Education

LOS ANGELES - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today issued the second annual report on elementary school truancy in the state which reveals that the truancy crisis in California continues. The report provides new research on how students of color and students from low-income families are missing a disproportionate amount of school each year.

Attorney General Harris’ second annual report, In School + On Track 2014, outlines recommendations to reduce state truancy rates. These recommendations were put into action in the Every Kid Counts legislative package (http://bit.ly/X7pZYU) sponsored by the Attorney General that passed the state legislature and currently awaits Governor Jerry Brown’s signature.

"California elementary school students continue to miss school at unacceptably high rates," Attorney General Harris said. "Improvements in education policy are moot if students are not in class. California needs common sense solutions that help parents and educators reduce elementary school truancy. The Every Kid Counts legislative package helps us get this done."

Information broken down by school district and county is available here: https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2014/ch1

The report contains key updates and new research on income and racial disparities, including:

• A quarter of a million elementary school students in California missed 10% or more of the 2013-2014 school year.
• Over the last three years, school districts have lost over $3.5 billion directly from student absences.
• 1 in 10 school districts reported they do not know their chronic absence rate for the 2013-2014 school year.
• Almost 90% of the elementary students who are missing over a month of school per year are from low-income families.
• More than 1 in 5 African American students is chronically absent which is more than double the average for white students.
• African American elementary school students are chronically truant at nearly 4xs the rate of all students.

If signed into law, Attorney General Harris’ legislation will:

• Help schools and counties work with parents to address the core reasons behind truancy and chronic absence.
• Give local school districts and counties tools to comply with attendance tracking requirements in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), state truancy mandates and state and federal reporting requirements.
• Modernize state and local systems to track and prevent truancy and chronic absence.
• Ensure that schools, districts, counties and the state can evaluate the success of interventions to combat truancy and chronic absence.

 “California is investing billions of dollars to help low income, English learner, foster and disabled students succeed,” said Assemblymember Isadore Hall, III. “But students cannot succeed if they are not in the classroom. I am honored to author AB 2141 and to join Attorney General Kamala D. Harris in helping schools and school districts focus its resources on developing effective truancy prevention and intervention strategies. AB 2141 is a common sense measure that will help keep our students off the street and in the classroom. I urge the Governor to sign AB 2141 and all of the Attorney General’s truancy reduction bills into law.”

“I applaud Attorney General Kamala Harris for tackling the issue of truancy and dropout rates head on,” said Assemblymember Chris Holden. “One of my goals is to keep children in the classroom and out of the courtroom, which is why I was happy to join with the Attorney General in crafting legislation to increase accountability for school attendance review boards in order to make them more effective. The measure, now awaiting the Governor’s signature, will show on the district and state level how large the truancy problem is and how we are addressing it. With this slate of bills we are not putting more students in the juvenile justice system, but inviting the community to intervene before they end up in the penal system.” 

“Attorney General Harris' report is another profound testament to the need for my Assembly Bill 1866, which is currently awaiting the Governor's signature,” said Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra. “By creating precise and longitudinal records of student attendance statewide, this measure will empower educators to detect at-risk students early and develop effective intervention programs for this population. AB 1866 is the first integral step to solving California's attendance crisis and the negative outcomes that ensue.”

"I applaud Attorney General Kamala Harris' commitment to shining the light on the problem of truancy and her work in San Francisco and Sacramento to keep children in school, on track, and ready to graduate,” said Assemblymember Joan Buchanan  “Their future and our future depends on every student graduating college and career ready."

“The findings of this report are alarming and should serve as a wake up call for elected leaders, school districts and California families,” said Senator Ricardo Lara. “Latinos are the majority in California so when 1 in 5 of Latino kids are chronically absent, we have a problem. We must begin addressing this crisis because our state's success is tied to the success of all students.”

Attorney General Harris’ 2013 In School + Track (https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2013) report contained the first statewide statistics on California’s elementary school truancy crisis. The report showed the direct link between public education and public safety. Students who reach third grade but are not at third grade reading level are statistically more likely to drop out of high school. Annually, dropouts cost California taxpayers an estimated $46.4 billion in incarceration, lost productivity and lost taxes.

As the District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General Harris started a citywide truancy initiative in 2006.  In the course of investigating factors contributing to the city’s violent crime rate, she found that 94% of San Francisco homicide victims under age 25 were high school dropouts.  Then-District Attorney Harris formed a partnership with the school district to inform parents that they had a legal duty to ensure that their children attended school, provide parents of chronically truant students with wrap-around services and school-based mediation, and prosecute parents in the most severe cases where other interventions did not work.

Over a two-year period, then-District Attorney Harris’s initiative reduced truancy among elementary students in San Francisco by 23%, according to the San Francisco Unified School District.  The initiative also served as a model for SB 1317 (Leno), which defined “chronic truancy” for the first time under state law and established the initiative’s model of combining meaningful services with smart sanctions in the California Penal Code.  The bill was sponsored by then-District Attorney Harris and was enacted in law in 2010.

The report is available in its entirety online at: https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2014

LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris will be joined by education, policy, legislative and business leaders at a Los Angeles elementary school to release a new report on California’s Elementary School truancy crisis.

Attorney General Harris’ second annual report, In School + On Track 2014, will provide new research on how students of color and students from low income families are missing a disproportionate amount of school each year and will outline recommendations to reduce state truancy rates. These recommendations were put into action in the Every Kid Counts legislative package (http://bit.ly/1q9oKDT) sponsored by Attorney General Harris that passed the state legislature and currently awaits Governor Jerry Brown’s signature.

WHEN:

Today Friday, September 12, 2014 at 11 a.m.

WHERE:

Malabar Elementary School

3200 E. Malabar Street

Los Angeles, CA 90063 

WHO:

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris

Assemblymember Isadore Hall

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy

California Endowment President Dr. Robert Ross

LA Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Gary Toebben

United Way of Greater Los Angeles President & CEO Elise Buik.

NOTES: 

Open to credentialed media only. RSVP required to Nicholas.Pacilio@doj.ca.gov.

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that a package of legislation to help local school districts and communities address California’s elementary school truancy crisis has passed out of both legislative houses and is on its way to the Governor’s desk.

“Each year approximately one million California elementary school children are truant from class. Good education policies are meaningless if students aren’t at their desks,” Attorney General Harris said. “I applaud the legislature for bringing us one step closer to stopping this crisis.”

If signed into law, these bills will:

• Help schools and counties work with parents to address the core reasons behind truancy and chronic absence.
• Give local school districts and counties tools to comply with attendance tracking requirements in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), state truancy mandates and state and federal reporting requirements.
• Modernize state and local systems to track and prevent truancy and chronic absence.
• Ensure that schools, districts, counties and the state can evaluate the success of interventions to combat truancy and chronic absence.

Attorney General Harris announced her sponsorship of the four bills and introduced the legislative package at a March 10, 2014 press conference with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and Assemblymembers Raul Bocanegra, Rob Bonta, Joan Buchanan, Isadore Hall and Chris Holden.

A complete list of education, public policy, and law enforcement leaders and organizations who have endorsed the legislation is available here: http://bit.ly/1liXv9O.

The legislation will, if signed, put recommended reforms from Attorney General Harris’ 2013 report, In School + On Track (https://oag.ca.gov/truancy) into law. The report contained the first state-wide statistics on California’s elementary school truancy crisis. It revealed that in the 2012-2013 school year, 1 million elementary school students were truant and 250,000 elementary school students missed 18 or more school days at a cost of $1.4 billion in lost funds to California school districts. Annually, dropouts cost California taxpayers an estimated $46.4 billion in incarceration, lost productivity and lost taxes.

Next month, Attorney General Harris will issue the 2014 In School + On Track report containing updated statewide figures on elementary school truancy and its fiscal impact on local school districts.

Attorney General Harris’ Truancy Legislation Package

ASSEMBLY BILL 1866 - Statewide Attendance Data System

Author: Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra

Adds truancy and absenteeism to the information collected by the state Department of Education. California is one of only a few states in the country that does not collect student attendance data. This bill will allow local school districts to monitor and analyze attendance patterns, as required under the Local Control Funding Formula.

ASSEMBLY BILL 1672 - Enhanced Student Attendance Review Board (SARB) Reports

Author: Assemblymember Chris Holden

Expands annual reports from local School Attendance Review Boards (SARBs) to include information on student enrollment, absence and truancy rates, district attorney referrals and SARB intervention outcomes. Current annual SARB reports provide minimal information about intervention outcomes, so it is difficult to get the full picture of SARB efforts around the state. This bill ensures schools, districts and counties can evaluate the success of truancy intervention efforts.

ASSEMBLY BILL 1643 - Improved SARBs

Author: Assemblymember Joan Buchanan

Adds representatives of a county district attorney’s office and county public defender’s office to both county and local School Attendance Review Boards (SARBs). This will provide local courts with a broader understanding of attendance issues and will enhance the ability of SARBs to solve the root cause of truancy problems.

ASSEMBLY BILL 2141 - District Attorney Referral Outcome Reports

Authors: Assemblymember Isadore Hall, Assemblymember Rob Bonta

Requires that district attorney’s offices provide a report to school officials on the outcome of a truancy related referral. This helps school officials determine which outcomes are most effective and guarantees baseline information sharing between referring agencies and prosecutors.

SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris took steps to file additional charges against Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCI) alleging that the company is currently violating California false advertising and unfair competition laws and is requesting that a court immediately force CCI to tell prospective students the truth about the company’s dire financial situation and its agreement with the federal government to sell or close all of its schools.

“It is unacceptable yet not surprising that Corinthian Colleges continues to illegally target vulnerable Californians—including low income individuals, single mothers and veterans returning from combat—by lying about its dire finances and failing to tell prospective students that the schools to which they apply will all be sold or closed,” Attorney General Harris said. “My office is seeking expedited action to force Corinthian Colleges to put the interests of its students above its rapidly shrinking profits.”

Attorney General Harris filed a motion Wednesday asking San Francisco Superior Court for permission to move on an expedited basis to file a supplemental complaint enhancing the original complaint Harris filed against CCI in October 2013, which accused the company of false and predatory advertising, intentional misrepresentations to students, securities fraud, and unlawful use of military seals in advertisements. Wednesday’s motion also indicates Attorney General Harris’ intention to subsequently move for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction against CCI to force the company to immediately cease its misleading advertisements and inform prospective students about its dire finances.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 19th, CCI informed investors of its serious financial troubles and plans to close or sell its campuses. This week, CCI signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education wherein CCI agreed to close or sell its campuses to third-parties in the near future.

Despite these recent events, according to the proposed supplemental complaint, CCI has failed to inform prospective students about its dire financial condition or its plan to close or sell its schools and is, in fact, actively soliciting prospective students and enrolling new students without disclosing its current financial condition or the future of its schools.

According to the filing, CCI websites and advertisements currently contain misleading statements including:

• “since we've been around for over 150 years, you can count on us to be here when you need it most.”
• “Heald is also a stable and permanent fixture in education communities”
• “at Heald, we're committed to providing career services assistance to our graduates, for life.”

Attorney General Harris’ original complaint alleges that CCI intentionally targeted low-income, vulnerable Californians through deceptive and false advertisements and aggressive marketing campaigns that misrepresented job placement rates and school programs. CCI deployed these advertisements through persistent internet, telemarketing and television ad campaigns. The complaint further alleges that Corinthian executives knowingly misrepresented job placement rates to investors and accrediting agencies, which harmed students, investors and taxpayers.

According to Harris’ original complaint, CCI’s predatory marketing efforts specifically target vulnerable, low-income job seekers and single parents who have annual incomes near the federal poverty line. In internal company documents obtained by the Department of Justice, CCI describes its target demographic as “isolated,” “impatient,” individuals with “low self-esteem,” who have “few people in their lives who care about them” and who are “stuck” and “unable to see and plan well for future.”

According to the complaint, CCI advertised job placement rates as high as 100% for specific programs when, in some cases, there is no evidence that a single student obtained a job during the specified time frame. The complaint further alleges that CCI runs millions of online and mobile ads offering ultrasound, x-ray, radiology, and dialysis technician programs at their California campuses—when, in fact, CCI does not offer those programs. CCI’s call center agents are disciplined if they tell callers that CCI does not offer these programs. Additionally, according to the complaint, CCI includes official Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard seals in mailings and on web sites without authorization and in violation of California law.

The complaint alleges that CCI committed securities fraud by reporting a nationwide job placement rate of 68.1% in presentations to investors, when senior executives knew this percentage was false. The complaint describes internal audits emailed to CCI executives that show job placement data error rates between 53% and 70%. The complaint references an email from a CCI executive which explains that in 2011, two Everest College campuses (Hayward and San Francisco) paid a temporary employment agency “to place students to meet the accreditation deadline and minimum placement %.” The complaint also states that CCI double-counted job placements and failed to maintain required records of reported job placements.

According to a recent CCI securities filing, the average tuition for a CCI associate’s degree is $40,000 and the average tuition for an online CCI associate’s degree is $34,000.  The average tuition for CCI’s non-degree healthcare programs is $17,000.

CCI is based in Santa Ana and currently operates 24 Everest, Heald and WyoTech campuses in California, 111 total campuses in North America and three online programs. Out of the 72,000 students who attend CCI colleges, approximately one-third are in California.

Federal funds account for almost all of CCI’s annual revenue.

SACRAMENTO – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a package of legislation to help local school districts and communities address California’s elementary school truancy crisis. Each year, an estimated one million elementary school students are truant and 250,000 elementary school students miss 18 or more school days at a cost of $1.4 billion in lost funds to California school districts.

Joined by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, State Senator Bill Monning and Assemblymembers Raul Bocanegra, Rob Bonta, Joan Buchanan, Isadore Hall and Chris Holden, Attorney General Harris announced her sponsorship of five bills that will help schools, parents and government effectively intervene when children are chronically absent, and improve local school districts’ and counties’ ability to track attendance patterns.

“California’s Constitution guarantees our children the right to an education, yet our elementary schools face a truancy crisis,” Attorney General Harris said. “When children in kindergarten through sixth grade miss school, they fall behind and too many never catch up. The consequences for California’s economy and public safety are very serious. These bills modernize attendance monitoring and build the support schools, parents and communities need to get California’s children to class."

The legislation will:

-          Assist schools and counties as they work with parents to address the core reasons behind truancy and chronic absence.

-          Provide local school districts and counties tools to comply with attendance tracking requirements in the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), state truancy mandates and state and federal reporting requirements.

-          Modernize state and local systems to track and prevent truancy and chronic absence.

-          Ensure that schools, districts, counties and the state can evaluate the success of interventions to combat truancy and chronic absence.

“It is an honor to be able to partner with Attorney General Harris on SB 1107. We have long known the importance of early childhood education, and that full attendance of elementary school students is one of the keys to later academic success. By mandating the annual tracking and reporting by the Attorney General, we will be able to offer local school districts additional tools in tackling this very complex issue,” Senator Monning said.

“I’m proud to stand with Attorney General Harris to unveil this package of legislation that will help to address the truancy crisis here in California. AB 1866 will allow educators and stakeholders to identify students at risk of becoming truants earlier in the process, which will allow preventative steps to be taken to ensure these students get back to school and back on track. Hundreds of thousands of our young men and women are truant from school each and every year. That is simply unacceptable and I applaud Attorney General Harris for helping to shine a spotlight on this critical issue,” Assemblymember Bocanegra said.

“Putting our children on the right path starts with making sure they are in school, and requires that we all work together to ensure that happens. That means developing the lines of communication between schools, parents and law enforcement to address the issue—which is what AB 2141 does. Additionally, this package of bills being put forward by the Attorney General will help stakeholders intervene early when students are not in class,” Assemblymember Bonta said.

“With the right individuals at the table, such as mental health or social service agencies, we can work with students and families to find a positive solution to attendance challenges. By requiring every county to have a SARB, we guarantee that this important tool is available across the state,” said Assemblymember Buchanan.

"A student's chronic truancy is a symptom of larger problems in a young person's life. Our efforts to reduce student truancy mean very little when we don't know which programs work and which ones don't. My AB 2141 is an important tool in helping to identify successful outcomes which will help us to better coordinate state and local efforts needed to keep students on track and in the classroom,” Assemblymember Hall said.

“I am proud to author a bill that will help more students stay in the classroom and out of the courtroom.  If schools aren’t tracking what students are missing you won’t be able to effectively fix the problem. Second graders are missing school and arriving late for very different reasons than 11th graders. Requiring County Offices of Education to forward the complete reports to the Department of Education will allow the State to identify trends and find best practices to address this crisis,” Assemblymember Holden said.

In School +On Track also made the point that elementary school truancy is at the root of the state’s chronic criminal justice problems. Missing large amounts of school is one of the strongest predictors of falling behind academically and dropping out, even in early grades. According to one study, students who missed 10% of their kindergarten and first grade years scored, on average, 60 points below similar students with good attendance on third-grade reading tests. And, students who don’t read proficiently by the third grade are four times more likely not to receive a high school diploma than proficient readers, which puts them at risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of crime. An increase of graduation rates by just 10% would result in a 20% drop in violent crime, and prevent 500 murders and more than 20,000 aggravated assaults per year in California.

Annually, dropouts cost California taxpayers an estimated $46.4 billion in incarceration, lost productivity and lost taxes.

As the District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General Harris started a citywide truancy initiative in 2006.  Over a two-year period, then-District Attorney Harris’ initiative reduced truancy among elementary students in San Francisco by 23%, according to the San Francisco Unified School District.  The initiative also served as a model for SB 1317 (Leno), which defined “chronic truancy” for the first time under state law and established the initiative’s model of combining meaningful services with smart sanctions in the California Penal Code.  The bill was sponsored by then-District Attorney Harris and was enacted into law in 2010.

Attorney General Harris’ Truancy Legislation Package

SENATE BILL 1107 - Mandated Annual Report Legislation

Author: Senator Bill Monning

Mandate that the California Attorney General issue an annual report on elementary school truancy and chronic absenteeism similar to 2013’s In School + On Track report. This will help track truancy and chronic absence rates and highlight effective programs to improve attendance across the state.

ASSEMBLY BILL 1866 - Statewide Attendance Data System

Author: Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra

Enhance the state Department of Education’s student record system to include fields on truancy and absenteeism. California is one of only four states in the country that does not collect student attendance data. This will allow local school districts to monitor and analyze attendance patterns, as required under the LCFF.

ASSEMBLY BILL 1672 - Enhanced SARB (Student Attendance Review Board) Reports

Author: Assemblymember Chris Holden

Require that local SARBs (School Attendance Review Boards) report annually on referral rates to county offices of education and expand these reports to include information on student enrollment, absence and truancy rates, district attorney referrals and SARB intervention outcomes. Current annual SARB reports provide minimal information about intervention outcomes, so it is difficult to get the full picture of SARB efforts around the state. This bill ensures schools, districts and counties can evaluate the success of truancy intervention efforts.

ASSEMBLY BILL 1643 - Mandatory SARBs

Author: Assemblymember Joan Buchanan

Require that every county create a SARB. Forty years ago, the legislature created SARBs in order to divert students who were having school attendance issues from the juvenile justice system. County SARBs are a great local tool to provide training, guidance and oversight to local SARBs within a county to ensure consistency and achievement of the SARB’s core mission: improved attendance.

ASSEMBLY BILL 2141 - District Attorney Referral Outcome Reports

Authors: Assemblymember Isadore Hall, Assemblymember Rob Bonta

Require that when a parent or student is referred to district attorney’s office or any other agency engaged in prosecution or charges are considered to enforce state school attendance laws, the prosecuting agency must provide a report on the outcome of the referral. This helps school officials determine which outcomes are effective and guarantees baseline information sharing between referring agencies and prosecutors.

Additional statements of support for this legislation and graphics from the press conference are available at: https://oag.ca.gov/news

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today filed a lawsuit against Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCI) and its subsidiaries that operate Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges for false and predatory advertising, intentional misrepresentations to students, securities fraud and unlawful use of military seals in advertisements.

The complaint alleges that CCI intentionally targeted low-income, vulnerable Californians through deceptive and false advertisements and aggressive marketing campaigns that misrepresented job placement rates and school programs. CCI deployed these advertisements through persistent internet, telemarketing and television ad campaigns. The complaint further alleges that Corinthian executives knowingly misrepresented job placement rates to investors and accrediting agencies, which harmed students, investors and taxpayers.

“The predatory scheme devised by executives at Corinthian Colleges, Inc. is unconscionable. Designed to rake in profits and mislead investors, they targeted some of our state’s most particularly vulnerable people—including low income, single mothers and veterans returning from combat,” Attorney General Harris said. “My office will continue our investigation into the for-profit college industry and will hold accountable those responsible for these illegal, exploitative practices.”

According to Harris’ complaint, CCI’s predatory marketing efforts specifically target vulnerable, low-income job seekers and single parents who have annual incomes near the federal poverty line. In internal company documents obtained by the Department of Justice, CCI describes its target demographic as “isolated,” “impatient,” individuals with “low self-esteem,” who have “few people in their lives who care about them” and who are “stuck” and “unable to see and plan well for future.”

According to the complaint, CCI advertised job placement rates as high as 100% for specific programs when, in some cases, there is no evidence that a single student obtained a job during the specified time frame. The complaint further alleges that CCI runs millions of online and mobile ads offering ultrasound, x-ray, radiology, and dialysis technician programs at their California campuses—when, in fact, CCI does not offer those programs. CCI’s call center agents are disciplined if they tell callers that CCI does not offer these programs. Additionally, according to the complaint, CCI includes official Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard seals in mailings and on web sites without authorization and in violation of California law.

The complaint alleges that CCI committed securities fraud by reporting a nationwide job placement rate of 68.1% in presentations to investors, when senior executives knew this percentage was false. The complaint describes internal audits emailed to CCI executives that show job placement data error rates between 53% and 70%. The complaint references an email from a CCI executive which explains that in 2011, two Everest College campuses (Hayward and San Francisco) paid a temporary employment agency “to place students to meet the accreditation deadline and minimum placement %.” The complaint also states that CCI double-counted job placements and failed to maintain required records of reported job placements.

According to a recent CCI securities filing, the average tuition for a CCI associate’s degree is $40,000 and the average tuition for an online CCI associate’s degree is $34,000.  The average tuition for CCI’s non-degree healthcare programs is $17,000.

CCI is based in Santa Ana and currently operates 24 Everest, Heald and WyoTech campuses in California, 111 total campuses in North America and three online programs. Out of the 81,000 students who attend CCI colleges, approximately 27,000 (33%) are in California.

CCI is a publicly traded corporation with assets of over $1 billion. Federal funds account for almost all of CCI’s annual revenue.

In July 2013, Attorney General Harris filed a separate lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court to enforce an investigative subpoena against Bridgepoint Education Inc., operator of Ashford University, as part of an investigation of that company’s practices.

Current or former CCI students who wish to file a complaint can contact the Attorney General’s Office at: http://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company

Resources for current or former CCI students are available at: oag.ca.gov

A copy of the complaint is attached to the electronic version of this release at: http://oag.ca.gov/news

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today issued the following statement on the California Endowment’s announcement that part of its $50 million “Sons & Brothers” campaign will fund multiple programs focused on reducing truancy and chronic absence in California elementary schools:

“California’s elementary school truancy crisis is hurting our children, the economy and public safety,”  Attorney General Harris said.  “The California Endowment’s investment is the kind of leadership California needs to combat this problem and build a stronger, more secure state. Everyone has a role in getting our youngest students to class, and I thank the Endowment for tackling this important issue head on.”

Today, the California Endowment announced a commitment of $50 million over the next 7 years which will focus on chronic absence, 3rd grade reading levels, high school graduation and postsecondary certification. Among other goals, the campaign aims to improve attendance by 30% in partnering schools.

Last week, Attorney General Harris released a report, In School +On Track, which examines the state’s elementary school truancy crisis and provides solutions to fight the problem.  According to the report, students who are chronically absent before 3rd grade score 60% lower on 3rd grade reading level tests. Studies show that 1 in 6 students who are unable to read proficiently by 3rd grade will fail to graduate from high school on time which costs the state billions of dollars. The Attorney General’s report called on funders to focus their efforts on improving 3rd grade reading levels by financing new programs to improve elementary school attendance.

More information on the California Endowment’s campaign can be found here: http://www.calendow.org/sonsandbrothers.aspx

Attorney General Harris’ report can be found here: http://oag.ca.gov/truancy

LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today unveiled the first state-wide statistics on California’s truancy crisis which reveal that, last year alone, 1 million elementary school students were truant and 250,000 elementary school students missed 18 or more school days at a cost of $1.4 billion in lost funds to California school districts.

These findings are part of a report, In School and On Track, issued today by Attorney General Harris in Los Angeles where statewide education, public policy and law enforcement leaders were convened to discuss this crisis and identify concrete solutions.

“The California Constitution guarantees every child the right to an education, yet we are failing our youngest children, as early as kindergarten,” Attorney General Harris said. “These are children as young as five years old who are out of school, falling behind, and too many of them never catch up. This crisis is not only crippling for our economy, it is a basic threat to public safety.  It’s time for accountability and to craft real solutions at every level - from parents to school districts, to law enforcement - to solve this problem.”

According to the report, elementary school truancy is at the root of the state’s chronic criminal justice problems. According to the report, missing large amounts of school is one of the strongest predictors of dropping-out, even more so than suspensions or test scores. Annually, dropouts cost California taxpayers an estimated $46.4 billion in incarceration, lost productivity and lost taxes.

Information broken down by school district and county is available here: https://oag.ca.gov/truancy and: https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/ch1

Key Findings from In School and On Track:

• In California last year, 1 million elementary school students were truant and 250,000 students missed 18 or more school days.
• In some California elementary schools, 92% of students were truant last year.
• California school districts are losing $1.4 billion in funding due to truant students.

Solutions from In School and On Track:

• California must create a statewide system to collect student attendance records.
• School districts must improve the way truant students are monitored.
• School administrators must meet with parents or guardians immediately when a child is truant.
• Law enforcement must focus on early, positive intervention to empower parents and students.
• Parents must be held accountable, including prosecution in the most severe cases.

Attorney General Harris was joined at the symposium by: Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Compton City Mayor Aja Brown, Dr. Robert Ross, President & CEO of the California Endowment, Tom Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Hedy Chang, Director of Attendance Works.

The California Attorney General’s office will issue this report annually.  The office’s Civil Rights Enforcement Section spent 7 months researching this crisis and convening stakeholders to devise solutions.

As the District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General Harris started a citywide truancy initiative in 2006.  In the course of investigating factors contributing to the city’s violent crime rate, she found that 94% of San Francisco homicide victims under age 25 were high school dropouts.  Then-District Attorney Harris formed a partnership with the school district to inform parents that they had a legal duty to ensure that their children attended school, provide parents of chronically truant students with wrap-around services and school-based mediation, and prosecute parents in the most severe cases where other interventions did not work.

Over a two-year period, then-District Attorney Harris’s initiative reduced truancy among elementary students in San Francisco by 23%, according to the San Francisco Unified School District.  The initiative also served as a model for SB 1317 (Leno), which defined “chronic truancy” for the first time under state law and established the initiative’s model of combining meaningful services with smart sanctions in the California Penal Code.  The bill was sponsored by then-District Attorney Harris and was enacted in law in 2010.

The report is available in its entirety online at: https://oag.ca.gov/truancy

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court affirming the critical importance of diversity in higher education.

Attorney General Harris’ brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm an appellate court decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, a case that involves race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas. The brief argues that the considerable educational and societal benefits of a diverse student body strongly support the Court reaffirming its acknowledgment under the 14th Amendment that the U.S. Constitution affords educators the flexibility to consider race, among many factors, in admission decisions.

Oral arguments for Fisher v. University of Texas will be heard on October 10.

“A diverse student body better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce and society, and better prepares them as professionals. Moreover, it has been shown that because of the “resegregation” of American society, many students enter college with limited precollege exposure to people of different races, cultures, and ethnicities. Interaction during college years with students of different races and cultures can help disrupt the cycle of resegregation and lead to more positive cross-racial interaction and understanding,” the amicus brief states.

A copy of the brief is attached to the online version of this release at www.oag.ca.gov