FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2010
CONTACT: Erica Terry Derryck, DA Harris’ Office, (415) 553-1167
ADA Brian Buckelew, DA Harris’ Office, (415) 553-1383
DISTRICT ATTORNEY KAMALA HARRIS TESTIFIES IN SUPPORT OF STATEWIDE TRUANCY LEGISLATION
Asm. Elaine Alquist’s SB 1148 Passes Out of CA Senate Education Committee
SACRAMENTO – San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris testified Wednesday, April 14 before the California Senate Education Committee in support of Senator Elaine Alquist’s (D-Santa Clara) bill to combat truancy by developing a statewide definition of chronic truancy and a mandate to track episodic truancy by pupil.
“The research is clear – when it comes to school absence there is a tipping point,” said San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. “Children who miss 10 percent or more of the days in a given school year suffer long-term lower academic performance for which we all pay the price. This measure will arm schools to intervene early and stop the fallout of school failure.”
SB 1148, which passed unanimously out of the Senate Education Committee, would create a Chronic Truancy subsection of the California Education Code. This subsection would establish the definition of chronic truancy as having unexcused absences for 10 percent or more of the days in one school year. SB 1148 would also require that student records for chronically truant children follow the student as part of the student’s permanent record to allow for ongoing tracking.
“A child going without an education is tantamount to a crime,” said District Attorney Harris. “As a prosecutor, I see first hand the numbers of defendants and victims without high school diplomas. It is imperative that we step up our efforts as law enforcement and as a community to ensure that our children are receiving education that will keep them off the streets and out of our prisons.
District Attorney Harris’ sponsorship of SB 1148 is part of an ongoing commitment to combating truancy as a means of protecting public safety. In 2006, District Attorney Harris launched a city-wide truancy initiative in conjunction with the San Francisco Unified School District. The initiative involves a three-tiered approach of public education, mediation, and prosecution. Since the launch of the District Attorney’s truancy initiative, San Francisco has seen a 20 percent decrease in elementary school truancy.
District AttorneyHarris also spoke in support of SB1357 introduced by Senator Darryl Steinberg (D-Sacramento). SB 1357 supports the collection of individualized student attendance data and the development of early warning systems in order to identify potential dropouts and effectively target interventions to increase graduation rates and improve student achievement.
Like SB 1148, SB 1357 passed out for the Senate Education Committee. SB 1148 now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee while SB 1357 will next be heard by the Senate Fiscal Committee.
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