1.  The board of trustees of a school district may appoint an attendance officer for the school district, who need not be a licensed employee of the school district, except that in any school district where a system of classified employment is in effect, attendance officers must be classified employees of the school district. If the board of trustees appoints an attendance officer for the school district, the board of trustees may:

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(a) Fix the compensation of the attendance officer;

(b) Prescribe the duties of the attendance officer; and

(c) Adopt regulations not inconsistent with law for the performance of the duties of the attendance officer.

2.  The board of trustees of each school district shall:

(a) Establish procedures to monitor the attendance, chronic absenteeism and truancy of pupils, including, without limitation, a standard method for reporting the chronic absenteeism and truancy of pupils and a standard method for reporting excessive absences of pupils throughout the school district;

(b) Coordinate efforts to refer pupils who are truant to appropriate providers of community services; and

(c) Determine, based on the attendance, chronic absenteeism and truancy of pupils at each school within the school district, whether to employ an attendance clerk for a particular school or group of schools whose primary responsibility is to monitor the attendance and truancy of pupils.

3.  The Department shall adopt by regulation a definition of the term ‘chronic absenteeism.’ The board of trustees of each school district shall ensure that the actions taken pursuant to subsection 2 are consistent with such a definition.