BP 5113.1 — Chronic Absence and Truancy

Section: 5000 - Students
Status: Active

Adopted: 2015-10-27

Revised: 2021-12-16

Policy text

CHRONIC ABSENCE AND TRUANCY

The Governing Board believes that absenteeism, whatever the cause, may be an early warning sign of poor academic achievement and may put students at risk of dropping out of school. The Board desires to ensure that all students attend school in accordance with the state’s compulsory education law and take full advantage of educational opportunities provided by the district.

The Superintendent or designee shall establish a system to accurately track student attendance in order to identify individual students who are chronic absentees and truants, as defined in law and administrative regulation, and to identify patterns of absence throughout the district.

The Superintendent or designee shall consult with students, parents/guardians, school staff, and community agencies, as appropriate, to identify factors contributing to chronic absence and truancy.

The Superintendent or designee shall develop a tiered approach to improving attendance. Such an approach shall include strategies that focus on prevention of attendance problems, which may include, but are not limited to, efforts to provide a safe and positive school environment, relevant and engaging learning experiences, school activities that help develop students’ feelings of connectedness with the school, school-based health services, and incentives and rewards to recognize students who achieve excellent attendance or demonstrate significant improvement in attendance. The tiered approach shall also provide early outreach to students as soon as they show signs of poor attendance or if they were chronically absent in the prior school year. Early intervention may include personalized outreach, individual attendance plans, and/or mentoring to students with moderate levels of chronic absence, with additional intensive, interagency wrap-around services for students with the highest level of absence.

Interventions for students with serious attendance problems shall be designed to meet the specific needs of the student and may include, but are not limited to, health care referrals, transportation assistance, counseling for mental or emotional difficulties, academic supports, efforts to address school or community safety concerns, discussions with the student and parent/guardian about their attitudes regarding schooling, or other strategies to remove identified barriers to school attendance. The Superintendent or designee may collaborate with child welfare services, law enforcement, courts, public health care agencies, other government agencies, and/or medical, mental health, and oral health care providers to make alternative educational programs and support services available for students and families.

Students who are identified as truant shall be subject to the interventions specified in law and administrative regulation.

A student’s truancy, tardiness, or other absence from school shall not be the basis for their suspension or expulsion. Alternative strategies and positive reinforcement for attendance shall be used whenever possible.

The Superintendent or designee shall periodically report to the Board regarding student attendance patterns in the district, including chronic absence and truancy districtwide and for each school, grade level, and numerically significant subgroup as defined by Education Code 52052. Such information shall be used to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies implemented to reduce chronic absence and truancy and to develop goals and specific actions for student attendance and engagement to be included in the district’s local control and accountability plan and other applicable school and district plans. As appropriate, the Superintendent or designee shall engage school staff in program evaluation and improvement and in the determination of how to best allocate available community resources.