BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1672
AUTHOR: Holden
AMENDED: April 24, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 25, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : School attendance review boards.
SUMMARY
This bill requires school districts that have established a
local school attendance review board to annually submit
specified attendance and truancy data to the county
superintendent of schools and the Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
Absenteeism
1) Defines chronic absentee as a student who is absent
on 10% or more of the schooldays in the year, whether
or not the absences were excused.
(Education Code � 60901)
2) Defines excused absences. (EC � 48205)
School attendance review boards
1) Authorizes, but does not require, a county and/or
local school attendance review board (SARB) to be
established. SARB membership must include parents,
school districts, county probation, county welfare,
county superintendent of schools, law enforcement,
community-based youth services, and personnel
representing school guidance, child welfare and
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attendance, school or county health care, and mental
health.
(EC � 48321)
2) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
to coordinate and administer a state SARB, which is to
provide recommendations annually regarding the needs
and services provided to high-risk youth.
(EC � 48325)
Truancy
1) Defines a truant as a student who is absent for
three full days, or tardy or absent for more than a
30-minute period on three occasions, without a valid
excuse in one school year. (EC � 48260)
2) Authorizes a school district in a county that does
not have a school attendance review board (SARB) to
notify the county district attorney or probation
officer, and authorizes those entities to notify the
parents of every truant that they may be subject to
prosecution for failure to compel the attendance of
the student. (EC � 48260.6)
Habitual truancy
1) Defines a habitual truant as a student who has been
reported as a truant three or more times per school
year (absent or tardy without an excuse for at least
five days). (EC � 48262)
2) Authorizes the school district to refer the student
to, and requires the student to attend, a SARB or a
truancy mediation program. The student may be within
the jurisdiction of the juvenile court if the student
does not successfully complete the truancy mediation
program. (EC � 48264.5(c))
Data collection and reporting
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1) Requires the governing board of each school district
to direct school district staff to transmit to the
county superintendent of schools the number and type
of referrals to SARBs and the requests for petitions
to juvenile courts. (EC � 48273)
2) Requires the Annual Report on Dropouts in California
to include, when data is available, truancy rates and
chronic absentee rates.
(EC � 48070.6)
3) Requires local control accountability plans (LCAPs) to
include information addressing specific state
priorities, including student engagement as measured
by school attendance rates, chronic absenteeism rates,
dropout rates and graduation rates. (EC � 52060 and �
52066)
4) Requires school districts to gather and transmit to
the county superintendent of schools the number and
types of referrals to school attendance review boards
and of requests for petitions to the juvenile court.
(EC � 48273)
5) Requires, contingent upon federal funding, the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
(CalPADS) to support local educational agencies (LEAs)
in their efforts to identify and support students at
risk of dropping out and be capable of issuing to LEAs
periodic reports that include district, school, class
and individual student reports on rates of absence and
chronic absentees. Reporting student attendance and
chronic absentee data for CalPADS is voluntary. (EC �
60901)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires school districts that have established a
local school attendance review board to annually submit
specified attendance and truancy data to the county
superintendent of schools and the Superintendent of Public
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Instruction. Specifically, this bill:
1) The governing board of each school district that has
established a local school attendance review board
(local SARB) to require employees of the district to
gather and transmit to the county superintendent and
the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) all of
the following information for the prior school year:
a) The number of students enrolled in
the school district.
b) The number and percentage of
chronic absentees in the school district.
c) The number of students in the
district who are referred to a school-level
meeting, such as a student attendance review team
or a student success team.
d) The number of students in the
district who are referred to a SARB, and the
reason for the referral.
e) The number of students referred to
a SARB who improved their attendance by at least
50% during the following semester or trimester
after attending the SARB meeting.
f) The number of students and parents
referred to the district attorney, city
prosecutor, or probation department for mediation
or prosecution following a SARB meeting.
g) The number of students and parents
who are referred to the community services
following a SARB meeting.
h) The number of students referred to
an alternative education placement following a
SARB meeting.
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i) The number of petitions to the
juvenile court.
2) Requires the information described above to be
disaggregated and submitted by the following
subgroups:
a) English learner status.
b) Foster youth status.
c) Gender.
d) Grade levels.
e) Low income status.
f) Race or ethnicity.
g) Disability status.
3) Requires the county office of education to post on its
website the contents of the SARB reports it received
from local SARBs, or that summarize the results of
those reports, or reports that the county office
creates if the county SARB accepts referrals. This
bill requires the information to be in an anonymized
format that is easy for the public to access and
understand.
4) Requires school districts to submit the information to
the county superintendent and SPI by September 15 of
each year.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Recent report on truancy . The California Attorney
General issued a report in the Fall of 2013 titled, In
School + On Track, which included several
recommendations, some of which:
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a) Require statewide reporting of student
attendance records.
b) Require more comprehensive reporting of
school attendance review board activities.
c) Include attendance rates in a school's
Academic Performance Index.
https://oag.ca.gov/truancy
2) How many school districts have or participate in a
local SARB ? The State does not collect data relative
to which counties have a SARB or which school
districts have a local SARB. The Attorney General's
2013 report
indicates that at least 43 of the 58 counties in
California have maintained a county or local SARB.
3) Data collection . Current law requires school
districts and county offices of education to submit
data specific to both truancy and chronic absenteeism
rates to the California Department of Education only
when it is available, to be included in the Annual
Report on Dropouts in California. These rates have
never been included in this report and that
information is not required to reflect data for
students in kindergarten through grade 5. School
districts and county offices of education are required
to report rates of chronic absenteeism as part of
their local control accountability plans. School
districts are required to report to the county
superintendent of schools the number and types of
referrals to SARBs and of requests for petitions to
the juvenile court; this information does not reflect
the total number of students who are truant.
The state SARB has developed reporting forms that school
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
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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.
Will school districts have all of the information required
to be provided by this bill, such as the number of
students in the district who are referred to a
school-level meeting, such as a student attendance
review team or a student success team?
4) Broader structural issues . This bill does not address
other gaps in truancy laws, some of which were
highlighted in the Attorney General's 2013 report:
a) Upon the initial truancy, school districts
are authorized but not required to request the
student and parent attend a meeting to discuss
the root causes of the attendance issue and
develop a joint plan to improve attendance.
b) Local educational agencies (LEAs) are
required to notify parents upon the first truancy
but not upon the second truancy.
c) LEAs are authorized but not required to
refer a student to a SARB or a truancy mediation
program.
5) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly
Appropriations Committee, this bill would impose:
a) Ongoing General Fund (Proposition 98) state
mandated costs to school districts in the range
of $200,000 to $1 million. This assumes 30% to
50% of school districts currently have
established SARBs. Costs associated with school
district workload will vary depending on existing
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SARB support and resources.
b) Minor costs to county offices to make
contents of SARB reports available online.
c) Ongoing administrative costs to California
Department of Education (CDE) related collection,
certification and reporting of attendance and
SARB data. CDE estimates ongoing costs of
$432,000. The bill requires various data
elements to be reported to CDE but does not
explicitly state what CDE is to do with the data.
CDE would incur costs assuming the intent is to
have the data processed at the state level.
6) Related legislation . AB 1866 (Bocanegra) expands
data in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement
Data System to include chronic absentee numbers (in
addition to existing requirement to report rates), and
truancy numbers and rates. AB 1866 is pending in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2141 (Hall) requires a state or local authority
conducting truancy-related mediation or prosecuting a
student or parent to provide to school districts,
school attendance review boards, the county
superintendent of schools and probation department
with the outcome of each referral. AB 2141 is
pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 1643 (Buchanan) requires each county to have a school
attendance review board. AB 1643 is pending in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 1107 (Monning) requires the California Department of
Education and Attorney General to report annually on
specific information regarding truancy and chronic
absenteeism in kindergarten through grade five. SB
1107 was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 1296 (Leno) prohibits a court from imprisoning, holding
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in physical confinement or placing in custody a minor
for contempt if the contempt consists of the minor's
failure to comply with a court order regarding
truancy. SB 1296 is awaiting action by the Governor.
SUPPORT
Advancement Project
California Federation of Teachers
California State PTA
Continuing the Dream
Disability Rights California
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Hillsides
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Los Angeles Unified School District
Rosemead School District
Special Needs Network
Stockton Unified School District
Superintendent of Public Instruction
OPPOSITION
None on file.