BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 414
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 414 (Carter) - As Amended: April 6, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:9-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires a teacher, upon the request of a
parent/guardian or other person able to make educational
decisions for the pupil, to provide appropriate homework and
missed assignments to a pupil in grades 4-8 who has been
suspended from school for three schooldays or less.
FISCAL EFFECT
Annual GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs, likely between
$600,000 and $1 million, to school districts to comply with this
measure. These costs are associated with staff time to ensure
appropriate pupils receive homework and missed assignments, as
specified.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . In 2009-10, there were 757,045 pupils (12.4% of
enrollment) suspended from California schools. Current law
authorizes a principal to suspend a pupil for five consecutive
days, with an appeal to the district superintendent for
additional days. The total number of suspension days can be no
more than 20 days in a school year.
According to the author, "By affording suspended students the
opportunity to review and complete class assignments while
fulfilling their disciplinary obligations, students will be
kept accountable for the work they missed while suspended."
2)Need for the bill . Current statute authorizes school
districts to assign suspended pupils to a supervised
AB 414
Page 2
suspension classroom for the entire period of suspension, if
the pupil poses no imminent threat, as specified. Also, the
pupil is responsible for contacting his or her teacher to
receive assignments to be completed while the pupil is in the
supervised suspension class.
Existing law also authorizes a teacher of any class the
suspended pupil has missed to require him or her to complete
any assignments and tests missed during the suspension. It is
unclear how this bill will enhance current law related to miss
assignments and suspended pupils.
3)Unpaid K-12 mandates . According to the Legislative Analyst's
Office (LAO), the state owes approximately $3.4 billion in
K-12 mandate costs for prior years. Prior to the 2010 Budget
Act, the state deferred mandate payments for several years
with the promise of making the payments to school districts in
future years. As a result, districts did not received payment
for annual services they were required to conduct, including
ones associated with pupil suspensions. The pupil suspension
appeal mandate totals approximately $3.8 million GF/98
annually and the mandate associated with notification to
teachers of pupil suspension or expulsion is approximately
$6.8 million GF/98 annually.
SB 90 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 7,
Statutes of 2011 allocated $80 million GF/98 to school
districts for annual K-12 mandate costs; the state, however,
still owes school districts for the prior year costs.
4)Previous legislation . AB 2656 (Brownley), which was held on
this committee's suspense file in May 2008, required a pupil
who is suspended to complete all in-class assignments, tests,
and homework he or she missed during suspension.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081