BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1672
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Date of Hearing: March 26, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1672 (Holden) - As Introduced: February 12, 2014
SUBJECT : Pupil attendance: truancy
SUMMARY : Requires the governing board of each school district
to adopt rules and regulations to require the appropriate
officers and employees of the school district to gather and
transmit specified data to the county superintendent of schools
and the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the following information to be provided:
a) The number of pupils enrolled in the school district
that the school attendance review board (SARB) represents.
b) The number of chronic absentees, as defined in the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
(CALPADS), in the school district that the SARB represents.
c) The percentage of chronic absentees in the school
district that the SARB represents.
d) The number of pupils in the school district referred to
a school-level meeting, such as a student attendance review
team or a student success team.
e) The number of pupils in the school district referred to
a SARB meeting.
f) The number of pupils referred to a SARB who improved
their attendance by at least 50 percent during the
following semester or trimester after attending the SARB
meeting.
g) The number of pupils and parents or guardians referred
to the district attorney, city prosecutor, or probation
department for mediation or prosecution following a SARB
meeting.
h) The number of pupils and parents or guardians referred
to community services following a SARB meeting.
i) The number of pupils referred to alternative education
placement following a SARB meeting.
2)Requires the information to be disaggregated and submitted by
the following subgroups:
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a) English learner status;
b) Foster youth status;
c) Gender;
d) Grade levels;
e) Low income status; and,
f) Race or ethnicity.
3)Requires the county office education (COE) to make available
on its Internet Web site, if one is available, the contents of
the SARB reports it receives from local SARBs, or that
summarize the results of those reports, or that the COE
creates, if the county SARB accepts referrals. Requires the
information to be made available in an anonymized format that
is easy for the public to access and understand.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that each person between the ages of 6 and 18 years,
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
pupils 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)Specifies that the first time a truancy report is required,
the pupil may be personally given a written warning by any
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peace officer specified in Section 830.1 of the Penal Code. A
record of the written warning may be kept at the school for a
period of not less than two years, or until the pupil
graduates, or transfers, from that school. If the pupil
transfers, the record may be forwarded to any school receiving
the pupil's school records. A record of the written warning
may be maintained by the law enforcement agency in accordance
with that law enforcement agency's policies and procedures.
(EC Section 48264.5)
5)Specifies that the second time a truancy report is required
within the same school year, the pupil may be assigned by the
school to an afterschool or weekend study program located
within the same county as the pupil's school. If the pupil
fails to successfully complete the assigned study program, the
pupil shall be subject to the provisions governing the third
time a truancy report is required. (EC Section 48264.5)
6)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)
7)Defines a "chronic truant" as any pupil subject to compulsory
education who is absent from school without a valid excuse for
10% or more of the schooldays in one school year, from the
date of enrollment to the current date. (EC Section 48263.6)
8)Authorizes a SARB to notify the district attorney or probation
officer, if it is determined that services cannot solve the
problem, or if the pupil and/or parent have failed to respond
to directives. (EC Section 48263.5)
9)Establishes a truancy mediation program, and authorizes the
district attorney or probation officer to request that the
parents and truant pupil attend a meeting to discuss the
possible legal consequences of the child's truancy. (EC
Sections 48260 and 48263.5)
10)Requires the governing board of each school district to adopt
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rules and regulations to require the appropriate officers and
employees of district to gather and transmit to the county
superintendent of schools the number and types of referrals to
SARBs and petitions to the juvenile court. (EC Section 48273)
11)Defines "chronic absentee" as a pupil who is absent on 10% or
more 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 during regular school
days. (EC Section 60901)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : California's compulsory education law requires all
students between the ages of six and 18 to attend school
full-time and requires their parents and legal guardians to be
responsible for ensuring that children attend school. In
2011-12, the California Department of Education (CDE) reported a
truancy rate of 28.5%, down from 29.76% in 2010-11; with 1.829
million students out of a total enrollment of 6.2 million
considered truants.
A student 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, is considered a truant. Parents or legal guardians are
notified when their children has been classified as a truant and
are provided specified information, including a reminder of
their obligation to compel the attendance of pupils at school,
that parents or legal guardians who fail to meet this obligation
may be guilty of an infraction and subject to prosecution, that
alternative educational programs are available, and that the
parents or the legal guardians have the right to meet with
appropriate school personnel to discuss solutions to the pupil's
truancy.
Existing law specifies actions that may or shall be undertaken
each time a truancy report is required. Existing law authorizes
a peace officer to give a written warning upon a first truancy
report. The record of the warning is kept for two years and may
be transferred to a new school if the pupil changes school.
Upon a pupil's third truancy in a school year and after a school
or district personnel has made a conscientious effort to meet
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with the parent and pupil, a pupil is classified as a habitual
truant and may be referred to a SARB or to the local probation
officer. A SARB can be formed by a county office of education,
a school district, or by two or more school districts, and can
be comprised of representatives of school districts, county
social services agencies, and law enforcement agencies. SARBs
were devised to address pupil attendance and behavioral problems
by investigating the reasons for the problems and referring
students and/or parents or guardians to community or social
services or to law enforcement, if necessary. SARBs may also
refer a pupil to a truancy mediation program, whereby the
district attorney or the probation officer may notify the
parents or guardians that they may be subject to prosecution for
failure to compel the pupil to attend school, or request the
pupil and his/her parents or guardians to attend a meeting at
the district attorney's office or at the probation department.
A fourth truancy puts the pupil within the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court and may deem the pupil a ward of the court. If
the pupil is adjudged a ward of the court, the pupil may be
required to do court-approved community service, attend a
court-approved truancy prevention program, have his or her
driving privileges suspended or revoked, and/or pay a fine of
$100. Parents or legal guardians in charge of any pupil who
fails to compel a pupil to attend school is guilty of an
infraction and may be fined between $100 and $500 based upon the
number of convictions.
This bill is part of a package of truancy-related bills
sponsored by Attorney General (AG) Kamala Harris. Last fall,
the 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. In the course of conducting the report, the AG found
that attendance, truancy, and SARB data were not readily
available. Consequently, several of the bills sponsored by the
AG, including this bill, focus on data collection.
AB 1672 is intended to focus on collection of information from
SARBs. Under current law, the governing board of each school
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district is required to direct school district staff to transmit
the number and type of referrals to SARBs and the requests for
petitions to juvenile courts to the county superintendent of
schools. The state SARB has developed a couple of reporting
forms that districts may use to submit reports to county
superintendents. One is a simple form that captures the number
of referrals by grade, gender, reason for the referral
(behavior, attendance/truancy) and court referrals. The other
form additionally captures the impact of SARBs (e.g., number of
students who improve attendance, number of students who improve
behavior, number of court referrals, number of agency referrals
and number of transfers to alternative schools). This bill
incorporates almost all of the information found on the expanded
form, and requires the information to be sent to the SPI in
addition to the county superintendent of schools. The COE is
required to post, in an anonymized format, the content of the
reports or a summary of the reports on its Internet Web site.
If the county SARB accepts referrals, that information must also
be posted on the Web site. The information required includes
the following:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Required under current | AB 1672 |
| law | |
|-------------------------+---------------------------------------|
| Number and types of | The number of pupils enrolled in the |
| referrals to SARBs. | school district. |
| | The number of chronic absentees, as |
| Requests for petitions | defined in CALPADS. |
| to the juvenile court. | The percentage of chronic absentees |
| | in the school district. |
| | The number of pupils in the school |
| | district referred to a school-level |
| | meeting, such as a student |
| | attendance review team or a student |
| | success team. |
| | The number of pupils in the school |
| | district referred to a SARB meeting. |
| | |
| | The number of pupils referred to a |
| | SARB who improved their attendance |
| | by at least 50 percent during the |
| | following semester or trimester |
| | after attending the SARB meeting. |
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| | The number of pupils and parents or |
| | guardians referred to the district |
| | attorney, city prosecutor, or |
| | probation department for mediation |
| | or prosecution following a SARB |
| | meeting. |
| | The number of pupils and parents or |
| | guardians referred to community |
| | services following a SARB meeting. |
| | The number of pupils referred to |
| | alternative education placement |
| |following a SARB meeting. |
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Juvenile court petitions . Current law requires school districts
to report the number of requests for petitions to the juvenile
court. The bill deletes this requirement. Staff recommends
reinstating this element.
Referrals to community services . One of the information
required to be reported is the number of pupils and parents or
guardians referred to community services following a SARB
meeting. If one of the goals of the bill is to determine the
causes for which pupils have attendance problems, it would be
helpful to know the types of services for which pupils were
referred. The categories can be broad, such as "housing,
transportation, mental health, counseling, public social
services, etc.," rather than specifying specific agencies. The
author may wish to consider requiring more detailed information
for this reporting element.
Disaggregation of data. The bill requires each piece of
information reported to be disaggregated and submitted by
subgroups, including English learner status, foster youth
status, gender, grade level, low income status, and race or
ethnicity. Student advocates state that students with
disabilities are frequently referred to SARBs. Staff recommends
adding "disability status."
Reporting timeframe . The bill is currently silent on when and
how often school districts are required to submit the
information to the county superintendent of schools and the SPI.
Staff recommends an amendment to require reporting by a
specified time every year. This will provide consistency in
reporting from year to year and from district to district.
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This bill expands data collection of an existing provision that
requires a governing board to report to county superintendent of
schools the number and types of referrals to SARBs and requests
for petitions to the juvenile court. SARBs are optional. Staff
recommends clarifying that the provisions of this bill apply
only to those districts that have local SARBs.
The author states that some SARBs "have been effective in
reducing truancy and helping students. But in some districts
students' specific needs have not been addressed and students
are falling through the cracks - referred to the court system or
alternative schools and forgotten. Currently there is not
substantive information on how to make a SARB effective.
Current law requires SARBS to report the number and types of
referrals they receive and the number of requests for petitions
to juvenile court. Those that are effective have no way of
sharing their methods and those that are not effective have no
accountability and no incentive to fix their program. In
addition, there is not adequate information on the number of
truancies in the state."
Related legislation . AB 1643 (Buchanan), pending in this
Committee, requires the establishment of county SARBs, requires
county SARBs to meet at least four times each year, adds the
county district attorney as a member of county and local SARBs,
and specifies that county and local SARBs shall not convene
without the presence of two-thirds of its members.
AB 1866 (Bocanegra), scheduled for the March 26th hearing, adds
truancy-related elements to the pupil attendance data that the
CDE is required to collect and report through the CALPADS.
AB 2141 (Hall and Bonta), scheduled for the March 26th hearing,
requires state and local authorities conducting truancy-related
mediations or prosecuting a pupil or a pupil's parent or legal
guardian to provide the outcome of each referral to the agency
that made a referral.
SB 1107 (Monning), pending in the Senate, requires the AG to
issue an annual report on elementary school truancy and chronic
absenteeism.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris (sponsor)
AB 1672
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American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Association of Black Correctional Workers
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
Continuing the Dream, California Department of Corrections &
Rehabilitation
District Attorney of San Francisco George Cascon
District Attorney of Santa Barbara County Joyce E. Dudley
Kings County Office of Education
Kings County Superintendent of Schools Tim Bowers
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer
Los Angeles District Attorney's Office
Los Angeles Unified School District
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California
Public Counsel
Service Employees International Union
Special Needs Network
Youth Law Center
Two individuals
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087