Oregon bill would standardize absence codes to clarify why students miss school

Senate Bill 315 would require the Oregon Department of Education to review how school districts record student absences and recommend a common coding system and response practices, sponsors and witnesses told the House Education Committee on April 28.

The bill, introduced in the Senate and presented to the House Education Committee for a public hearing, directs ODE to submit a report to the Legislative Assembly and the State Board of Education by May 31, 2026, summarizing the review, a recommended common coding system, best practices for recording attendance and any suggested administrative-rule or legislative changes. A legislative fiscal office memo attached to the bill describes a minimal fiscal impact.

Sen. Suzanne Weber, who testified in favor of the bill, said standardized codes would help the state tell “apples to apples” when comparing absences across districts and would make it clearer whether chronically absent students miss school for solvable reasons. “This will help Oregon begin comparing apples to apples when it comes to student absences,” Weber said, adding that knowing why students miss school — for example, medical treatment versus problems at home — affects what support they need.

Parisa Chanrami, representing the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators and a member of the chronic-absenteeism work group, told the committee the bill grew from interim work. Chanrami said successful district efforts she studied placed families and relationships at the center of attendance work and paired that with targeted, sustainable investments. She said the bill “would streamline the coding and reporting of attendance data” and that ODE’s role should include both coding guidance and best practices for responding as students approach a 10-day threshold.

Zoe Larmer of the Oregon Department of Education told the committee the engrossed A version of the bill reduced the amount of work expected of ODE compared with earlier drafts. “We do see a reduction in the amount of lift that there is there,” Larmer said, and added ODE would report back to the Legislature if additional fiscal resources were needed.

The hearing did not include committee action on the bill. Witnesses and sponsors emphasized the measure is an early step: it would not itself solve chronic absenteeism but could give schools clearer, more actionable data to target interventions required by different causes of absence.

The committee received written testimony and asked ODE to be ready to clarify fiscal and implementation details as the bill moves through the process.