Lawmakers hear bill to report school achievement for students with chronic absences

Assemblymember Bridal Miller, representing Assembly District 5, told the Senate Committee on Education that Assembly Bill 3 91 would revise school accountability reporting so that public school and charter reports separately show achievement for students who missed more than 10 school days in the year before testing.

"Assembly bill 3 91 seeks to enhance the accountability and transparency of our education system by refining reporting requirements to include detailed disaggregated data on student performance including chronic absenteeism," Bridal Miller said. She told the panel the goal is to give parents, educators and policymakers clearer data to target interventions.

The bill would require each district to report the percent of students who have accrued more than 10 absences before the start of that district’s testing window and to disaggregate achievement scores for that group from students with fewer absences. Bridal Miller said the proposal treats excused and unexcused absences the same for reporting purposes: "Whether your absence is excused or unexcused, this impacts your ability to obtain instruction and practice."

Proponents cited high absenteeism rates in Nevada. Bridal Miller cited figures from state and federal education agencies, noting that Nevada has among the highest chronic-absence rates nationally and that for the 2022–23 school year "39 percent of Nevada students were deemed chronically absent," and earlier referencing a 25.9 percent rate reported by the Nevada Department of Education for a recent year. Robert Munson of the Nevada State Education Association told the committee that disaggregating achievement by attendance would help clarify which classroom instruction reaches students who are attending and which students need additional supports.

Committee members pressed on scope and use of the data. Senator Fabian Titus asked how long the state should collect the measure; Bridal Miller said the bill does not set a sunset and recommended keeping the reporting in place for "3 to 5 years" to establish trends. Senator Cruz Crawford asked whether the new reporting would be linked to the Nevada School Performance Framework or to educator evaluations; Bridal Miller said, "Absolutely not," and emphasized the intent is informational, not punitive.

Other questions clarified implementation details. The bill measures absences from the first day of school to the date a district begins its testing window; districts set testing calendars within the state board window, Bridal Miller said. Partial-day absences follow district definitions of an absence; a half-day that a district counts as absent would be included, she said. The reporting would be by school building and not identify individual students.

Public testimony was mixed. Supporters included Mary Pruzinski of the Nevada Association of School Superintendents and Nathaniel Waugh of the Clark County School District, who thanked the sponsor for collaborating on amendments and said the data could help communicate with families. Opposing testimony came from student Brianna Lee, who said the bill "does not account for differences between excused and unexcused absences" and expressed concern that the data could be used to limit excused absences for activities or medical recovery. Neutral testimony from students raised concerns about the limits of standardized tests as the sole measure of learning.

Bridal Miller closed by reiterating that the measure would apply only to public schools and public charter schools that receive public funds and by repeating that the proposal is intended to produce data for policymakers and community stakeholders rather than to punish schools or educators.

The committee took testimony and closed the hearing on Assembly Bill 3 91; no final vote or committee action was recorded in the hearing transcript.