U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris championed tough-on-truancy laws while serving as San Francisco’s district attorney and California attorney general. Now she's taking heat for it on the campaign trail.
A 2010 video clip of California senator and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris advocating the prosecution of parents for their children's truancy has re-ignited controversy as schools statewide face greater scrutiny for their rates of chronic absenteeism.
More than 1 in 10 students statewide were chronically absent from school in 2017-18. Rates for students in marginalized groups much higher than the state average.
Nearly 8 million students nationwide were chronically absent during the 2015-16 school year; California accounted for more than 760,000 of those children.
A slew of new laws affecting students’ physical, emotional and behavioral wellbeing will change how schools operate this year, in ways large and small. The laws regulate basic needs grants for truant students, pesticide use and expulsions for "willfully defiant" behavior, among other issues.
Hayward school officials, police, businesses and churches are taking a gentle approach to reducing high truancy rates among students. Merchants are refusing to serve school-aged youths during school hours, and if students persist, police take them back to school to get them help staying in class.
Legislation that would make it easier for the state and school districts to track chronic absenteeism, an early indicator of students at risk of dropping out, will soon reach Gov. Jerry Brown, where it faces an uncertain fate.
