Assemblymember Chris Holden, who represents Monrovia, writes that he is "proud to author a bill (AB 1672) that will help more students stay in the classroom and out of the courtroom."
"If schools aren't tracking what students are missing you won't be able to effectively fix the problem. Second graders are missing school and arriving late for very different reasons than 11th graders. Requiring County Offices of Education to forward the complete reports to the Dept. of Education will allow them to identify trends and find best practices to address this crisis.
"AB 1672 requires local Student Attendance Review Boards (SARB) to report information on student enrollment, absence and truancy rates, referrals to the district attorney and intervention outcomes. Current SARB reports provide minimal information about intervention outcomes, so it is difficult to get the full picture."
Text of law with the additional things schools would need to report: http://goo.gl/DBU4Ku
Source: Holden press release
Comment: I'm kind of torn on this. It seems it might be a good thing if additional information can help reduce truancy, but it bothers me that this is yet another example of the state placing more and more requirements on local school districts, as if they don't have enough to do already. UPDATE: See knowledgeable response by "Alex" in comments.
- Brad Haugaard
The reporting being requested is something many schools are doing already - it is the difference between a short form that doesn't include any demographic information on the child and a longer form that includes grade, gender, etc. Having the information of whether it is a 2nd grader or 11th grader missing school will make the difference of where funds should be targeted...since those ages are missing school for very different reasons. And then sending said "longer form" to the County Office of Education - (and as a side note: Monrovia is already using the longer form).
ReplyDeleteThanks Alex. I appreciate the thoughtful and helpful reply.
Delete