BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                            



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                                    THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 1866
          Author:   Bocanegra (D), et al.
          Amended:  8/18/14 in Senate
          Vote:     21


           SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE  :  7-0, 6/18/14
          AYES:  Liu, Wyland, Block, Correa, Hancock, Huff, Monning

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE :  5-1, 8/14/14
          AYES:  De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
          NOES:  Gaines
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Walters

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR :  62-12, 5/29/14 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data  
          System:  truancy

           SOURCE  :     Attorney General Kamala D. Harris


           DIGEST  :    This bill expands the information reported through  
          the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System  
          (CalPADS) to include specific data relative to truancy.  

           ANALYSIS  :    

          Existing law:

           Absenteeism

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           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.

          2.Excused absences.
           
          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.

          2.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).

          3.Defines a chronic truant as a student who is absent without a  
            valid excuse for 10% or more of the schooldays in the year,  
            provided that the appropriate school district officer or  
            employee has complied with existing reporting and intervention  
            requirements.

           Data collection and reporting

           1.Requires the Annual Report on Dropouts in California to  
            include, when data is available, truancy rates and chronic  
            absentee rates.

          2.Requires local control accountability plans to include  
            information addressing specific state priorities, including  
            student engagement as measured by school attendance rates,  
            chronic absenteeism rates, dropout rates and graduation rates.

          3.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.

          4.Requires, contingent upon federal funding, the CalPADS to  
            support local educational agencies in their efforts to  
            identify and support students at risk of dropping out and be  
            capable of issuing to local educational agencies periodic  
            reports that include district, school, class and individual  
            student reports on rates of absence and chronic absentees.   

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            Reporting student attendance and chronic absentee data for  
            CalPADS is voluntary.

           Local Control and Accountability Plans

           1.Requires the governing board of every school district and  
            county office of education to adopt a local control and  
            accountability plan, by July 1, 2014, that must include  
            specified information, and establishes the following as state  
            priorities:

             A.   The degree to which teachers are appropriately assigned  
               and fully credentialed, every student has sufficient access  
               to standards- aligned instructional materials, and school  
               facilities are maintained in good repair.

             B.   Implementation of the academic content and performance  
               standards, including how English learners will be served,  
               as specified.

             C.   Parental involvement, as specified.

             D.   Student achievement, as specified. 

             E.   Student engagement, as measured by:

               (1)    School attendance rates.
               (2)    Chronic absenteeism rates.
               (3)    Middle school dropout rates.
               (4)    High school dropout rates.
               (5)    High school graduation rates.

             A.   School climate, as specified.

             B.   The extent to which students have access to, and are  
               enrolled in, a broad course of study, as specified.

             C.   Student outcomes, as specified.
           
           This bill expands the information reported through the CalPADS  
          to include specific data relative to truancy.  Specifically,  
          this bill:

          1.Expands information from chronic absentees and rates of  

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            absence to also include:

             A.   Rates of absence.

             B.   Rates of chronic absenteeism (also clarifies that  
               existing information on chronic absentees is the number of  
               chronic absentees).

             C.   Rates of truancy and the number of truants.

             D.   Rates of habitual truancy and the number of habitual  
               truants.

             E.   Rates of chronic truancy and the number of chronic  
               truants.

          1.Defines "rates of absence" as, to be calculated as of the date  
            that a school district or county office of education submits  
            reports, with respect to each individualized student record:

             A.   The number of schooldays enrolled.

             B.   The number of schooldays on which the student had an  
               unexcused absence of more than 30 minutes but was absent  
               for less than a full day.

             C.   The number of schooldays on which the student had a full  
               day of unexcused absence.

             D.   The number of schooldays on which the student had a full  
               day of excused absence.

             E.   The number of schooldays on which the student was absent  
               for a full day due to being suspended (excluding days the  
               student was assigned to a supervised suspension classroom).  
                This bill prohibits the number of schooldays on which a  
               student was absent due to suspension from being considered  
               an excused or unexcused absence, as specified.

             F.   Data to determine whether the student has been  
               designated a habitual truant.

          1.Expands the data to be contained in the Annual Report on  
            Dropouts in California to include all of the data described in  

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            #1 above (currently only rates of chronic absenteeism are  
            included), and into the annual report on elementary school  
            truancy and chronic absenteeism if that report has been  
            established.

          2.Authorizes school districts and California county offices of  
            education to submit the data regarding rates of absence at any  
            time throughout the year that meets its needs (rather than  
            quarterly), but requires districts and county offices to, at a  
            minimum, submit and certify rates of absence at the end of the  
            school year or on dates to be determined by the Department of  
            Education (CDE).

          3.Authorizes school districts and county offices of education to  
            receive reports that reflect the numbers and rates described  
            in this bill, and requires districts and county offices to be  
            able to view the submitted data in a format disaggregated by  
            subgroups, as specified.  This bill deletes the requirement  
            that CDE provide, upon request, an early warning report up to  
            four times each school year.

          4.Modifies the requirement that the CDE "prepare" the CalPADS to  
            instead require the CDE to "enhance" CalPADS.

          5.Deletes the requirement that CalPADS reports be capable of  
            issuing report by "class" (in addition to by school and  
            individual student reports).

          6.States legislative intent that schools fully use early warning  
            systems to improve services for students and their families  
            rather than to punish them, and that this bill not encourage  
            additional referrals to law enforcement or other serious  
            sanctions without first exhausting available resources.

          7.Deletes the federal funding requirement, as specified.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes    
          Local:  Yes

          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

           CALPADS:  Approximately $500,000 annually (General Fund).

           Mandates:  Potentially substantial one-time reimbursable  

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            mandate, likely in excess of $1 million (General Fund), on the  
            approximately 1,000 school districts to modify existing  
            student information systems to enable the extraction of the  
            data required for submission to CALPADS.

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  8/18/14)

          Attorney General Kamala D. Harris (source)
          AFSCME, AFL-CIO
          Alameda County Board of Supervisors
          Alliance of Boys and Men of Color
          Association of Black Correctional Workers
          Association of California School Administrators
          Bay Area Council
          California Federation of Teachers
          California School Boards Association
          California School-Based Health Alliance
          California State PTA
          California Teachers Association
          Children Now
          Chronic Absence and& Attendance Partnership
          City and County of San Francisco, Office of the District  
          Attorney
          City of Los Angeles
          Continuing the Dream
          County of Santa Barbara District Attorney
          Eagle Software
          Education Trust-West
          Fight Crime:  Invest in Kids California
          Fresno Unified School District
          Glendale Unified School District
          Hoover Intergenerational Care Inc.
          Lawndale Elementary School District
          League of Women Voters of California
          Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
          Los Angeles County District Attorney
          Los Angeles Unified School District
          Parent Revolution
          Partnership for Children and Youth
          Rosemead School District
          Silicon Valley Leadership Group
          Special Needs Network
          Stockton Unified School District
          Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson

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          Western Center on Law and Poverty


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  62-12, 5/29/14
          AYES:  Alejo, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta,  
            Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez,  
            Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox,  
            Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray,  
            Hall, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder,  
            Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,  
            Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, John A. P�rez, V. Manuel P�rez,  
            Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,  
            Skinner, Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams,  
            Yamada, Atkins
          NOES:  Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Conway, Dahle, Donnelly, Beth  
            Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Jones, Mansoor, Wagner
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Harkey, Logue, Melendez, Patterson, Wilk,  
            Vacancy


          PQ:e  8/18/14   Senate Floor Analyses 

                           SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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