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Superintendent: policy limiting short-term independent study cut absences; limited exception to be proposed
Summary
The superintendent presented district data showing thousands fewer absences since a board policy stopped allowing short-term independent study adjacent to five-plus-day breaks and said she will recommend allowing one limited exception per elementary and secondary grade span.
The superintendent of Milpitas Unified said the district finished the year "almost at 96%" attendance, short of a 97% goal, and argued attendance "is the very first step to school success." She credited a board policy that bars short-term independent study (STIS) directly before or after five-plus-day vacations with large reductions in absences and chronic absenteeism.
The superintendent introduced the district data analyst, Hazel Juan, and presented three evaluation questions that guided the analysis: how much attendance improved versus the baseline four years earlier; what average daily attendance (ADA) loss resulted from removing the STIS option adjacent to extended breaks; and whether the improvement outweighed any ADA losses.
She said elementary grades recorded 2,737 fewer absences compared with the baseline year. For middle and high schools she reported 2,176 fewer absences and "150" ADA losses since the policy took effect. The transcript did not clearly specify the exact ADA loss figure for elementary grades; the superintendent said the elementary reduction in absences was "greater than the loss of" ADA but the numeric ADA loss for elementary grades was not clearly stated in the remarks.
Summarizing the district's assessment, the superintendent said the STIS restriction "has greatly improved our attendance," contributing to roughly a 10% decline in chronic absenteeism. She said more detailed analysis will be presented at the district's first board meeting in August, when Hazel Juan will go through the full dataset.
As a next step, the superintendent said she plans to recommend that the board slightly revise the STIS policy to allow one STIS instance in an elementary grade span and one in the secondary grade span directly adjacent to a five-day-or-longer break. She characterized the change as a limited, targeted exception motivated by observed trends rather than a full return to the previous practice.
No formal board action or vote on the proposed revision was taken during this presentation; the superintendent framed the item as a preview and promised a fuller report and recommendation at a future board meeting.
