BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair S
2013-2014 Regular Session B
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SB 1107 (Monning) 7
As Amended April 21, 2014
Hearing date: April 29, 2014
Education Code
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TRUANCY:
DATA COLLECTION
HISTORY
Source: Attorney General Kamala Harris
Prior Legislation: None
Support: AFSCME, AFL-CIO; Association of Black Correctional
Workers; Berkeley Youth Alternatives; California Police
Chiefs Association; California State PTA; Continuing
the Dream; Contra Costa County District Attorney; Los
Angeles District Attorney's Office; Los Angeles City
Attorney; Los Angeles Unified School District; San
Francisco District Attorney; Santa Barbara District
Attorney; SEIU Local 1000; Special Needs Network;
several individuals
Opposition:None known
KEY ISSUES
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SHOULD THE DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE AND EDUCATION BE REQUIRED TO
JOINTLY PREPARE AN ANNUAL REPORT ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TRUANCY
AND CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
SHOULD LOCAL EDUCATION AND PROSECUTING AUTHORITIES BE REQUIRED
TO PROVIDE THESE DEPARTMENTS WITH CERTAIN RELATED DATA WHEN
REQUESTED, AS SPECIFIED?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to require the Departments of
Justice and Education to jointly prepare an annual report on
elementary school truancy and chronic absenteeism in California
public schools, and to require local education and prosecuting
authorities to provide these departments with certain related
data when requested, as specified.
Current law generally provides a series of mechanisms for school
administrators to identify and deal with K-12 students who are
chronically absent or truant. (See Education Code �� 60901,
48205, 48260, 48260.5, 48264.5(a), 48260.6, 48261, 48264.5(b),
48260.6, 48262, 48262, 48264.5(c), 48263, 48264.5(d), 48263.6,
48321, and 48325.)
Current law requires the Annual Report on Dropouts in California
to include, when data is available, truancy rates and chronic
absentee rates. (Education Code � 48070.6.)
Current law 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. (Education Code �� 52060 and 52066.)
Current law 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. (Education Code � 48273.)
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Current law 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. (Education
Code � 60901.)
Current law generally provides for the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court over a person under the age of 18 who
"persistently or habitually refuses to obey the reasonable and
proper orders or directions of his or her parents, guardian, or
custodian, or who is beyond the control of that person," or who
violates curfew offenses, as specified. (WIC � 601.) These
types of offenses are known generally as "status" offenses -
acts that are illegal only if committed by juveniles (typically,
running away, disobeying parents, curfew violations and
truancy).
Current law provides that if "a minor has four or more truancies
within one school year . . . or a school attendance review board
or probation officer determines that the available public and
private services are insufficient or inappropriate to correct
the habitual truancy of the minor, or to correct the minor's
persistent or habitual refusal to obey the reasonable and proper
orders or directions of school authorities, or if the minor
fails to respond to directives of a school attendance review
board or probation officer or to services provided, the minor is
then within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court which may
adjudge the minor to be a ward of the court. However, it is the
intent of the Legislature that no minor who is adjudged a ward
of the court pursuant solely to this subdivision shall be
removed from the custody of the parent or guardian except during
school hours. . . ." (Welfare and Institutions Code � 601(b).)
Current law provides that the Attorney General is the head of
the Department of Justice ("DOJ"). (Government Code � 12510.)
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Current law requires DOJ "present to the Governor, on or before
July 1st, an annual report containing the criminal statistics of
the preceding calendar year and to present at other times as the
Attorney General may approve reports on special aspects of
criminal statistics. A sufficient number of copies of all
reports shall be prepared to enable the Attorney General to send
a copy to all public officials in the state dealing with
criminals and to distribute them generally in channels where
they will add to the public enlightenment." (Penal Code �
13010(g).)
Current law requires this report to contain statistics showing
all of the following:
(a) The amount and the types of offenses known to the
public authorities.
(b) The personal and social characteristics of
criminals and delinquents.
(c) The administrative actions taken by law
enforcement, judicial, penal, and correctional
agencies or institutions, including those in the
juvenile justice system, in dealing with criminals or
delinquents.
(d) The administrative actions taken by law
enforcement, prosecutorial, judicial, penal, and
correctional agencies, including those in the juvenile
justice system, in dealing with minors who are the
subject of a petition or hearing in the juvenile court
to transfer their case to the jurisdiction of an adult
criminal court or whose cases are directly filed or
otherwise initiated in an adult criminal court.
(e) The number of citizens' complaints received by law
enforcement agencies under Section 832.5. These
statistics shall indicate the total number of these
complaints, the number alleging criminal conduct of
either a felony or misdemeanor, and the number
sustained in each category. The report shall not
contain a reference to any individual agency but shall
be by gross numbers only.
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It shall be the duty of the department to give
adequate interpretation of the statistics and so to
present the information that it may be of value in
guiding the policies of the Legislature and of those
in charge of the apprehension, prosecution, and
treatment of the criminals and delinquents, or
concerned with the prevention of crime and
delinquency. The report shall also include statistics
which are comparable with national uniform criminal
statistics published by federal bureaus or departments
heretofore mentioned. (Penal Code � 13012.)
Current law requires DOJ to "collect data pertaining to the
juvenile justice system for criminal history and statistical
purposes. This information shall serve to assist the department
in complying with the reporting requirement of subdivisions (c)
and (d) of Section 13012, measuring the extent of juvenile
delinquency, determining the need for and effectiveness of
relevant legislation, and identifying long-term trends in
juvenile delinquency. Any data collected pursuant to this
section may include criminal history information which may be
used by the department to comply with the requirements of
Section 602.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code." (Penal
Code � 13010.5.)
Current law requires the following information be included in
the annual report described above concerning juvenile justice:
(1) The annual number of fitness hearings held in the
juvenile courts under Section 707 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code, and the outcomes of those hearings
including orders to remand to adult criminal court,
cross-referenced with information about the age,
gender, ethnicity, and offense of the minors whose
cases are the subject of those fitness hearings.
(2) The annual number of minors whose cases are filed
directly in adult criminal court under Sections 602.5
and 707 of the Welfare and Institutions Code,
cross-referenced with information about the age,
gender, ethnicity, and offense of the minors whose
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cases are filed directly to the adult criminal court.
(3) The outcomes of cases involving minors who are
prosecuted in adult criminal courts, regardless of how
adult court jurisdiction was initiated, including
whether the minor was acquitted or convicted, or
whether the case was dismissed and returned to
juvenile court, including sentencing outcomes,
cross-referenced with the age, gender, ethnicity, and
offense of the minors subject to these court actions.
(b) The department's annual report published under
Section 13010 shall include the information described
in subdivision (d) of Section 13012, as further
delineated by this section, beginning with the report
due on July 1, 2003, for the preceding calendar year.
(Penal Code � 13012.5.)
This bill would require that, subject to available funding, on
or before September 30, 2015, and annually thereafter until
September 30, 2019, the Attorney General and the Department of
Education ("CDE) jointly submit a report to the Governor, the
Legislature, and the state board on elementary school truancy
and chronic absenteeism in California public schools. This
report would be required to include but not limited to all of
the following information, if available, regarding pupils in
kindergarten and grades 1 to 5, inclusive, for the school year
with the most recent available data, including comparisons with
the prior school year:
(1) Attendance-related data, as specified.
(2) Information regarding truancy prevention and
intervention efforts by local educational agencies, or
county or local prosecuting authorities, including, but not
limited to, all of the following:
(A)
Information regarding specified parental notifications;
(B)
Information regarding the activities of county and local
school attendance review
boards.
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(C)
Information regarding the outcomes of prosecutions and
mediation or diversion
programs for pupils who are truant or who have irregular
attendance, or whether
the prosecuting authority declined to prosecute referrals
of those pupils.
(3) An analysis of whether local educational agencies are
complying with requirements concerning the reporting of
students classified as truant, school notification to parents
that a pupil is truant, reports of repeat truants, and local
compliance with state 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 pursuant to Section 48263.
This bill would require the Attorney General and CDE to utilize
data produced by the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement
Data System, as specified, and other available data in
developing the report.
This bill would define "local educational agency" means a
school, charter school, county office of education, school
district, or county or local school attendance review board.
This bill would provide that, upon the Attorney General's
request, county and local prosecuting authorities shall provide
the Attorney General the information and analysis described in
paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (b) in anonymized format.
This bill would provide that upon CDE's request, local
educational agencies shall provide the department the
information and analysis described in paragraphs (2) and (3)
above in anonymized format.
This bill would require the state school attendance review board
to "annually discuss the report (described above) during a
regularly scheduled meeting. The state school attendance review
board may provide recommendations based on the report, as
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appropriate."
This bill states legislative findings and declarations that it
"is intent of the Legislature to determine the best
evidenced-based practices to reduce truancy," and that
"(n)othing in this act is intended to encourage additional
referrals, complaints, petitions, prosecutions, or other serious
sanctions for pupils."
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation
relating to conditions of confinement. On May 23, 2011, the
United States Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two
years from the date of its ruling, subject to the right of the
state to seek modifications in appropriate circumstances.
Beginning in early 2007, Senate leadership initiated a policy to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate the
prison overcrowding crisis through new or expanded felony
prosecutions. Under the resulting policy, known as "ROCA"
(which stands for "Receivership/ Overcrowding Crisis
Aggravation"), the Committee held measures that created a new
felony, expanded the scope or penalty of an existing felony, or
otherwise increased the application of a felony in a manner
which could exacerbate the prison overcrowding crisis. Under
these principles, ROCA was applied as a content-neutral,
provisional measure necessary to ensure that the Legislature did
not erode progress towards reducing prison overcrowding by
passing legislation, which would increase the prison population.
In January of 2013, just over a year after the enactment of the
historic Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, the State of
California filed court documents seeking to vacate or modify the
federal court order requiring the state to reduce its prison
population to 137.5 percent of design capacity. The State
submitted that the, ". . . population in the State's 33 prisons
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has been reduced by over 24,000 inmates since October 2011 when
public safety realignment went into effect, by more than 36,000
inmates compared to the 2008 population . . . , and by nearly
42,000 inmates since 2006 . . . ." Plaintiffs opposed the
state's motion, arguing that, "California prisons, which
currently average 150% of capacity, and reach as high as 185% of
capacity at one prison, continue to deliver health care that is
constitutionally deficient." In an order dated January 29,
2013, the federal court granted the state a six-month extension
to achieve the 137.5 % inmate population cap by December 31,
2013.
The Three-Judge Court then ordered, on April 11, 2013, the state
of California to "immediately take all steps necessary to comply
with this Court's . . . Order . . . requiring defendants to
reduce overall prison population to 137.5% design capacity by
December 31, 2013." On September 16, 2013, the State asked the
Court to extend that deadline to December 31, 2016. In
response, the Court extended the deadline first to January 27,
2014 and then February 24, 2014, and ordered the parties to
enter into a meet-and-confer process to "explore how defendants
can comply with this Court's June 20, 2013 Order, including
means and dates by which such compliance can be expedited or
accomplished and how this Court can ensure a durable solution to
the prison crowding problem."
The parties were not able to reach an agreement during the
meet-and-confer process. As a result, the Court ordered
briefing on the State's requested extension and, on February 10,
2014, issued an order extending the deadline to reduce the
in-state adult institution population to 137.5% design capacity
to February 28, 2016. The order requires the state to meet the
following interim and final population reduction benchmarks:
143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and
137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.
If a benchmark is missed the Compliance Officer (a position
created by the February 10, 2016 order) can order the release of
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inmates to bring the State into compliance with that benchmark.
In a status report to the Court dated February 18, 2014, the
state reported that as of February 12, 2014, California's 33
prisons were at 144.3 percent capacity, with 117,686 inmates.
8,768 inmates were housed in out-of-state facilities.
The ongoing prison overcrowding litigation indicates that prison
capacity and related issues concerning conditions of confinement
remain unresolved. While real gains in reducing the prison
population have been made, even greater reductions may be
required to meet the orders of the federal court. Therefore,
the Committee's consideration of ROCA bills -bills that may
impact the prison population - will be informed by the following
questions:
Whether a measure erodes realignment and impacts the
prison population;
Whether a measure addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
Whether a bill corrects a constitutional infirmity or
legislative drafting error;
Whether a measure proposes penalties which are
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy; and,
Whether a bill addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill
The author states:
In the fall of 2013, Attorney General Kamala Harris
released the comprehensive report titled "In School +
On Track" focusing on chronic truancy and absenteeism
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in California's elementary schools. The report
contained startling findings, and revealed that the
number of truant and chronically absent elementary
school students has reached crisis levels in
California. The report revealed that in the 2011-2012
school year alone, 1.8 million K-12 students in
California were truant with 691,470 (38%) of those
students in elementary school. The Attorney General's
report also discovered that school districts lost
approximately $1.4 billion in the 2010-2011 school
year due to lost Average Daily Attendance funding from
absences.
SB 1107 is a first step in addressing this issue by
requiring the Attorney General, in conjunction with
the California Department of Education, to study the
issue annually and produce a report on chronic truancy
and absenteeism. The report will in no way seek to
increase families and students involvement with the
criminal justice system, but will seek to instead
report on the best practices and programmatic
solutions that are working in the counties and school
districts throughout the state. Specifically, the
bill will require the Attorney General and the
Department of Education to report on the chronic
truancy rates; success of truancy prevention and
intervention efforts at the local level; referrals to
school attendance review boards, community-based
organizations, or the district attorney for
prosecution; and information regarding mediation or
diversion programs and best practices.
Currently, the Education Code requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to produce an
annual report on high school dropouts and graduation
rates but remains silence on addressing chronic
truancy and absenteeism at California's elementary
schools. SB 1107 seeks to remedy this and address the
issue of elementary truancy, which is arguably more
impactful on the future success of a student. Early
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learning education is essential for the continued
success of student's trajectory through the education
system and is a strong predictor of student success
later in life. The Attorney General and Superintend
of Education are uniquely positioned as the chief law
enforcement officer, and chief education
administrator, to report on an issue that so directly
impacts public safety and educational success.
2. Double-Referral from Education Committee
This bill was heard in Senate Education Committee on March 26,
2014, where it was amended to require that the Attorney General
submit the report required by the bill jointly with the
Department of Education, add some related language directing CDE
to obtain information from local educational agencies, and
require the state school attendance review board to discuss the
report, as specified. The bill passed that committee 9-0.
3. Background
In 2010, this Committee held an informational hearing entitled,
Why Truancy and Chronic School Absence Matters to Public Safety:
The Role and Reason for Law Enforcement Partnerships.
Presenters, including the Attorney General during her tenure as
the San Francisco District Attorney, discussed promising
partnerships and law enforcement practices for addressing
truancy, and explained the problem of chronic early school
absences. Hedy Nai-Lin Chang, Director of the Chronic Absence
Project, who testified before the Committee, coauthored a report
in 2008 that stated in part:
Chronic early absence matters because it adversely
affects academic successes and affects large numbers
of children, especially in some communities and
schools. NCCP's national data analysis found that
chronic absence in kindergarten is associated with
lower academic performance in first grade for all
children regardless of gender, ethnicity or
socioeconomic status. The relationship is especially
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strong for Latino children, who had much lower first
grade readings
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scores if they were chronically absent in
kindergarten. . . . Going to school regularly in the
early years is especially critical for children from
families living in poverty, who are less likely to
have the resources to help children make up for lost
time in the classroom. Among poor children, chronic
absence in kindergarten predicts the lowest levels of
educational achievement at the end of fifth grade.
Chronic early absence affects substantial numbers of
children nationwide and is even more problematic in
some districts and schools. An estimated one in ten
kindergarten and first grade students are chronically
absent nationally. Prevalence of chronic early
absence varied markedly across the nine localities
studied; it ranged from affecting one out of 20 to
almost one out of four students enrolled in grades
K-3.<1>
As noted above, this bill is sponsored by the Attorney General,
whose office recently released a report entitled, In School + On
Track Attorney General's 2013 Report on California's Elementary
School Truancy & Absenteeism Crisis. That report states in
part:
School attendance records are an essential foundation
for efforts to reduce truancy and chronic absence in
California and across the United States. This
evidence "is critical to making instructional and
programmatic choices targeting student attendance
behaviors ? and can guide the design of interventions
intended to improve attendance and student
achievement."
These records on attendance, that is, records that
track individual students, allows teachers and school
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<1> Chang and Romero, Present, Engaged, and Accounted For The
Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic
Absence in the Early Grades (Sept. 2008) National Center for
Children in Poverty.
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administrators to identify students at risk of
academic failure or of dropping out of school.
Despite the vital role of this empirical evidence in
understanding and addressing truancy and chronic
absence, the systematic collection and use of school
attendance records in California is still a fledgling
work-in-progress.
Moreover, these two measures (truancy and ADA rates)
are incomplete; they mask the scope and severity of
habitual and chronic truancy, as well as chronic
absence, in California public schools.<2>
4. DOJ Data on Truancy
Currently, the state's key source of annual data concerning
juvenile offenders is prepared by DOJ, Juvenile Justice in
California. The most recently-available report is from 2011.<3>
As explained in that report:
Juvenile Justice in California 2011 provides insight
into the juvenile justice process by reporting the
number of arrests, referrals to probation departments,
petitions filed, and dispositions for juveniles tried
in juvenile and adult courts. Law enforcement agencies
provide information on the number of arrests, and
probation departments provide information on the types
of offenses and administrative actions taken by
juvenile and adult courts.
The California Department of Justice (DOJ) is required
to collect and report statistics on juvenile justice
in California. Since 1947, the DOJ's Criminal Justice
Statistics Center has compiled and published data on
California's juvenile justice system. Juvenile
Justice in California 2011 reflects data extracted
from the Juvenile Court and Probation Statistical
System. . . . Referral and petition statistics
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<2> http://oag.ca.gov/truancy (citations omitted).
<3> The annual report is due on or before July 1st.
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reported in Juvenile Justice in California 2011 are
compiled from
data submitted by 57 of California's 58 counties,
representing over 99 percent of the state's juvenile
population. Sierra County is not included in the
referral and petition sections of this report.<4>
Based on the most recent information available on the Department
of Justice's website - for the year 2011 - of the 21,827 status
offense arrests reported in California, 5,423 - 24.8 percent -
were for truancy. Juveniles in the 12-14 age group were more
likely to be arrested on a truancy violation than any other age
group (27.5 percent). Hispanic juveniles were more likely to be
arrested for truancy violations compared to any other
race/ethnic group (28.4 percent). In 2011, of the 16,357
petitioned status offenses reported, 2.5 percent (408) were for
truancy.<5>
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<4>
http://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/cjsc/publications/mi
sc/jj11/preface.pdf?
<5> 2011 Juvenile Justice in California, California Dept. of
Justice.