BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2141
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 2141 (Hall) - As Amended: April 7, 2014
Policy Committee: EducationVote:4-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires a state or local authority conducting a
truancy-related mediation 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. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a state or local authority conducting a
truancy-related mediation or prosecuting a pupil or a pupil's
parent or legal guardian, in the most cost effective method
possible, as specified, to report the outcome of each referral
to the school district, school attendance review board (SARB),
county superintendent of schools, probation department, or any
other agency that referred a truancy-related mediation,
criminal complaint, or petition.
2)Requires the report to include as part of the outcomes,
actions taken by the state or local authority and the effect
of the action(s) on the student during the semester or
trimester following the act.
3)Specifies that the requirements pursuant to this bill apply to
referrals made pursuant to compulsory education and child
welfare laws specified in the Education Code, Penal Code and
Welfare and Institutions Code.
4)Requires a state or local authority conducting a
truancy-related mediation or prosecution, as specified, to
provide the Attorney General with the outcome of each referral
in anonymized format upon request.
5)Requires a school district, SARB, probation department, or any
other agency that refers a truancy-related mediation, a
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criminal complaint, or petition for prosecution to, at the end
of each school year, to provide the county superintendent of
schools with a report regarding the information it receives
pursuant to this bill.
6)Specifies that nothing in this bill is intended to encourage
additional referrals, complaints, petitions or prosecutions or
more serious sanctions for pupils.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown GF/Proposition 98 state-mandated costs related to new
reporting requirements for school districts, SARBs, and county
superintendent of schools. There are 1,016 school districts
and COEs in California. According to the State Department of
Education there were 1.9 million truant students in 2012-13.
It is not clear how many of these pupils would be referred to
truancy-related mediation or prosecution as the state does not
track this specific data. Assuming each district and COE
dedicated just a few hours of staff time related to the
reporting requirements of the bill, the costs would exceed
$1.2 million.
2)Unknown GF state-mandated local costs to other local agencies,
such as county probation departments to report the outcome of
each truancy-related mediation or prosecution. As an example,
probation departments are currently required to notice the
referring agency if no action is taken, but there is no
requirement to notice if action is taken. This bill adds the
requirement to notice the referring agency of the outcome,
thereby creating additional workload. The workload would be
determined by how many referrals a probation department
received. Additional resources would also be necessary for
probation to comply with the requirement to report the effect
of the action(s) on the student during the semester or
trimester following the act.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose. This bill is part of a package of truancy-related
bills sponsored by Attorney General (AG) Kamala Harris. In
the course of conducting the AG's report titled "In School and
On Track," the AG found that attendance, truancy, and SARB
data were not readily available. Consequently, several of the
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bills sponsored by the AG focus on data collection.
This bill focuses on getting information on cases that have
been referred to state or local authorities conducting a
truancy-related mediation or prosecuting a pupil or a pupil's
parent or legal guardian. Specifically, the bill requires
state or local authorities to report the outcome of each
referral to the referring agency, which could include the
school district, SARB, county superintendent of schools,
probation department, or any other agency that made the
referral, using the most cost-effective method (e.g., by
electronic mail or telephone). The entities that receive the
information are required, at the end of each school year, to
provide the county superintendent of schools with a report.
The bill also requires state or local authorities to provide
the AG with the information in an anonymized format upon his
or her request.
According to the author, this bill would enhance communication
regarding truancy cases referred for mediation and prosecution
so that school districts, superintendents, SARBs, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Attorney General
can develop effective truancy prevention and intervention
strategies.
2)Related legislation .
a) 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.
b) AB 1672 (Bradford), pending in this committee, requires
a school district to report specified information regarding
the district's SARB to the county superintendent of schools
and the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. The
bill also requires the county office of education to make
the information available on its Internet Web site.
c) AB 1866 (Bocanegra), pending in this committee, adds
truancy-related elements to the pupil attendance data that
the CDE is required to collect and report through the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
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(CALPADS).
d) SB 1107 (Monning), pending in the Senate, requires the
AG to issue an annual report on elementary school truancy
and chronic absenteeism.
Analysis Prepared by : Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081