BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 835
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          Date of Hearing:   April 13, 2011

                           ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                                Julia Brownley, Chair
                   AB 835 (Mitchell) - As Amended:  March 31, 2011
           
           ÝThis bill was referred to and heard by the Assembly Higher 
          Education Committee as it relates to the issues under its 
          jurisdiction]
           
          SUBJECT  :  Community colleges: Economic and Workforce Development 
          Program

           SUMMARY  :  Authorizes specified practices to apply to Career 
          Technical Education (CTE) Pathways Initiative programs, 
          established by SB 70 (Scott), Chapter 352, Statutes of 2005 (SB 
          70), that serve high school pupils in multiple school districts 
          or community college districts, or both.  Specifically,  this 
          bill  : 

          1)Authorizes a California community college (CCC) district to 
            enroll a high school pupil who is not a resident of that 
            community college district in a SB 70 program operated by the 
            CCC district and provides that the district shall not be 
            subject to any other geographic limitations for purposes of 
            the program.

          2)Requires a school district or CCC district that participates 
            in a SB 70 program to accept a fingerprint verification of a 
            person by another district participating in that program as 
            meeting that person's fingerprint verification requirements.

          3)Stipulates that a SB 70 program shall be deemed to meet the 
            open-course requirements for dual enrollment of a high school 
            pupil in community college and high school.

           EXISTING LAW:   

          1)Establishes the CTE Pathways Initiative, requiring the Board 
            of Governors (BOG) of the CCC to assist economic and workforce 
            regional development centers and consortia to improve CTE 
            education pathways between high schools and CCC and requiring 
            the CCC Chancellor to develop, implement and report on a 
            strategy for CTE Pathway Initiative program objectives and 
            outcomes.








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          2)Establishes several requirements and parameters for high 
            school students wishing to enroll in CCC courses as part of 
            concurrent enrollment, including requiring principal 
            recommendation and parental consent, establishing limitations 
            on the number of students enrolled during summer school and in 
            physical education courses, providing that in order for CCCs 
            to receive state funding courses must be open to the public, 
            and requiring reporting on concurrent/dual enrollment students 
            from the CCC Chancellor's Office.     

          3)Allows school districts to agree among themselves to designate 
            a single district, or a county superintendent to agree to act 
            on behalf of participating school districts within the county 
            or contiguous counties, for the purposes of performing 
            specified duties regarding criminal background checks. 

          4)Specifies, notwithstanding any other law, any person, except a 
            person required to register as a sex offender pursuant to the 
            Penal Code, may be permitted by the governing board of any 
            school district to perform specified duties related to 
            supervising pupils during breakfast, lunch or other nutrition 
            period, or to serve as a non-teaching volunteer aide under the 
            immediate supervision and direction of the certificated 
            personnel of the district to perform non-instructional work 
            which serves to assist the certificated personnel in 
            performance of teaching and administrative responsibilities. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  Unknown 

           COMMENTS  :    Background  :  The CTE Pathways Initiative was 
          established by SB 70 in 2005 to support the development of 
          local/regional K-12 and CCC partnerships for purposes of 
          improving CTE at both the community college and secondary level. 
           In 2005, the amount of $20 million dollars was allocated from 
          the Community College reversion account to fund SB 70 
          activities, and in 2006 additional funds were allocated through 
          the enactment of SB 1133 (Torlakson), Chapter 751, Statutes of 
          2006, for five additional years through the 2013-14 fiscal year. 
            According to a December 2010 CCC Chancellor's Office report on 
          the CTE Pathways Initiative, as of July 30, 2010, funding for 
          the SB 70 program has totaled approximately $188 million.  The 
          report notes that all regions of the state have received grant 
          support, with community college districts forming partnerships 
          with K-12 districts, business/industry and other organizations 








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          or higher education institutions.  Based on available data, this 
          funding has helped create or enhance at least 5,134 CTE partner 
          organizations, 342,957 skills training to students, and 16,806 
          teachers, counselors and staff have participated in trainings or 
          externships. 

          The statutes establishing the CTE Pathways Initiative are broad 
          in nature and require the CCC Chancellor to develop an 
          implementation strategy.  The CCC and the California Department 
          of Education (CDE) have worked in partnership to implement SB 
          70.  The CCC has issued grants that support regional linkages 
          between schools and CCCs and grants to support statewide 
          infrastructure grants.  
              
          This bill makes changes to the SB 70 program to try to address 
          problems raised by the sponsors of this bill, the Environmental 
          Academy Boosters, a nonprofit organization that provides 
          environmental workshops for high school pupils throughout the 
          state, and is not an SB 70-funded program.  According to the 
          sponsor, most of the students served by these workshops 
          participate in California Partnership Academies throughout the 
          state and the workshops add to their CTE work.  These workshops 
          are offered typically during weekends and students travel to 
          different areas of the state to attend these multi-day workshops 
          held at school sites, state parks or other locations.  These 
          workshops are extracurricular activities and presently, no 
          credit is awarded for attending such workshops.    

           CCC district boundaries  :  This bill authorizes, for purposes of 
          specified CTE Pathways Initiative programs, a CCC district to 
          enroll a high school pupil who is not a resident of that CCC 
          district and exempts the CCC district from any other geographic 
          limitations.  This would allow CCCs that participate in a CTE 
          Initiative program to enroll students from various parts of the 
          state regardless of where the pupil lives for purposes of a SB 
          70 program.  According to information provided by the author, 
          "This bill is designed to provide clear legislative intent that 
          would remove administrative barriers to permit high school 
          students to earn community college credits through intensive 
          workshops which serve and bring together geographically diverse 
          students to be held at geographically diverse locations which 
          best meet the need of the training which do not fit the 
          traditional concept of the community college service area."  The 
          previous version of this bill included provisions relative to 
          the awarding of CCC academic credit for specified CTE Pathways 








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          Initiative programs; however those provisions were amended out 
          in the Higher Education Committee.  The Higher Education 
          Committee analysis points out that there are existing processes 
          for courses to be reviewed and approved for credit-awarding 
          purposes.  

           Concurrent enrollment  :  This bill establishes that CTE Pathways 
          Initiative programs, as specified in this bill, are deemed to 
          meet the open-course requirements for concurrent enrollment 
          funding purposes.  Existing law establishes numerous provisions 
          intended to prevent abuses of concurrent enrollment, among those 
          provisions is the requirement that courses be open to the public 
          in order for CCCs to claim full-time equivalent student (FTES) 
          funding, and that courses offered in high schools be offered 
          during hours that ensure access to members of the general 
          public.  In establishing SB 70 programs, the regional 
          partnerships between school districts and community college 
          districts determine the delivery model and if there is a 
          concurrent enrollment component, the programs have to follow 
          existing law relative to concurrent enrollment.  This bill deems 
          any SB 70 program to meet the "open-course" requirements for 
          concurrent enrollment, even if the program is not necessarily 
          intended to operate as a concurrent enrollment program.  
          Essentially, this would allow any SB 70 program or course to 
          claim FTES per concurrent enrollment statutes, thus creating the 
          potential for abuses and double funding of students 
          participating in SB 70 programs.  This is contrary to prior 
          efforts to enact protections against "double dipping" of 
          concurrent enrollment courses.  Furthermore, after conversations 
          with both the author's staff and the sponsor of this bill, it is 
          not clear as to what problem this provision of the bill seeks to 
          solve.    Given this lack of clarity,  staff recommends  the bill 
          be amended to delete the provision relative to dual/concurrent 
          enrollment.    

           Fingerprinting  :  This bill would require school districts or 
          community college districts to accept fingerprint verifications 
          performed by other districts participating in the same program, 
          as specified.  According to information provided by the sponsor 
          of the bill, teachers and students from school districts travel 
          to other parts of the state to participate in extracurricular 
          activities to supplement their CTE coursework.  During these 
          trips, a schoolsite hosts the group of students from across the 
          state and some school districts require additional 
          fingerprinting from the teachers who escort students from other 








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          districts.  According to the sponsor, these districts claim that 
          because the teachers are employed in another county, they must 
          be re-fingerprinted.

          Existing law requires all teachers to go through Department of 
          Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprinting 
          before obtaining a teaching credential.  Existing law also 
          requires local districts to complete a DOJ fingerprint on all 
          employees prior to employment.  In addition, existing law 
          authorizes school districts and county offices of education to 
          collaborate within a county or contiguous counties to complete 
          criminal background checks on employees, and it is the sponsor's 
          understanding that this code section is hindering this 
          particular program from authorizing teachers to escort students 
          to these programs from another county.  Because these programs 
          are extracurricular in nature, it appears that a solution to 
          this issue is already in existing law.  The teachers or any 
          other volunteers who escort students to this program can obtain 
          an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate from the Commission 
          on Teacher Credentialing pursuant to existing law.  This 
          certificate will allow them to act as activity supervisors for 
          multiple districts across the state for a period of five years.  
          Since there is an existing mechanism in place for volunteers to 
          be able to receive a statewide clearance, the section of this 
          bill dealing with fingerprinting is not necessary.   Staff 
          recommends  the bill be amended to delete the fingerprinting 
          provisions of the bill. 
          This bill was heard and passed by the Assembly Higher Education 
          Committee on March 29, 2011 with a vote of 8-0.

           Previous legislation  :  SB 70 (Scott), Chapter 352, Statutes of 
          2005, requires the Board of Governors of the Community Colleges 
          to assist economic and workforce regional development centers 
          and consortia to improve career-technical education pathways 
          between high schools and community colleges, as specified. 

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          California Association of Leaders for Career Preparation
          Regional Council of Rural Counties 
          One Individual 

           Opposition 








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          None on file. 
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Marisol Aviña / ED. / (916) 319-2087