties of attendance supervisors,  
          which were established in 1976.  Each district or county  
          superintendent of schools is required to appoint an attendance  
          supervisor and assistant attendance supervisors as necessary.   
          Historically, attendance supervisors have had an enforcement  
          role.  Over the last several years, legislative and school-based  
          policies have shifted from tough disciplinary approaches to  
          strategies that focus on how to support students in order to  
          compel students to attend school and keep students at school.   
          Attendance supervisors play an important role in coordinating  
          and implementing these strategies, including those authorized by  
          this bill, such as making referrals to school- and  
          community-based services such as counseling, special education  
          services, SARBs, and social welfare, health, mental health, and  
          oral health services provided by local governmental agencies.   
          The strategies also include positive strategies, such as  
          recognizing students who have excellent attendance records or  
          students who significantly improve their attendance.   








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          The strategies proposed by this bill were developed by the state  
          SARB, established to encourage the cooperation, coordination and  
          development of strategies to support county SARBs in carrying  
          out their responsibilities to establish district SARBs.   
          District and county SARBs, comprised of representatives from  
          schools, local services agencies, and local law enforcement  
          agencies, 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.    


          Superintendent Tom Torlakson, writing in support of the bill,  
          states, "While current law does recognize the importance of  
          attendance supervisors, it does not include a focus on  
          preventing truancy by improving school climate and analyzing  
          chronic absence data to provide early identification of  
          high-risk students for early intervention and access to  
          appropriate school and community services.  Attendance  
          supervisors are key personnel in our efforts to reduce truancy  
          and chronic absenteeism, and establishing alternatives to  
          out-of-school suspensions."  




          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087  FN:  
          0002998














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