BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 19
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   September 4, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                  SB 19 (Simitian) - As Amended:  September 3, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                             EducationVote:8-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill deletes statute prohibiting the use of data in the  
          California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System  
          (CALTIDES), including the use of this data with the California  
          Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS), for the  
          purposes of pay, promotion, or personnel evaluation of teachers  
          or other employment decisions, as specified.  Specifically, this  
          bill:  

             1)   Prohibits CALTIDES from including the names, social  
               security numbers, home addresses, telephone numbers, or  
               email addresses of individual teachers and prohibits the  
               data from being used in violation of state or federal  
               privacy law, as specified.  

             2)   Provides limited authorization to the State Department  
               of Education (SDE) to establish a process for center-based  
               child care and development programs to implement and  
               maintain unique pupil identifiers as required by federal  
               law or as needed to ensure compliance with federal law.  

             3)   Requires the strategic plan developed by the working  
               group convened by the State Chief Information Officer (CIO)  
               to include specific procedures and policies to facilitate  
               the sharing and transfer of data from one segment to  
               another (i.e., higher education and K-12 entities, etc.)  
               and include linkages to workforce data.  This measure also  
               authorizes the use of American Recovery and Reinvestment  
               Act (ARRA) funds to support the workgroup's duties.  

             4)   Requires a local education agency (LEA) to retain data  
               elements deemed necessary by the Superintendent of Public  








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               Instruction (SPI) to comply with federal reporting  
               requirements delineated by ARRA.  

             5)   Requires SDE to submit an expenditure plan to the  
               Department of Finance (DOF) detailing any administrative or  
               LEA costs generated by complying with ARRA reporting  
               requirements.  This bill also requires DOF to provide a  
               copy of the expenditure plan to the Joint Legislative  
               Budget Committee, as specified.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Potential GF/98 cost pressure, likely in the hundreds of  
            thousands, to LEAs to collect and maintain data in CALPADS, as  
            required by ARRA and deemed necessary by the SPI.  The data  
            collection requirements are a condition of receiving ARRA  
            funds; however, given the severe reductions LEAs have incurred  
            over the last two years, the collection and maintenance of  
            additional data elements may create costs to LEAs.  

           2)Potential Race to the Top (RTT) program funds  .  Estimates  
            indicate California may receive as much as $500 million in  
            one-time federal funds for this program.  The RTT program is a  
            competitive grant process thus there is no guarantee that  
            California will receive any funding.  According to the federal  
            notice of proposed guidelines, 50% of any funding received  
            must be allocated to LEAs based on their relative shares of  
            funding under the federal Title I basic grant (i.e., funding  
            for poor and needy pupils).  The remaining 50% may used for  
            state-level activities to implement school reform.  According  
            to ARRA, the Governor submits the application for the RTT  
            program (see Comment #1 below).  

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  .  SB 1614 (Simitian), Chapter 840, Statutes of  
            2006, established CALTIDES for the purpose of streamlining  
            processes, improving efficiency of data collection by the SDE,  
            the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), and the  
            Employment Development Department, and improving the quality  
            of data collected from LEAs.  SB 1614 contained language  
            prohibiting the use of CALTIDES data, either in isolation or  
            with CALPADS (pupil achievement data) for the purposes of pay,  
            promotion, or personnel evaluation of teachers or other  
            employment decisions, as specified.  








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            In February 2009, the federal government passed ARRA, which  
            allocated approximately $100 billion nationwide for education  
            programs to stimulate the economy. Of this amount, California  
            is expected to receive approximately $8 billion.  ARRA also  
            established the RTT program, a competitive grant program that  
            makes $4.5 billion (one-time funds) available nationwide to  
            states to implement "significant education reforms across four  
            reform areas: (a) standards and assessments; (b) improving  
            teacher effectiveness and equity in teacher distribution; (c)  
            improving collection and use of data; and (d) supporting  
            struggling schools."   

            According the federal government's notice of proposed  
            priorities (final guidance will not be available until later  
            in the fall), there are two eligibility requirements that  
            states must meet to apply for RTT funds: (a) an approved  
            application under Phases 1 and 2 of the State Fiscal  
            Stabilization Fund (SFSF) (ARRA funding to stabilize school  
            districts and mitigate cuts) and (b) no "legal, statutory, or  
            regulatory barriers to linking student achievement or student  
            growth data to teachers for the purpose of teacher and  
            principal evaluation."  

            The state has an approved application for SFSF Phase 1 and  
            Phase 2 application will be available later this year.   
            However, existing law, via SB 1614, prohibits data from being  
            used for the purposes of pay, promotion, or personnel  
            evaluation of teachers or other employment decisions, as  
            specified.  Therefore, the U.S. Secretary of Education Arnie  
            Duncan has publicly indicated that California is not eligible  
            to apply for RTT program funds.    

            This bill deletes statute prohibiting the use of data in  
            CALTIDES, including the use of this data with the California  
            Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS), for the  
            purposes of teacher personnel decisions; therefore, according  
            to the federal government's notice of proposed priorities, the  
            state will be eligible to apply for RTT program funds.    


           2)Author's amendments  .  The author has submitted amendments to  
            delete Section 6 of the bill, which requires wage record  
            system information (necessary to implementing the purposes of  
            CALTIDSES), to be made available to the CTC.  The author  








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            argues that this language is unnecessary at this time.     

           

           3)Governor Special Session on Education  .  In August 2009, the  
            governor called a special session of the Legislature to  
            "consider and act upon legislation to address the federal RTT  
            eligibility requirements and guidelines, and other changes  
            necessary to secure federal funding."  This measure appears to  
            make California eligible for the RTT program.   

           

           4)The CALPADS  , established by SB 1453 (Alpert), Chapter 1002,  
            Statutes of 2002, required the SDE to track student  
            achievement in order to comply with the federal No Child Left  
            Behind Act of 2001. A longitudinal database requires  
            individual student identifiers be given to each student  
            enrolled in the public K-12 system. In the 2004-05 fiscal  
            year, school districts were provided incentive funding to  
            create these identifiers and establish systems to maintain  
            them. SDE reports that CALPADS is expected to be fully  
            functioning in all districts in the fall of 2009.     


            This bill provides the SPI with authority to require LEAs to  
            collect and maintain data elements in CALPADS to meet ARRA  
            requirements.  This measure also requires SDE to submit an  
            expenditure plan to DOF detailing all administrative and LEA  
            costs incurred for meeting ARRA requirements, as specified.  


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081