Pupil attendance: truancy.

Existing law authorizes the establishment of county and local school attendance review boards, and authorizes a school district to refer a pupil to a school attendance review board or the probation department for, among other things, truancy. Existing law, under specified circumstances, authorizes a school attendance review board or probation officer to direct the county superintendent of schools to request a petition on behalf of the pupil in the juvenile court of the county. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to adopt rules and regulations to require appropriate officers and employees of the school district 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. This bill would instead require the governing board of each school district that has established a local school attendance review board to adopt rules and regulations to require appropriate officers and employees of the school district to gather that information for the prior school year, and would expand the information required to be gathered to include, among other things, the number of pupils referred to a school attendance review board who improved their attendance and the number of pupils and parents or guardians referred to community services, as specified. The bill would require the information to be disaggregated by specified subgroups, including gender, ethnicity, and foster youth status. The bill would require the governing board of each school district to make available on its Internet Web site, if one is available, the contents of those school attendance review board reports no later than September 15 of every year. The bill would require the State Department of Education to maintain current Internet Web site links to the Internet Web sites of school attendance review board reports, and would require the governing board of each school district that posts school attendance review board reports to provide to the department current uniform resource locators for those Internet Web sites. The bill would make these provisions operative beginning June 1, 2015.