Citizen Portal
Sign In

Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!

California study and state reports link community schools to lower chronic absence, fewer suspensions and modest test-score gains

California State Assembly · February 10, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

A Learning Policy Institute matched study of early grantees and state implementation reports presented at a California State Assembly hearing found community schools reduced chronic absence and one-day suspensions and produced modest academic gains, with larger effects for historically underserved students; witnesses urged sustained funding and a June outcome study to probe mechanisms.

The California Community Schools Partnership Program has been associated with substantial reductions in chronic absenteeism, declines in one-day suspensions and modest gains on standardized tests among early grantees, presenters told a joint California State Assembly hearing on community schools.

"After a full year of implementing the grant program . . . community schools reduced chronic absence rates by about 30% more than the comparison schools," Anna Mayer of the Learning Policy Institute said in testimony summarizing a matched comparison study of the program’s first cohort. Mayer also reported that community schools decreased one-day suspension rates by about 15% on average and produced learning gains roughly equivalent to a quarter of a grade level in math and one-fifth of a grade level in English language arts.

Ingrid Burberson, chief…

Already have an account? Log in

Subscribe to keep reading

Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.

  • Unlimited articles
  • AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
  • Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
  • Follow topics and more locations
  • 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
30-day money-back on paid plans