DATE: August 23, 2016
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Lisa A. Smittcamp, District Attorney-Public Administrator
SUBJECT: Retroactive Agreement with Fresno Unified School District for the Attendance Matters Truancy Program
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
Approve and authorize Chairman to execute a Retroactive Agreement with the Fresno Unified School District to provide funding for one Deputy District Attorney for the Attendance Matters Program, effective July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 ($200,000).
REPORT
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. The Attendance Matters Agreement is a truancy program with the Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) and provides funding for one Deputy District Attorney position for FY 2016-17.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
If the recommended action is not approved, the revenue, appropriations and staffing associated with this program will be eliminated from the FY 2016-17 District Attorney-Grants Org 2862 Adopted Budget.
RETROACTIVE AGREEMENT:
This Agreement was approved by the FUSD Board of Education on June 15, 2016 and brought to your Board on the next meeting possible.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost (NCC) associated with the recommended action. The Agreement provides $200,000 for one Deputy District Attorney and associated operating expenses through June 30, 2017. The total cost of this program is estimated to be $212,255 with $200,000 in revenue and $12,255 in NCC budgeted in the FY 2016-17 Adopted Budget for District Attorney-Grants Org 28624000.
DISCUSSION:
The District Attorney-Public Administrator (DA-PA) and FUSD recognize the correlation between chronic school absenteeism, criminal activity, drug abuse, and incarceration. The Attendance Matters program is designed to help decrease truancy, improve attendance, increase learning opportunities, and raise financial revenue for FUSD. This will be the second year of the program.
For the program, FUSD selected eight elementary schools that feed into the seven different traditional high schools. Each of the selected schools had demonstrated attendance problems, high poverty rates and at risk students. For the 2015-16 school year, the combined student population in those eight elementary schools was 4,203 of which 202 students were identified by FUSD to participate in the Attendance Matters program. The student population selected had a 63% rate of parent/guardian participation in the program with a success rate of 65% for increased attendance.
With approval of the recommended action, the Deputy District Attorney assigned to this grant will continue to operate, manage, and direct the Attendance Matters program on a full-time basis. Duties include but are not limited to the training of school district personnel regarding program procedures and instruction in meeting the legal requirements for truancy prosecution, conducting school site meetings with parents/students, issuing letters to parents/guardians noticing them of the seriousness of the School Attendance Review Board (SARB) process, and prosecuting cases as deemed appropriate.
Should funding for this Agreement be eliminated, the associated position will be deleted.
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
On file with Clerk - Agreement with FUSD
CAO ANALYST:
Jeannie Z. Figueroa