BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1357
AUTHOR: Steinberg
AMENDED: April 5, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 14, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Data: chronic absences.
KEY POLICY ISSUES
Should the Legislature create a new category of "chronic
absence" for pupils who are absent for 10 percent of the
school year?
Should CALPADS be expanded to include information on pupil
absence rates?
Should CALPADS also include information on chronic truants,
as defined in a separate bill?
Should absence rates differentiate between excused and
unexcused absences?
Should the Annual Report on Dropouts in California be
expanded to include chronic absence rates?
Does this bill create an unfunded mandate by indirectly
requiring schools to collect and submit pupil attendance data
to the Department of Education?
What are the chances California will receive federal funding
to expand CALPADS?
SUMMARY
This bill defines "chronic absence" when a pupil is absent
for 10 percent of the school year, requires the California
Department of Education to include pupil attendance data in
the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
(CALPADS), and expands the Annual Report on Dropouts in
California to include chronic absence rates.
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BACKGROUND
CALPADS includes data about pupils, school staff and courses.
Pupil-level data includes:
Enrollments and exits from specific schools.
Demographics (e.g. ethnicity, primary language).
Program eligibility and participation (e.g. special
education, free-reduced price lunch, Title I).
Program information and services.
Grade level.
English language acquisition status.
Course enrollment and completion.
Discipline (suspension, expulsion, truancy).
Health (immunizations).
Statewide assessment (test scores).
Current law requires, beginning August 1, 2011, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to produce the Annual
Report on Dropouts in California using CALPADS data. This
report must include specific information, such as dropout and
promotion rates, and when available, other information such
as truancy rates. (Education Code 48070.6)
Current law :
1) Defines a truant as a pupil who is absent from school
without 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 48260)
2) Requires any pupil who has once been reported as a
truant and who is again absent or tardy to again be
reported as a truant. (EC 48261)
3) Defines a habitual truant as a pupil who has been
reported as a truant three or more times per school year
(at least five days), if an appropriate district officer
or employee has made a conscientious effort to hold at
least one conference with a parent and the pupil. (EC
48262)
ANALYSIS
This bill creates a new classification of "chronic absence,"
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expands the CALPADS to include pupil attendance data, and
expands the Annual Report on Dropouts in California to
include chronic absence rates. Specifically, this bill:
1) Defines "chronic absence" as when a pupil is absent on
10 percent of the schooldays in the school year when the
total number of days a pupil is absent is divided by the
total number of days the pupil is enrolled.
2) Requires the California Department of Education (CDE),
contingent upon receipt of federal funds, to prepare
CALPADS to include data on pupil attendance.
3) Requires preparation to include all of the following:
a) The addition of fields to facilitate the
transfer of data.
b) System development activities including any
business rules and definitions that would be needed
to improve the quality and consistency of the data.
c) Processes for the transfer of data from local
educational agencies that include all of the
following:
i) District, school, class and
individual pupil reports on rates of absence.
ii) Chronic absence reports at the
district, school, class and individual pupil
level.
4) Authorizes schools to submit pupil attendance data and
other indicators as identified by the CDE once CALPADS
is prepared to accept this data.
5) Authorizes schools that submit attendance data to
CALPADS to request the early warning report up to four
times each school year, and requires CDE to provide this
report as described (see #6 below).
6) States legislative intent to support the development of
early warning systems to enable the identification and
support of pupils who are at risk of academic failure or
dropping out of school. This bill requires the early
warning systems to encompass the following
characteristics:
a) The utilization of highly predictive
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indicators, including attendance, course grades or
completion, performance on assessments, suspensions
and expulsions.
b) A thorough validation process to ensure the
predictive reliability of the systems.
c) Periodic reports that inform principals,
teachers, and parents in a manner that enables
timely identification and support of pupils who are
at risk of academic failure or dropping out.
7) Adds chronic absence rates to the Annual Report on
Dropouts in California.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill : According to the author, "chronic
absence from school, even in the primary grades, is one
of the most accurate predictors of dropping out of
school. This bill enables the collection of new data on
student absenteeism and combines that data with other
predictive indicators already collected by our education
data system. These combined indicators will become the
foundation of an early warning system so that critical
education, health and community support can be
strategically targeted before students abandon school."
2) Excused vs. unexcused absences . This bill does not
distinguish between unexcused and excused absences; it
defines "chronic absence" as when a pupil is absent for
10 percent of the school year. The author notes that
pupils are at risk when they are absent for so many
days, whether or not the absence is excused.
Conversely, SB 1148 (Alquist, 2010) defines "chronic
truant" as a pupil who has unexcused absences for at
least 10 percent of the school year (see Prior and
related legislation below). If both bills were to
become law, schools would be identifying chronically
truant and chronically absent pupils.
Should CALPADS also include data relative to chronic truants?
3) Expansion of CALPADS . CALPADS currently includes data
on pupil discipline, including suspension, expulsion and
truancy. This bill would add another data field to
CALPADS to include pupil attendance, thereby providing a
much greater level of detail about a pupil's attendance
patterns (excused and unexcused).
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Staff notes that the CDE has a contract with a vendor for the
development and maintenance of CALPADS. The CDE would
be required to include an addendum to the existing
contract in order to add another data field.
4) Status of CalPADS . A January 2010 report of an
assessment of CALPADS by an outside contractor found
"significant issues with the system and project
representing a threat to the success of CALPADS from
both an engineering and project standpoint." The vendor
is currently working to resolve these issues. The most
recent update on the status of CALPADS (March 26, 2010)
indicates that issues remain; therefore, CALPADS is not
able to generate new reports at this time.
5) Source of federal funding . The author's office has
identified the federal Statewide Longitudinal Data
Systems Grant Program as a source of funding for this
bill. California has applied for $19.9 million from
this grant program. Grant awards are expected to be
announced soon.
6) Unfunded mandate ? This bill requires the CDE to include
data in CALPADS that presumably will be collected by
schools and forwarded to the CDE. This bill authorizes
but does not require schools to submit pupil attendance
data to the CDE once the system is ready to accept this
data. Additionally, the requirement that the CDE
prepare CALPADS for pupil attendance data is contingent
on the receipt of federal funds. Legislative Counsel
did not flag this bill as imposing a mandate.
7) Prior and related legislation .
SB 1148 (Alquist, 2010) deems as a chronic
truant any pupil who is absent from school without
a valid excuse for at least 10 percent of the
school year, and requires the permanent record of a
pupil to reflect if he or she has been deemed a
chronic truant. SB 1148 is scheduled to be heard
in this Committee on April 14, 2010.
SB 1317 (Leno, 2010) creates a new
misdemeanor for parents of a pupil deemed
chronically truant, and establishes a deferred
entry of judgment program specifically designed to
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address issues of chronic truancy. SB 1317 is
scheduled to be heard in the Senate Public Safety
Committee on April 20, 2010.
SB 344 (Steinberg, 2007) would have
provided, when resources allow, for school
districts to report to CDE on the number of pupils
in grades 6 through 9 who meet certain criteria
that identify the pupils as being at risk of
dropping out of school, including being absent
without an excuse for 10 days in one semester. SB
344 was later amended to deal with a different
issue.
1) Policy arguments :
Proponents argue that dropping out of school
is the final step in a process of disengagement,
which is often reflected in poor attendance.
However, California is one of just seven states
that does not collect individualized attendance
data, making it far more difficult to identify
potential dropouts or schools that are in danger of
high dropout rates.
Opponents contend that this bill is not clear
whether schools must submit student absence data
irrespective of federal funding and to what level
of reporting will be required or how the staff will
be required to submit this volume of data will be
supported by ongoing state funds as this labor
intensive staff work will require a stable source
of funding.
SUPPORT
Bay Area Council
California Association of School Counselors, Inc.
California School Nurses Organization
California Federation of Teachers
California School Health Centers Association
Children Now
Education Trust - West
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Junior Leagues of California, State Public Affairs Committee
League of Women Voters of California
Public Advocates
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OPPOSITION
Association of California School Administrators