BILL ANALYSIS SB 651 Page A Date of Hearing: August 19, 2009 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Kevin De Leon, Chair SB 651 (Romero) - As Amended: July 15, 2009 Policy Committee: Education Vote:10-0 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No SUMMARY This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to submit the Annual Report on Dropouts in California (the dropout report) to the governor, the Legislature, and the State Board of Education (SBE) on or before August 1, 2011 and annually thereafter. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires the dropout report to be based on data produced by the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and include specified information related to the number of dropouts calculated over periods of time and by different grade spans (i.e., grades 7-12). 2)Requires the dropout report to include information related to pupil promotion rates, alternative schools, graduation rates, and completion of coursework (i.e., career technical education and college-prep). This measure also requires the data to be provided by subgroup (i.e., English learner, Latino, African American, etc.) and type (i.e., state, county, school district, and schoolsite). 3)Requires the SPI to make the report available on the State Department of Education's (SDE) website. 4)Repeals the requirement for local education agencies (LEAs) to receive a per pupil allocation, prior to the 2010-11 fiscal year (FY), for the implementation of CALPADS before specified data regarding pupil dropouts and alternative schools may be included in the calculation of the Academic Performance Index (API). This language was in SB 219 (Steinberg), Chapter 731, Statutes of 2007. SB 651 Page B FISCAL EFFECT 1)GF administrative costs of approximately $150,000 to complete the report, as specified. 2)Potential GF administrative costs, likely less than $150,000, to the SDE to meet the data collection requirements and modifications to the API set forth in SB 219 (Steinberg), Chapter 731, Statutes of 2007 (see comment #3 below). 3)Potential GF/98 costs, likely less than $200,000, to school districts to collect and report data pursuant to the requirements of SB 219 (Steinberg), Chapter 731, Statutes of 2007 (see comment #3 below). COMMENTS 1)Purpose . According to the California Dropout Research Project (CDRP) March 2009 statistics, the statewide graduation rate is 71.5%, which falls between the two rates reported by the SDE.<1> The graduation rate for Asians exceeds 90%, while the graduation rate for Whites is 80%. Graduation rates for African American and Hispanic students are at 60%. According to the CDRP's report: The Economic Losses of High School Dropouts in California (Belfield and Levin, August 2007), California experiences $46.4 billion in total economic losses from each cohort of 120,000 20-year-olds who never complete high school; this is the equivalent of 2.9% of the Annual State Gross Product. The authors further state that the average high school graduate earns $290,000 more over a lifetime than a high school dropout, and pays $100,000 more in federal, state, and local taxes. Likewise, more the two-thirds of high school dropouts will use food stamps during their working lifetime and a high school graduate is 68% less likely to be on any welfare program. According to the author, this bill "would make smarter use of existing student data to shine a spotlight on one of our most -------------------------- <1> In February 2009, the SDE reported a 9th grade to graduate rate of 67.7% and a No Child Left Behind rate of 80.6%. SB 651 Page C pressing education and economic challenges [the high school dropout crisis]." 2)The CALPADS , established by SB 1453 (Alpert), Chapter 1002, Statutes of 2002, required the SDE to track student achievement 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. To date, all students have been assigned individual student identifiers. The system is expected to be fully implemented by in 2009-10 school year. 3)SB 219 (Steinberg), Chapter 731, Statutes of 2007 requires the API, beginning July 1, 2011, to include additional information regarding test scores and other data of pupils who were referred by the school or school district of residence to an alternative education program (i.e., juvenile court, continuation, or community day school ). Chapter 731 specified that these provisions are to be implemented only if LEAs receive a per pupil allocation prior to the 2010-11 FY for implementation of CALPADS. This committee inserted the operative funding language referenced above into the bill to control GF/98 costs associated with implementation. This bill repeals this language. While CALPADS will be fully operational in the 2009-10 school year, it is unclear as to the amount of costs LEAs would incur to implement SB 219 requirements. The committee may wish to consider whether or not, given the state's current fiscal crisis, it is appropriate to require the additional duties associated with SB 219. 4)Related legislation . AB 374 (Block), pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee, requires the SPI to produce a notice to pupils about the consequences of dropping out of school before reaching 18 years of age or graduating from high school. Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916) 319-2081