OLR Bill Analysis

sSB 940 (File 647, as amended by Senate "A")*

AN ACT CONCERNING THE REPORTING OF TRUANCY DATA.

SUMMARY:

This bill requires boards of education to include information about truancy in the strategic school profile report they must submit annually. This information must be included with the data about student and school performance that is already required. The bill specifies that measures of truancy includes the type of data the State Department of Education is required to collect on attendance and unexcused absences to comply with federal reporting requirements (i. e. , the 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act). The bill further specifies that data must be considered a public record under the Freedom of Information Act.

The bill also eliminates reporting requirements for the chief information officer and the Department of Information Technology (DOIT).

Under current law, the chief information officer must, annually on February 1, submit to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) secretary a report showing the appropriation to each state agency for the fiscal year in progress for information and telecommunication systems and the actual expenditures for such systems by each such agency as of December 31^st of the fiscal year. Annually on August 1, the chief information officer must submit the report with respect to the last completed fiscal year to the OPM secretary. The bill eliminates the February report in its entirety and, starting annually on August 1, 2009, requires the officer to submit only actual expenditures for the last completed fiscal year to the OPM secretary.

Finally, the bill eliminates the requirement that DOIT report annually to the Education Committee on the technical assistance it must provide to boards of education and technical schools to expand their educational technology capabilities.

*Senate Amendment “A” clarifies the truancy provision and adds the provisions on the chief information officer and DOIT.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009

COMMITTEE ACTION

Education Committee

Joint Favorable Substitute

Government Administration and Elections Committee

Joint Favorable