BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 644
AUTHOR: Blumenfield
AMENDED: June 21, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 27, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Daniel Alvarez
NOTE: This bill has been amended to replace its contents
and this is the first time the bill is being heard in its
current form.
SUBJECT : Schools: average daily attendance: online
instruction.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes, commencing with the 2013-14 fiscal
year, a school district or county office of education (COE)
to claim attendance for pupils in grades 9 to 12, toward
average daily attendance (ADA) for the purpose of
calculating revenue limit funding for online synchronous
courses, as specified.
BACKGROUND
Existing law
1) Requires the majority of the state's revenue limit
funding (general purpose) allocated to local
educational agencies (LEAs) be based on average daily
attendance (ADA). ADA is the average amount of time a
pupil attends class under the immediate supervision of
a certificated employee. (Education Code § 46300 et.
seq.)
Within the current ADA requirements, LEAs are able to
provide online courses to pupils in the following
ways:
a) Pupils are receiving online instruction in a
classroom setting under the immediate supervision
of a certificated employee.
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(EC § 46300 (a))
b) Pupils are enrolled in a part-time or
full-time independent study (IS) program (i.e.,
the pupil may be taking regular classroom courses
and one or two IS program courses online). If a
pupil is enrolled full-time in an IS program, he
or she is required to produce a work product,
which is assessed by a certificated employee of
the district. (EC § 51745 et. seq.)
c) Pupils who have met the minimum
instructional requirement and are taking an
online course. Under this scenario, the pupil is
generating full ADA for meeting the minimum
instructional requirement and the pupil is taking
the online course in addition to meeting minimum
requirements.
d) Pupils are enrolled in a charter school,
which has less traditional accounting and
attendance requirements for its pupils; and
typically must meet statutory requirements, where
applicable, or regulatory guidelines adopted by
the State Board of Education.
1) Establishes the minimum school day for a high school
student to be 240 instructional minutes in a
classroom, in IS, or in a combination of the two
settings, and requires students taking a combination
to meet attendance standards for both the classroom
and IS courses in order for a district to claim a
pupil's attendance for funding purposes. (EC § 46141)
2) Requires that pupils in grades 9 through 12 attend
school for at least 64,800 minutes per year in no less
than 180 days (or 175 days under budget flexibility
language through 2014-15). (EC § 46201)
3) Existing law requires each school district maintaining
any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer courses of
study that (1) fulfill the requirements and
prerequisites for admission to California public
institutions of postsecondary education and (2)
provide an opportunity for pupils to attain
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entry-level employment skills in business or industry.
School districts may fulfill their responsibility
pursuant to number (2) by adopting a required
curriculum that meets or exceeds the model standards
the Career Technical Education adopted by the State
Board of Education.
(EC § 51228)
ANALYSIS
This bill authorizes, commencing with the 2013-14 fiscal
year, a school district or county office of education (COE)
to claim attendance for pupils in grades 9 to 12, toward
average daily attendance (ADA) for the purpose of
calculating revenue limit funding for online synchronous
courses, as specified.
1) Requires pupils must be under the supervision and
control of a certificated employee of the school
district or county office of education.
2) Requires ADA can be computed for synchronous online
instruction provided that all of the following occur:
a) The certificated employee providing
instruction confirms pupil
attendance through visual recognition or periodic
voice responses during the class period.
Specifies that a pupil logon, without any other
pupil identification, is not sufficient to
confirm pupil attendance.
b) The class has a regularly scheduled starting
and ending time, and
the pupil is scheduled to attend the entire class
period. ADA shall be counted only for attendance
in classes held at the regularly scheduled time.
c) An individual with exceptional needs, as
specified, may participate
in synchronous online instruction only if his or
her individualized education program, as
specified, provides for that participation.
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d) A school district or COE offering
synchronous online instruction
shall not deny enrollment to a pupil based solely
on the pupil's lack of access to the computer
hardware or software necessary to participate in
the course. If a pupil does not have access to
the necessary equipment, the school district or
COE shall provide such access.
e) The ratio of teachers to pupils shall not
exceed the equivalent ratio
for all other educational programs by the school
district or COE, as specified, unless a higher or
lower ratio is negotiated in a collective
bargaining agreement.
3) Authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
establish rules and regulations for purposes of
implementing this measure.
4) Defines "synchronous online instruction" as a class or
course in which the pupil and the certificated
employee who is providing instruction are online at
the same time and use real-time, Internet-based
collaborative software that combines audio, video,
file sharing, and other forms of interaction.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "the
state's classrooms remain stuck in the 20th century
and have failed to embrace a changed world full of
innovation and technology - despite California being
the cradle of the technological revolution. If
California aspires to compete with other states and
nations as an economic engine, it must make dramatic
changes in its classrooms to usher in a meaningful
21st century education and it must make them soon. One
clear example is the virtual classroom. Technology and
the internet provide educators with new tools and
students with better options to break down barriers
created by geography, poverty, language and other
conditions."
2) Funding pupil attendance, promoting educational
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interaction, and the state's interest . The
Legislature, generally, has required instruction for
funding purposes, to be when a pupil attends class
under the immediate supervision of a certificated
employee, with some exceptions (particularly in
independent study and in non-classroom based charter
schools). The fundamental principal for allocation of
funding under California's school finance system is
the value of instructional time. The state measures
this principal through the average daily attendance
(ADA) system, including the ability of the pupil to be
under the direct supervision (via a line of sight) of
a certificated employee.
Further, a critical aspect of education is the
spontaneous interaction between teacher and pupil(s),
as well as pupil-to-pupil, where instruction is
enhanced by ensuing dialogue in a timely question and
answer approach, the ability to work with others, and
where a spontaneous social interactive learning
experience can enrich a pupil's education by
supplementing the acquisition of knowledge and
learning, but also assist in the growth of
interpersonal skills pupils will need in adult life,
promoting the development of well-rounded individuals.
From the perspective of protecting the state's
interest and ensuring that the state's investment in
education is spent directly on providing educational
services to students who are on task in terms of
learning, online delivery of instruction may not be
able to provide total guarantees; certainly in the
context of the historical dependence on the immediate
supervision of a teacher to guarantee the state's
interest, many online delivery approaches create
problems; particularly those that involve asynchronous
online courses.
3) In a synchronous online course , where teacher and
pupil(s) are online at the same time and able to
interact at the same time, an argument can be made
that there could be or are mechanisms to guarantee
attendance of the student and to place a time value on
that attendance.
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For example, in a classroom setting, immediate
supervision (and the line-of-sight connection) between
the teacher and pupil during that class period
provides the mechanism to guarantee that the pupil is
attending and to validate the identity of that pupil.
In addition, the implicit assumption in a classroom
setting that is supervised by the teacher is that the
pupil is on-task during the class period, which
provides a mechanism for valuing the time that can be
credited toward ADA. This bill defines as part of a
high quality online synchronous course, the teacher is
able to make a visual connection with the pupil for
the purposes of verifying attendance or providing
immediate supervision of the pupil - the application
of the required definition has the added value of
insuring that a pupil will be on-task during the class
period. Effectively a synchronous online course that
meets the same content standards as a traditional
classroom based course, with line-of-sight capability
that allows the teacher to see pupils and in real-time
interacts with pupils, also insures appropriate
accountability of the state's investment in education.
Though not identical, an online synchronous course
with appropriate accountability mechanisms can be
argued is not dissimilar to one provided with a
teacher in a traditional classroom setting.
4) The usefulness of online curriculum and instruction is
becoming more apparent as delivery systems mature and
more electronic instructional materials are developed;
the potential use of online education in addressing
issues regarding students with low motivation, dropout
and credit recovery, specialized instruction including
both advanced and remedial instruction, and
instruction in small school settings is also
heartening.
It appears that technology has brought us to a point
where, in the case of synchronous applications, the
problems that arise because of the interaction between
online education and the state's attendance accounting
and funding systems can be reconciled. Consistent
with past actions of this committee to support the
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concept of synchronous online education, but provide
for fiscal and academic accountability, staff
recommends amendments to do the following:
a) On page 3, line 4 after "the" insert:
"immediate"
b) On page 3, lines 10 and 11 strike out "or
periodic voice responses"
c) On page 4, require the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish
rules and regulations for purposes of
implementing this section that minimally address:
i) How school districts and
county offices of education determine or
account for average daily attendance (ADA)
for purposes of this section.
ii) The pupil meets minimum
instructional time requirements pursuant to:
(a) Section 46141 and
Section 46201, 46201.5, or 46202,
as applicable for pupils enrolled in a
noncharter school in a school district
or county office of education.
(b) Section 46170, for
pupils enrolled in a continuation
school.
(c) Section 46180, for
pupils enrolled in an opportunity
school.
iii) Provide guidance
regarding a school districts' ability to
provide synchronous online instruction.
iv) Require statewide
testing results for online pupils are
reported and assigned to the school in which
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the pupil is enrolled for regular classroom
courses, and to any school district or
county office of education within which that
school's testing results are aggregated.
v) Require attendance
accounted for pursuant to this section is
subject to the audit conducted pursuant to
Section 41020.
a) Sunset the provisions of this measure as
of July 1, 2018.
6) Prior and related legislation.
AB 853 (Blumenfield, 2011), was similar to this
measure, however it contained provisions related to
funding of asynchronous instruction (a course where
the teacher and pupil may be online at different times
and are unable to interact simultaneously), and passed
this Committee on a 9-0 vote, but was ultimately gut
and amended to deal with the issue of shark fins.
AB 2027 (Blumenfield, 2010), was similar to AB 853,
and passed this Committee on an 8-0 vote, but was
ultimately held in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
AB 837 (Torlakson, 2009) established that a school
district or COE, beginning with 2010-11, may claim ADA
on the basis of a pupil's attendance at a class or
classes in the classroom-based setting on that day,
for the purpose of learning online. This measure was
held on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file.
AB 2457 (Walters, 2008) extended the OCP program until
2012; the bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations
suspense file.
AB 885 (Daucher, Chapter 801, Statutes of 2002),
established the Online Classroom Pilot.
SUPPORT
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San Diego County Office of Education
San Francisco Unified School District
OPPOSITION
None on this version.