2011-12 California Legislative Session
Governor’s Actions on Education-Related Bills
(Updated October 12, 2011)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Primary SubjectPage
ACCOUNTABILITY...... 1
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS...... 2
ATHLETICS...... 3
ATTENDANCE / TRUANCY...... 3
BONDS...... 4
BUDGET...... 4
CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION...... 5
CHARTER SCHOOLS...... 7
COUNTY OFFICES OF EDUCATION ...... 8
CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION...... 9
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS...... 12
FACILITIES...... 13
FINANCE...... 14
FOSTER CARE...... 16
HEALTH & NUTRITION...... 16
HOME-TO-SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION...... 17
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS...... 18
MANDATES...... 19
OPEN ENROLLMENT / INTERDISTRICT TRANSFERS / CHOICE...... 19
PERSONNEL...... 20
PRESCHOOL / CHILD CARE...... 22
REDEVELOPMENT...... 22
RETIREMENT...... 23
SCHOOL SAFETY...... 24
TEACHER CREDENTIALING / RECRUITMENT...... 26
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION...... 26
MISCELLANEOUS...... 27
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ACCOUNTABILITYAB 180 / (CarterD) Education: academic performance.
Introduced:1/24/2011
Last Amend:9/2/2011
Status:10/9/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 669, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the State Board of Education to allow dropout recovery high schools, numbering no more than 10, to report the results of an individual pupil growth model, that the SPI certifies as meeting specified criteria, in lieu of other indicators under the state's alternative accountability system.
AB 203 / (BrownleyD) Public schools: parent empowerment: school intervention.
Introduced:1/27/2011
Last Amend:9/2/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill would have specified and expanded requirements in several areas of parent empowerment provisions, including the contents of petitions, the signatures for petitions, petition review procedures, and meeting requirements.
Governor's Message:This bill makes significant changes to the petition process contained in the Parent Empowerment Act of 2010. The State Board of Education has spent the past year engaged in a lengthy, contentious process to reach consensus among a diverse group of stakeholders. The result is a set of regulations that received unanimous support and address many of the changes proposed by this bill. I believe that these regulations should have a chance to be implemented and tested by local districts before considering any further modifications.
SB 512 / (PriceD) Academic Performance Index: pupil subgroups: performance data.
Introduced:2/17/2011
Last Amend:6/30/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill have would required Academic Performance Index (API) reporting to include performance data for any pupil subgroup that includes ten or more pupils with valid test scores.
Governor's Message:This bill requires that current school reporting practices include performance data for "any pupil subgroup...that includes ten or more pupils." I commend the author for his important work to improve the public reporting of test scores for students. I note that the African American Advisory Committee convened by the State Board of Education made this recommendation in May and it has now been adopted and implemented. Therefore, this bill is no longer required. I welcome the opportunity to work with the author to achieve our mutual goals administratively whenever possible.
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SB 547 / (SteinbergD) Public school performance accountability.Introduced:2/17/2011
Last Amend:8/31/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:8/31/11: This bill would have replaced the state's current measure of school and school district academic performance, the Academic Performance Index (API), with the Education Quality Index (EQI), an index of school and school district quality comprised of multiple indices, each reflecting a different dimension of school or district performance.
Governor's Message: This bill is yet another siren song of school reform. It renames the Academic Performance Index (API) and reduces its significance by adding three other quantitative measures. While I applaud the author's desire to improve the API, I don't believe that this bill would make our state's accountability regime either more probing or more fair. This bill requires a new collection of indices called the "Education Quality Index" (EQI), consisting of "multiple indicators," many of which are ill-defined and some impossible to design. These "multiple indicators" are expected to change over time, causing measurement instability and muddling the picture of how schools perform. SB 547 would also add significant costs and confusion to the implementation of the newly-adopted Common Core standards which must be in place by 2014. This bill would require us to introduce a whole new system of accountability at the same time we are required to carry out extensive revisions to school curriculum, teaching materials and tests. That doesn't make sense. Finally, while SB 547 attempts to improve the API, it relies on the same quantitative and standardized paradigm at the heart of the current
system. The criticism of the API is that it has led schools to focus too narrowly on tested subjects and ignore other subjects and matters that are vital to a well-rounded education. SB 547 certainly would add more things to measure, but it is doubtful that it would actually improve our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won't turn it into a high-performance machine. Over the last 50 years, academic "experts" have subjected California to unceasing pedagogical change and experimentation. The current fashion is to collect endless quantitative data to populate ever-changing indicators of performance to distinguish the educational "good" from the educational "bad." Instead of recognizing that perhaps we have reached testing nirvana, editorialists and academics alike call for ever more measurement "visions and revisions." A sign hung in Albert Einstein's office read "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS
SB 429 / (DeSaulnierD) Before and after school programs: After School Education and Safety Program: supplemental grants.
Introduced:2/16/2011
Last Amend:9/1/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 626, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill allows after school programs to offer a six-hour program using existing supplemental grant funds.
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ATHLETICSAB 25 / (HayashiD) School districts: athletics: concussions and head injuries.
Introduced:12/6/2010
Last Amend:8/30/2011
Status:10/4/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 456, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:8/31/11: This bill requires a school district that elects to offer athletics to require that an athlete suspected of sustaining a concussion or head injury to be removed from the activity and be evaluated and cleared by a health care provider before returning to the activity.
ATTENDANCE / TRUANCY
AB 207 / (AmmianoD) School attendance: residency requirements.
Introduced:1/31/2011
Last Amend:6/8/2011
Status:10/3/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 435, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill requires school districts to accept reasonable evidence that a pupil meets the residency requirements for school attendance in that district, and specifies which documentation schools must accept as proof of residency.
AB 387 / (BonillaD) Pupils: excused absences: military deployment activities.
Introduced:2/14/2011
Last Amend:6/21/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 610, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill adds spending time with an active duty family member who is on military deployment to the list of reasons that justify a pupil's excused absence from school.
AB 614 / (BonillaD) School attendance review boards: member composition.
Introduced:2/16/2011
Last Amend:5/3/2011
Status:7/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 71, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:5/4/11: This bill requires a representative of school, county, or community mental health personnel to be appointed to a county school attendance review board and a local school attendance review board.
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BONDSAB 732 / (BuchananD) Bond measures: ballot pamphlet: Legislative Analyst: table.
Introduced:2/17/2011
Last Amend:8/31/2011
Status:10/4/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 453, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill requires the Attorney General's summary prepared in the state voter pamphlet for each state bond measure to include an explanatory table summarizing the Legislative Analyst's Office estimated fiscal impact of the bond measure.
SB 423 / (WylandR) School facilities: local bond measures.
Introduced:2/16/2011
Last Amend:6/30/2011
Status:9/6/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 237, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill requires that the constitutionally required annual independent financial and performance audits of the use of school facility construction bonds for each preceding fiscal year be submitted to the citizens' oversight committee by March 31 of each year.
BUDGET
SB 70 / (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) Education finance: Budget Act of 2011.
Introduced:1/10/2011
Last Amend:3/17/2011
Status:3/24/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 7, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:3/22/11: This bill makes education-related statutory revisions consistent with the 2011-12 budget package.
Governor's Message:I am signing Senate Bill 70 with the understanding that the community college deferral amounts identified in Section 41 will be applied beginning with the 2011-12 fiscal year and that future legislation will amend the applicable statute to clarify this intent.
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SBX1 6 / (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) Budget Act of 2011: Director of Finance: reductions.Introduced:5/18/2011
Last Amend:9/6/2011
Status:9/16/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/2011: Among other provisions, this bill contains the "trigger" to make changes to the provision of the budget trailer bill related to implementing mid-year revisions to the Budget Act of 2011.
Governor's Message:Senate Bill X1 6 alters the trigger cuts mechanism included in this year's budget. That's not a good idea. This year, for the first time in a long time, we passed a no-gimmicks, on time budget. Why would we undermine the plan that has earned widespread respect and helped stabilize California's finances? I am returning this bill without my signature.
CAREER TECH
AB 790 / (FurutaniD) Career technical education: Linked Learning Pilot Program.
Introduced:2/17/2011
Last Amend:7/6/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 616, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill establishes the Linked Learning Pilot Program to implement districtwide linked learning methodologies in participating school districts.
AB 835 / (MitchellD) Community colleges: Economic and Workforce Development Program.
Introduced:2/17/2011
Last Amend:6/29/2011
Status:9/6/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 224, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill authorizes a California community college district to enroll a high school pupil who is not a resident of that district in a program that is developed and implemented by the district and provides that the district shall not be subject to any other geographic limitations.
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AB 1310 / (FurutaniD) Career technical education and workforce development.Introduced:2/18/2011
Last Amend:8/30/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:8/31/11: This bill would have required that the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), in conjunction with the California Workforce Investment Board, the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the State Department of Education, and the California Postsecondary Education Commission, [in cooperation with representatives from education, business and labor organizations] develop a strategic plan on education and workforce development. This bill would have authorized the Secretary of LWDA to commence the strategic plan only upon a determination by the Director of Finance that sufficient federal funds or private donations are available to the state to fully support the activities required for development of the strategic plan.
Governor's Message:This bill would require the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, in conjunction with the California Workforce Investment Board, the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the State Department of Education, to develop a strategic plan that connects the delivery of education and workforce development in California. Although I heartily agree with the author's goal, I don't think a new law is needed. My Senior Advisor for Jobs and Economic Development and my Secretary of Labor are already working with educators, labor and business leaders to achieve the important objectives of this bill. I have asked them to work with the author and supporters of the bill to make sure their good ideas are acted on.
AB 1330 / (FurutaniD) Graduation requirements: career technical education.
Introduced:2/18/2011
Last Amend:9/2/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 621, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill, commencing with the 2012-13 school year, adds career technical education as an option for pupils to fulfill the existing high school graduation requirement to complete a course in visual or performing arts or foreign language, and requires school districts that elect this option to notify parents, teachers, pupils and the public, as specified.
SB 537 / (CorreaD) California Cadet Corps.
Introduced:2/17/2011
Last Amend:7/13/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 630, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill authorizes the Adjutant General to enter into an agreement with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, any county, city, or school governing board to establish a military academy. The bill also makes various changes to the California Cadet Corps program.
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SBX1 1 / (SteinbergD) Partnership academies: Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Job Training, Career Technical Education, and Dropout Prevention Program.Introduced:2/1/2011
Last Amend:3/25/2011
Status:4/18/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 2, Statutes of 2011-12 First Extraordinary Session
Is Urgency:N
Summary:5/10/11: This bill establishes the Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Job Training, Career Technical Education, and Dropout Prevention Program for the purpose of creating California Partnership Academies that focus on clean technology and renewable energy businesses.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
AB 86 / (MendozaD) Charter schools: authorization: petition.
Introduced:1/6/2011
Last Amend:9/1/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill would have required a charter school petition to include signatures from at least 50% of the total number of nonsupervisorial certificated and classified employees the petitioner estimates that will be employed by the charter school in the first year of operation. The bill would have required a conversion charter school petition to include at least 50% of the total number of nonsupervisorial certificated and classified employees currently employed at the school that is to be converted to a charter school and would have required the signature petition to prominently display a statement that the classified employee has a meaningful interest in working at the charter school.
Governor's Message:Charter schools are a small but important part of the California public school system. They vary by size, mission, governing structure and educational philosophy. Their purpose is to allow parents, teachers and other interested citizens to form public schools outside the more detailed regulatory framework of the regular school system. They are profoundly difficult to establish and even more difficult to maintain and grow in excellence. Having started two myself, I know whereof I speak. Notwithstanding the important contributions classified staff make to the operation of a school, this bill would unnecessarily complicate an already difficult charter school petition process. I believe the existing law is tough enough.
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AB 1034 / (GattoD) Charter schools.Introduced:2/18/2011
Last Amend:8/31/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Vetoed by the Governor
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill would have made changes to the requirements for charter schools regarding student admissions requirements.
Governor's Message:Charter schools are established to encourage the widest possible range of innovation and creativity. Their governing charters reflect the ideas and aspirations of those willing to undertake this profoundly difficult challenge. It is critical that they have the flexibility to set admission criteria and parent involvement practices that are consistent with the school's mission.
COUNTY OFFICES OF EDUCATION
AB 169 / (TorresD) Education finance.
Introduced:1/20/2011
Last Amend:3/25/2011
Status:7/25/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 95, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:9/9/11: This bill clarifies that county offices of education are eligible for federal funding pursuant to state and federal law.
AB 1085 / (DavisD) School attendance: interdistrict attendance.
Introduced:2/18/2011
Last Amend:6/15/2011
Status:7/15/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 87, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:6/16/11: This bill authorizes county boards of education, with countywide average daily attendance greater than 180,000, to determine whether a pupil who has filed an interdistrict appeal should be permitted to attend in the district in which the pupil desires to attend, within 40 schooldays. The bill specifies that it is the intent of the Legislature that school districts and county boards of education make best efforts to process interdistrict attendance appeals in an expeditious fashion. The bill also includes a sunset date of July 1, 2015.
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SB 821 / (FullerR) School district reorganization: fiscal actions affecting newly organized or reorganized school districts.Introduced:2/18/2011
Last Amend:6/30/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 635, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill clarifies and expands existing law with respect to the fiscal oversight of newly formed or reorganized school districts during the period between the date of approval and the effective date of that organizational change.
CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION
AB 199 / (MaD) School curriculum: social sciences: Filipinos in World War II.
Introduced:1/27/2011
Last Amend:7/12/2011
Status:10/8/2011-Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter No. 607, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:7/15/11: This bill encourages social science instruction in grades 7-12 to include the role of Filipinos in World War II.
AB 200 / (HayashiD) Physical education: Health and Fitness Award Program.
Introduced:1/27/2011
Last Amend:8/16/2011
Status:10/4/2011-Vetoed by Governor. VETOED
Is Urgency:N
Summary:8/22/11: This bill would have established the Health and Fitness Award Program for the purpose of recognizing schools that have standards-aligned physical education courses and would have increased the numbers of pupils that meet the minimum standards on the physical performance test.
Governor's Message:This bill would require the State Board of Education to establish a health and fitness award program to honor a school in each of the 120 legislative districts. Health and fitness are important but let's allow our schools to design their own awards programs and leave the state out of it.
AB 230 / (CarterD) Joint educational programs: middle college high school students: enrollment priority.
Introduced:2/2/2011
Last Amend:4/14/2011
Status:7/5/2011-Chaptered by the Secretary of State, Chapter Number 50, Statutes of 2011
Is Urgency:N
Summary:5/10/11: This bill exempts students attending middle college high schools (MCHS) from the requirement that California Community College (CCC) governing boards assign low enrollment priority to concurrent enrollment students, if the student is seeking to enroll in a CCC course that is required for the student's MCHS program.
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