Saratoga News

State Senate bill eliminates students' excused absences

Early weekends will cost schools

By John Pancharian

Effective July 1, the "excused absence" in California schools will be no more.

Signed by Gov. Pete Wilson in October 1997, Senate Bill 727 will change the way the state pays school districts for the number of students attending each day. Officials say the move is an effort to bring more students to school.

Previously, schools received state money based on the number of students who attended each day, plus the number who were absent with a note from their parents. Under the new law, schools will receive money only for the students who are actually in school, regardless of the reasons for the others' absences. To avoid massively defunding the schools, the bill also adjusts school revenue limits to offset the loss in excused-absence revenue.

"We're actually the only state in the union which pays for excused absences," Linda Latasa, business manager at Los Gatos Union School District, said. Neither she nor other school administrators in other Los Gatos and Saratoga districts believe the law would have a marked effect fiscally--at least for the time being.

The new law calls for schools to document the amount of money they received for excused absences in 1996 and 1997. This amount will then be added to the amount they receive from the state as part of their revenue limit--a complex formula that determines how much money the state pays a school per student. Thus, even if they no longer receive excused absence money, schools still receive funding.

Districts with high excused absence rates stand to gain money in the future if they can bring them down. In Los Gatos and Saratoga schools, where absence rates have traditionally been very low, the challenge is to keep them low so the school will not lose money. To safeguard their funding, local districts said they hope to develop ways to cut down on planned absences. For example, under the new law, if a student goes skiing with his parents and takes a Friday off school, the school loses money.

Schools with large independent study programs could also be adversely affected. Such programs allow students who have behavioral problems or life circumstances that make it difficult for them to study at school to study away from campus and check in with teachers. Because students receive excused absences while attending these programs, schools will have to find some way to cope with the coming changes.

Latasa and other business managers say they plan to look into the effects of the law in depth this summer to plan for any changes they may have to make.

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