(a) Contingent upon the receipt of federal funds for this purpose, the department, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst’s Office, shall prepare the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System established pursuant to Section 60900 to include data on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance. Preparation shall include all of the following:
(1) The addition of fields to facilitate the transfer of data.
(2) System development activities including any business rules and definitions that would be needed to improve the quality and consistency of the data.
(3) Processes for the transfer of data from local educational agencies.
(4) Consultation with organizations representing school, district, and county education administrators, classified and certified staff, and parents in order to develop the criteria and frequency of reports on pupil attendance data and other indicators as may be submitted by local educational agencies.
(b) The system shall support local educational agencies in their efforts to identify and support pupils at risk of dropping out and shall be capable of issuing to local educational agencies periodic reports that include, but may not be limited to, district, school, class, and individual pupil reports on both of the following:
(1) Rates of absence.
(2) Chronic absentees.
(c) (1) For purposes of this section, “chronic absentee” means a pupil who is absent on 10 percent or more of the schooldays in the school year when the total number of days a pupil is absent is divided by the total number of days the pupil is enrolled and school was actually taught in the regular day schools of the district, exclusive of Saturdays and Sundays.
(2) Once available, chronic absentee rates shall be incorporated into the annual report on dropouts required pursuant to Section 48070.6.
(3) In addition to the calculation of absentee rates performed pursuant to paragraph (1), once the department has completed and reported the collection of data pursuant to paragraph (4) of subdivision (d) of Section 46211, the department shall also report an alternate chronic absenteeism rate calculation, which includes pupil attendance accrued through an attendance recovery program pursuant to Sections 46210 and 46211.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature to support the development of early warning systems to enable the identification and support of individual pupils who are at risk of academic failure or dropping out of school. The systems shall encompass the following characteristics:
(1) The utilization of highly predictive indicators, including attendance, course grades or completion, performance on assessments of pupil achievement, suspensions, and expulsions.
(2) A thorough validation process to ensure the predictive reliability of the systems.
(3) Periodic reports that inform principals, teachers, and parents in a manner that enables timely identification and support of individual pupils who are at risk of academic failure or dropping out.
(e) When the system established pursuant to Section 60900 is prepared to accept data on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance, a local educational agency may submit data to the department on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance and other indicators as identified by the department. It is the intent of the Legislature that schools identified on the list of persistently lowest-achieving schools will fully utilize the early warning systems described in subdivision (d).
(f) A local educational agency that reports attendance data for pupils to the system established pursuant to Section 60900 may request, and the department shall provide, the early warning report described in subdivision (d) up to four times each school year.
(g) The department shall notify local educational agencies that reporting pupil attendance and chronic absentee data pursuant to this section is voluntary. The notice shall include a description of the benefits of reporting pupil attendance and chronic absentee data in fostering the development of effective supports and interventions for at-promise pupils.
(h) This section shall not be implemented unless federal funds are appropriated specifically for the purposes of this section.
(Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 38, Sec. 89. (SB 153) Effective June 29, 2024.)