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Message from the California Department of Education

Expanded Duties of Attendance Supervisors
Under Assembly Bill 2815, which became law on January 1, 2017, the role of attendance supervisors has been expanded to include more effective practices to address chronic absenteeism and truancy.
 
Reducing California’s high chronic absenteeism rates is a priority in the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). This update to California Education Code (EC) sections 48240–48244 can be a tool for meeting local goals to reduce chronic absenteeism rates. These changes in attendance supervision practices help promote a culture of attendance and improve local systems to accurately track pupil attendance by grade level and pupil subgroup.
Districts may find it helpful to review the effective practices described in this legislation when considering the duties of attendance supervisors and assistant attendance supervisors.
 
Identified duties for attendance supervisors in this legislation include the following:

  • Raise the awareness of school personnel, parents, guardians, caregivers, community partners, and local businesses of the effects of chronic absenteeism, truancy, and other challenges associated with poor attendance.
  • Identify and respond to grade level or pupil subgroup patterns of chronic absenteeism or truancy.
  • Identify and address factors contributing to chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, including suspension and expulsion.
  •  Ensure that pupils with attendance problems are identified as early as possible to provide applicable support services and interventions.
  •  Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies implemented to reduce chronic absenteeism rates and truancy rates.
  •  Effective January 1, 2019, supervisors of attendance have a duty to ensure that students receiving individual instruction in home and hospital programs are excused from the regular school program until they return to their regular school program.

An attendance supervisor may refer chronic absentees and truants to critical support services and interventions which will help them get back on track with their education. Examples of these key services and interventions benefiting high risk youth listed in the legislation are as follows:

  • A conference between school personnel, the pupil’s parent or guardian, and the pupil.
  • Promoting co-curricular and extracurricular activities that increase pupil connection to school, such as tutoring, mentoring, the arts, service learning, or athletics.
  • Recognizing pupils who achieve excellent attendance or demonstrate significant improvement in attendance.
  • Referral to a school nurse, school counselor, school psychologist, school social worker, and other pupil support personnel for case management and counseling.
  • Collaboration with child welfare services, law enforcement, courts, public health care agencies, or government agencies, or medical, mental health, and oral health care providers to receive necessary services.
  • Collaborating with school study teams, guidance teams, school attendance review teams, or other intervention-related teams to assess the attendance or behavior problem in partnership with the pupil and his or her parents, guardians, or caregivers.
  • In schools with significantly higher rates of chronic absenteeism, identify barriers to attendance that may require school-wide strategies instead of case management.
  • Referral for a comprehensive psycho-social or psycho-educational assessment.
  • Referral to a school attendance review board.
  • Referral to a county truancy mediation program.