[Santa Barbara] Grand jury: CLASS program keeps county truancy down

Santa Barbara County has one of the lowest school truancy rates in California and, according to a county grand jury report, it has the district attorney to thank for it.

The grand jury's report, "Elementary School Truancy: This is Where it Starts," said the district attorney's Community Leadership in Achieving Student Success (CLASS) program has led to a low truancy levels in county elementary schools.

County District Attorney Joyce Dudley established the five-step CLASS program in 2012 that utilizes parental, school district and county support services to try to reduce truancy levels and improve student learning. It includes notifications that begin after three days of unexcused absences and escalates to meetings with the students and parents with school officials and eventually the District Attorney's Office and county probation authorities if the absences continue. A School Attendance Review Board brings together school and county resources to try to get students back on track.

The report found that: "Since the implementation of the CLASS program, elementary records reflect a significant drop in truancy between Step 2 and Step 3. School districts have praised the district attorney’s CLASS staff in developing this successful truancy reduction program. The collaboration among participating agencies and community resources has been very successful in identifying students in danger of falling behind academically."

"It's a little early to tell how successful it has been, but we'll be looking at our data at the end of the year," said Holly Edds, assistant superintendent for educational services in the Orcutt Union School District. "There has been great cooperation and collaboration between all of the agencies involved. The reality is that kids can't learn if they're not in school."

The school districts work with the District Attorney's Office, Teen Court, county Child Welfare Services and the Probation Department in the program.

Santa Barbara County actually has one of the lowest rates of truancy in the state, according to In School + On Track 2014, Attorney General Kamala Harris' statewide report.

Santa Barbara County elementary schools had a 14.37-percent truancy rate in the 2013-14 school year. Although that number was up slightly over the previous year, it still represents one of the lowest rates in the state.

Alpine County's 5.36 percent is the lowest, while Mono County's 41.15 percent is the highest. The state average is 21.32 percent. 

The state truancy report shows that in the 2012-13 school year, one in five elementary school students were truant, or 744,085 students. That was an increase of 1.2 percent from 2011-12.

The report also shows, according to estimates based on a sample of California school districts, over 250,000 elementary school students were chronically absent in 2013-14. Chronically absent is defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year, which adds up to roughly 18 or more school days.

The state report indicates that almost 90 percent of the elementary students with the most severe attendance problems -- those who miss 36 days or more of school a year -- are estimated to be low-income. One in 10 low-income students missed 10 percent or more of the 2013-14 school year.

The conclusion of the grand jury is that utilizing the CLASS program in the early grade levels is keeping truancy in county elementary schools low.

The entire report can be accessed at www.sbcgj.org.

 March 24, 2015

Lompoc Record

By Brian Bullock