Bill Summary for Bill Number Bill 1

Date: 09/19/2012

Final
Bill 1

EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS TASK FORCE

Votes: View-->	Action Taken:
Moved a conceptual amendment to Bill 1 to count on Moved a conceptual amendment to Bill 1 to strike " Moved that Bill 1, as amended, be forwarded to Leg	Pass Without Objection FAIL FAIL

01:13 PM -- Bill 1

All of the materials referenced in this summary and an audio recording of the meeting are available on the Educational Success Task Force website at: http://www.colorado.gov/lcs/EdSuccessTF.

Senator King welcomed the members of the Educational Success Task Force (task force) and the audience to the meeting. The members of the task force introduced themselves and Senator King discussed the process for the day.

Julie Pelegrin, Office of Legislative Legal Services, presented Bill 1 to the task force. Bill 1 concerns measures to ensure that students comply with compulsory school attendance requirements and requires schools to address habitual truancy through a multi-disciplinary plan, limiting the length of detention that a court may impose to enforce compulsory school attendance, allowing students who are under juvenile court jurisdiction to obtain a GED, and specifying minimum requirements for education services provided in juvenile detention facilities.

Representative Fields stated that Colorado needs a contemporary approach to dealing with truancy and that it is no longer appropriate to send a student to juvenile detention for violating school attendance requirements. She stated that currently, there is no limit on the number of days that a young person may be detained in Colorado, due to truancy. She added that there needs to be a process in place to intervene and find out what can be done to improve the overall attendance of the young person.

01:25 PM

Senator Hudak asked why excused absences are being included in the calculation of habitual truancy. Representative Fields responded that even when an absence is excused, the student is still missing school. The task force discussed the bill.

Dr. Judy Skupa, task force co-chair, stated that from a school district perspective, attendance is a big deal. She said that it concerns her to identify a student as habitually truant when the absences may be for a very fulfilling reason such as the students family is visiting another country and exposing the student to different cultures.

Senator King expressed concern about using excused and unexcused absences as the trigger for habitual truancy. He also questioned whether a multi-disciplinary plan is defined in the bill.

Representative Murray expressed concern about legislating another requirement to school districts and suggested that the task force make a recommendation to the school districts that they create a system for intervening when student attendance is an issue. Representative Holbert shared Representative Murray's concerns.

Michelle Pearson, task force member, expressed concern about being able to take her students out of the classroom for enriching experiences. She said that during any given month, a student may end up having four or five excused absences in a month, for classroom related activities.

01:41 PM

Jo O'Brien, Assistant Commissioner of Standards and Assessment, Colorado Department of Education (CDE), stated that CDE does not have an official position on the bill.

The task force discussed the bill.


BILL:	Bill 1
TIME:	01:46:36 PM
MOVED:	Hudak
MOTION:	Moved a conceptual amendment to Bill 1 to count only unexcused absences in the determination of a student's habitual truancy. The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:
		VOTE
	Bacon	Excused
	Fields
	Holbert
	Murray
	Hudak
	King K.

YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection


BILL:	Bill 1
TIME:	01:51:53 PM
MOVED:	Hudak
MOTION:	Moved a conceptual amendment to Bill 1 to strike "research based" from page 5, line 6 and from page 7, line 14. The motion failed on a roll call vote of 1-4.
SECONDED:
		VOTE
	Bacon	Excused
	Fields	No
	Holbert	No
	Murray	No
	Hudak	Yes
	King K.	No

YES: 1 NO: 4 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: FAIL


BILL:	Bill 1
TIME:	01:56:35 PM
MOVED:	King K.
MOTION:	Moved that Bill 1, as amended, be forwarded to Legislative Council. The motion failed on a roll call vote of 2-3.
SECONDED:
		VOTE
	Bacon	Excused
	Fields	Yes
	Holbert	No
	Murray	No
	Hudak	Yes
	King K.	No

Final YES: 2 NO: 3 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: FAIL