BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 387
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 13, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 387 (Bonilla) - As Amended: March 25, 2011
SUBJECT : Pupils: excused absences: military deployment
activities
SUMMARY : Adds absences for the purpose of spending time with a
parent or legal guardian participating in military deployment
activities to the list of reasons for which a pupil is required
to be excused from school when absent.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires a school district to treat a student's absence as
excused when that absence is caused by any of a number of
specified reasons, including illness, medical appointments,
funeral services for an immediate family member, jury duty,
service as a member of a precinct board for an election, and
justifiable personal reasons
2)Defines justifiable personal reasons as being a situation
where the pupil's absence has been requested in writing by the
parent or guardian and approved by the principal or a
designated representative pursuant to uniform standards
established by the school district governing board.
3)Includes, but does not limit, justifiable reasons to be an
appearance in court, attendance at a funeral service,
observance of a holiday or ceremony of his or her religion,
attendance at religious retreats, attendance at an employment
conference, or attendance at an educational conference on the
legislative or judicial process offered by a nonprofit
organization.
4)Requires, under the Interstate Compact on Educational
Opportunity for Military Children, schools to grant extra
excused absences for any student whose parent has been called
to duty for, is on leave from or has immediately returned from
deployment to a combat zone or combat support posting, at the
discretion of the superintendent of the LEA.
5)Prohibits excused absences from generating average daily
AB 387
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attendance (ADA) for district funding purposes.
6)Requires schools and school districts to allow students to
make up missed examinations and coursework that result from an
excused absence, and requires that excused students, who
complete such make-up work satisfactorily and in a reasonable
time, receive full academic credit for that work.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : There are approximately 60,000 military dependents
between the ages of 5 and 18 years old in California. Military
families move between postings on a regular basis and members of
military families are deployed to combat postings, and though
these reassignments and deployments can be required and/or
advantageous for career personnel, they often have emotional and
educational impacts on the children of military families.
Military families and their dependents encounter significant
school challenges when dealing with attendance, enrollment,
eligibility, placement, and graduation. While the armed
services and various states through the Interstate Compact on
Educational Opportunity for Military Children have taken steps
to ease the transitions of personnel, their spouses and
children, the realities of frequent moves and/or the deployment
of family members subject these children to divergent policies,
rules, and procedures at both the state and local level. For
example, twenty-five percent of military dependents lose course
credits due to school transfers from out-of-state and
out-of-country DOD schools to California schools. The average
military student faces transition challenges from these
situations more than twice during high school, and most military
children will have six to nine different school systems in their
lives from kindergarten to 12th grade. With more than half of
all military personnel supporting families, the impacts of
reassignment and long deployments are a key consideration when
making life and career choices.
Under current law, the absence of a pupil, who is spending time
with a parent or guardian (or other member of the immediate
family) who is being deployed for military activities, is not
automatically classified as an excused absence. Classifying an
absence as excused or unexcused has no bearing on funding for
the pupil's school district; only pupils who attend classes for
more than the statutorily required minimum day generate
attendance credit toward average daily attendance (ADA), upon
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which much of the state's k-12 education funding is based. The
classification of an absence only has an impact in that pupils
with an excused absence have a statutory right to complete all
missed assignments and tests without prejudice. This bill
proposes to extend that right to pupils who spend time with a
parent or guardian who is participating in military deployment
activities. According to the author, "AB 387 guarantees
military students are not penalized at school for their parents'
commitment to our country. A quality education for military
children is fundamental to the success of our military
families."
Committee amendments: Committee staff recommends the following
amendments:
1)Expand this proposal to include members of the pupil's
immediate family, as defined by current law. This would be
consistent with the provision for excused absences related to
attending the funeral of a member of the pupil's immediate
family. Since military deployment may involve a pupil's
spouse, siblings, grandparents or other close relatives, as
well as parents or legal guardians, this extension would seem
warranted. Current law defines "immediate family" to include
a mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild,
spouse, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother,
sister, or any relative living in the immediate household.
2)More clearly define "participating in military deployment
activities." The Interstate Compact on Educational
Opportunity for Military Children, enacted as Section 49701 of
the Education code, provides language that can be used to
clarify this phrase to mean active duty members of the
military, as defined, who have been called to duty for, is on
leave from, or immediately returned from deployment to a
combat zone or combat support posting.
Prior legislation: AB 343 (Saldana), Chapter 237, Statutes of
2009, enacts the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity
for Military Children. AB 796 (Carter), vetoed in 2009, would
have added participating in civic engagement activities offered
by a non-profit or governmental entity to the list of
justifiable personal reasons for which a pupil is required, upon
approval of the principal or designee, to be excused from school
when absent, and limits excused absences related to a pupil's
participation in civic engagement activities to no more than 10
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days per academic year. AB 2396 (Carter), vetoed in 2008, was
substantially similar to AB 796. AB 750 (Carter), held in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee in 2007, would have added
engaging in leadership or civic engagement activities that
satisfied criteria established by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to the definition of an excused absence; the
bill was amended away from this subject prior to passage out of
this Committee. SB 278 (Lowenthal), Chapter 204, Statutes of
2007, adds to the definition of an excused absence by including
an absence for the purpose of attendance at an educational
conference on the legislative or judicial process offered by a
nonprofit organization. AB 1320 (Carter), held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee in 2007, would have deemed a pupil
serving as a member of a precinct board for an election or
engaging in other leadership or civic engagement activities to
be participating in independent studies for the purpose of
calculating a school district's ADA for funding purposes, and
added to the definition of excused absence to include an absence
for the purpose of engaging in other leadership or civic
engagement activities. AB 466 (Hancock), vetoed in 2007,
proposed expanding Independent Study and ADA provisions to
include pupils serving as members of a precinct board for an
election, this would have allowed districts to count student
time spent in these activities toward ADA for funding purposes.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087