SB 1028 Summary

• Expands school board annual reporting requirements to include suspensions and truancy/chronic absenteeism data broken down by student race, gender, and ethnicity, with brief written descriptions of incidents and disciplinary outcomes.

• Prohibits suspension or expulsion of pupils solely for being truant or chronically absent.

• Defines new attendance-related terms including "chronically absent" (10% or more absences per school year), "truant" (10 or more unexcused absences per school year), "disciplinary absent," and "excused absence" with specific qualifying reasons.

• Requires school districts to provide assistance for illiteracy and allow non-English-speaking parents to submit absence documentation in their native language.

• Adds tracking requirements for disciplinary absences as short-term (1-5 consecutive days) or long-term (6+ consecutive days) for data collection purposes.