(a) The governing board of each school district and each county superintendent of schools shall appoint a supervisor of attendance and any assistant supervisors of attendance as may be necessary to supervise the attendance of pupils in the school district or county. The governing board of the school district or county superintendent of schools shall prescribe the duties of the supervisor of attendance and assistant supervisors of attendance to include, among other duties that may be required, those specific duties related to compulsory full-time education, truancy, work permits, compulsory continuation education, and opportunity schools, classes, and programs, now required of the attendance supervisors by this chapter and Article 4 (commencing with Section 48450) of Chapter 3 and Article 2 (commencing with Section 48640) of Chapter 4.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that in performing his or her duties, the supervisor of attendance promote a culture of attendance and establish a system to accurately track pupil attendance in order to achieve all of the following:

(1) Raise the awareness of school personnel, parents, guardians, caregivers, community partners, and local businesses of the effects of chronic absenteeism and truancy and other challenges associated with poor attendance.

(2) Identify and respond to grade level or pupil subgroup patterns of chronic absenteeism or truancy.

(3) Identify and address factors contributing to chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, including suspension and expulsion.

(4) Ensure that pupils with attendance problems are identified as early as possible to provide applicable support services and interventions.

(5) Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies implemented to reduce chronic absenteeism rates and truancy rates.

(c) When a pupil with a temporary disability, as defined in Section 48206.3, is receiving individual instruction in the home or a hospital or other residential health facility, the supervisor of attendance shall ensure that absences from the pupil’s regular school program are excused until the pupil is able to return to the regular school program.

(d) The supervisor of attendance may provide support services and interventions, which may include, but are not limited to, any or all of the following:

(1) A conference between school personnel, the pupil’s parent or guardian, and the pupil.

(2) Promoting cocurricular and extracurricular activities that increase pupil connectedness to school, such as tutoring, mentoring, the arts, service learning, or athletics.

(3) Recognizing pupils who achieve excellent attendance or demonstrate significant improvement in attendance.

(4) Referral to a school nurse, school counselor, school psychologist, school social worker, and other pupil support personnel for case management and counseling.

(5) Collaboration with child welfare services, law enforcement, courts, public health care agencies, or government agencies, or medical, mental health, and oral health care providers to receive necessary services.

(6) Collaborating with school study teams, guidance teams, school attendance review teams, or other intervention-related teams to assess the attendance or behavior problem in partnership with the pupil and his or her parents, guardians, or caregivers.

(7) In schools with significantly higher rates of chronic absenteeism, identify barriers to attendance that may require schoolwide strategies rather than case management.

(8) Referral for a comprehensive psychosocial or psychoeducational assessment, including for purposes of creating an individualized education program for an individual with exceptional needs, as that term is defined in Section 56026, or plan adopted for a qualified handicapped person, as that term is defined in regulations promulgated by the United States Department of Education pursuant to Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 794).

(9) Referral to a school attendance review board established by the county or by a school district pursuant to Section 48321 or to the probation department pursuant to Section 48263.

(10) Referral to a truancy mediation program operated by the county’s district attorney or probation officer pursuant to Section 48260.6.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 167, Sec. 7. (AB 2109) Effective January 1, 2019.)