BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 835 Page 1 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. AB 835 Page 2 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 AB 835 Page 3 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 AB 835 Page 4 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 AB 835 Page 5 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 AB 835 Page 6 None on file. Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Aviña / ED. / (916) 319-2087