School attendance: H1N1 (2009) influenza virus.

Existing law establishes the system of public elementary and secondary schools in this state, as well as the statutory scheme for the provision of funding for this system. State apportionments to school districts, the amounts of which are computed based on the average daily attendance of pupils in the schools operated by those districts, among other factors, constitute a major source of school funding. Existing law generally requires that the total days of attendance of a pupil at the schools and classes maintained by a school district is the number of days school was actually taught for not less than the minimum schooldays during the fiscal year less the sum of his or her absences. Existing law requires that, whenever the average daily attendance of any school district, county office of education, or regional occupational center or program during any fiscal year has been materially decreased because of, among other things, an epidemic, that the Superintendent of Public Instruction estimate what the average daily attendance of that entity would have been had the epidemic not occurred and credit that amount of average daily attendance to that entity. This bill would provide that pupil absences related to the H1N1 (2009) influenza virus, as defined, in any public elementary or secondary school be deemed to be an epidemic for the purposes of the provisions described above. . This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.