The State Board of Education shall define “excused absence”, “unexcused absence” and “disciplinary absence” for use by local and regional boards of education for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of section 10-198a, reporting truancy, pursuant to subsection (c) of section 10-220, and calculating the district chronic absenteeism rate and the school chronic absenteeism rate pursuant to section 10-198c. On or before July 1, 2021, the State Board of Education shall amend the definitions of “excused absence” and “unexcused absence” to exclude a student's engagement in

1. (1) virtual classes,
2. (2) virtual meetings,
3. (3) activities on time-logged electronic systems, and
4. (4) the completion and submission of assignments, if such engagement accounts for not less than one-half of the school day during remote learning authorized pursuant to section 10-4w. As used in this section, “remote learning” means instruction by means of one or more Internet-based software platforms as part of a remote learning model.

(P.A. 11-136, S. 18; P.A. 15-255, S. 5; P.A. 21-46, S. 18; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2, S. 393.)

History: P.A. 11-136 effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 15-225 added requirement that State Board of Education define “disciplinary absence”, added provision re calculating district and school chronic absenteeism rates and made a conforming change, effective July 1, 2015; P.A. 21-46 deleted “on or before July 1, 2012, the” and reference to on or before January 1, 2016 and made conforming changes, added provision re State Board of Education amending definitions of “excused absence” and “unexcused absence” to exclude certain student engagement and added definition of “virtual learning”, effective June 16, 2021; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2 replaced “virtual learning” with “remote learning” and redefined “virtual learning” as “remote learning” and replaced “an in-person or” with “a” in the definition, effective July 1, 2021.