BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






                         SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                             Alan Lowenthal, Chair
                           2011-2012 Regular Session
                                        

          BILL NO:       AB 853
          AUTHOR:        Blumenfield
          AMENDED:       June 20, 2011
          FISCAL COMM:   Yes            HEARING DATE:  July 6, 2011
          URGENCY:       No             CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez

           SUBJECT  :  Online education.
          
           SUMMARY  

          This bill authorizes, commencing with the 2013-14 fiscal 
          year, a school district, county office of education (COE), 
          or charter school to claim attendance toward average daily 
          attendance (ADA) for the purpose of calculating revenue 
          limit funding for online synchronous and asynchronous 
          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. 
                    (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 




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                    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 
               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.  




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               (EC § 51228)

           ANALYSIS
           
           This bill  authorizes, commencing with the 2013-14 fiscal 
          year, a school district, county office of education (COE), 
          or charter school to claim attendance toward average daily 
          attendance (ADA) for the purpose of calculating revenue 
          limit funding for online classes, as specified.  More 
          specifically, this bill:

          1)   Requires the following conditions apply in order for a 
               school district, COE, or charter school to claim ADA 
               for online classes: (a) the pupil is enrolled in 
               grades 9 through 12;  (b) the pupil is enrolled in 
               classes that include courses in a classroom-based 
               setting, courses that are offered through an online 
               program, or both; (c) the pupil meets minimum 
               instructional time requirements, as specified; and (d) 
               each online course in which the pupil is enrolled is a 
               high-quality online course.

          2)   Defines a high-quality online course as meeting all 
               the following requirements:

               a)        The online course is approved by the 
                    governing board of the school district, COE, or 
                    governing body of the charter school, such that 
                    the online course is certified, through board 
                    resolution, to meet these requirements, to be as 
                    rigorous as a classroom-based course and meeting 
                    or exceeding all relevant state content 
                    standards.
               b)        The teacher is either of the following:

                      i)            For a synchronous course, the 
                        teacher is online at the same time as each 
                        pupil, is accessible to each pupil attending 
                        an online course to respond to pupil queries, 
                        assign tasks, dispense information, and is 
                        able to make a visual connection with each 
                        pupil for the purposes of verifying 
                        attendance or providing immediate supervision 
                        of the pupil.

                      ii)           For an asynchronous course, the 




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                        teacher may be online at different times than 
                        each pupil, is accessible to each pupil 
                        attending an asynchronous online course to 
                        respond to pupil queries, assign tasks, 
                        dispense information, and for the purposes of 
                        verifying attendance is able to employ at 
                        least two of the following:

                            a)                  Periodic proctored 
                              examinations. 
                            b)                  Direct teacher-pupil 
                              meetings no less than twice per 
                              calendar month.
                            c)                  A line-of-sight 
                              visual connection, including, but not 
                              limited to, Internet webcam.

               a)        The ratio of full-time equivalent 
                    certificated teachers teaching the online course 
                    to pupils enrolled in that course is less than or 
                    equal to the ratio of teachers to pupils in 
                    traditional classroom study of the same subject 
                    matter in the school, school district, or the 
                    unified school district with the largest ADA of 
                    pupils in that county, or if the course is new or 
                    unique, the pupil to teacher ratio cannot exceed 
                    30 to 1.

               b)        The subject matter content for the online 
                    course is the same as for the traditional 
                    classroom-based course of the same course title 
                    in the school district, COE or charter school.

               c)        The teacher of the online course holds the 
                    appropriate subject matter credential and meets 
                    the requirements for a "highly qualified" teacher 
                    as defined under the federal No Child Left Behind 
                    Act of 2001.

               d)        All statewide testing results for pupils 
                    enrolled in the online course are reported to the 
                    school, school district, and county in which the 
                    pupil is enrolled for regular classroom courses.

               e)        The online course is offered by a high 
                    school, continuation school, COE, or charter 




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                    school.

               f)        No pupil is assigned to the online course 
                    pursuant to this section unless the pupil 
                    voluntarily elects to participate in the online 
                    course and the parent or guardian of the pupil 
                    provides written consent before the pupil 
                    participates in an online course.

               g)        No pupil electing to participate in the 
                    online course is denied access because the pupil 
                    lacks the computer hardware or software necessary 
                    to participate in the online course.

               h)        No pupil is charged for their participation 
                    in the online course.

               i)        Pupils enrolled in the online course take 
                    examinations by proctor or that other reliable 
                    methods are used to ensure test integrity, and 
                    there is a clear record of pupil work, using the 
                    same method of documentation and assessment as 
                    used in a classroom-based course. 

               j)        The school, school district or COE maintains 
                    contemporaneous records to verify the time that a 
                    pupil spends online and in related activities in 
                    which a pupil is involved, and maintains records 
                    verifying the time that the teacher is online.

          1)   Clarifies that nothing in these provisions be 
               interpreted to mean that a charter school provides 
               classroom-based or nonclassroom-based instruction for 
               the purposes of a State Board of Education 
               determination.

          2)   Requires that pupil attendance accounted for under 
               this authorization be subject to audit as part of the 
               local educational agency's annual financial audit.

          3)   Prohibits a pupil from being credited with more than 
               five days of online course attendance per calendar 
               week or more than the total number of calendar days 
               that regular classes are maintained by the school 
               district, COE, or charter school. 





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          4)   Prohibits the waiver of any provision of this measure, 
               unless specifically authorized.

          5)   Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
               (SPI), in consultation with the State Controller and 
               the Director of Finance (DOF), before December 31, 
               2012, to make:

               a)     Revisions to any attendance accounting manual 
                 or guidance that are necessary to conform to the 
                 provisions of this measure;

               b)     Revisions necessary to clarify attendance 
                 accounting procedures for asynchronous online 
                 courses;

               c)     Recommendations regarding statutory changes 
                 that would be necessary to allow attendance in 
                 asynchronous online courses to be included in the 
                 calculation of ADA.
          1)   Prohibits pupil attendance in asynchronous online 
               courses from being included in the calculation of ADA 
               until the SPI has adopted the rules and regulations 
               specified in # 12 below.

          2)   Deems a pupil engaged in an online course meeting 
               these requirements to be under the immediate 
               supervision and control of a certificated employee of 
               the district, county office or charter school for the 
               purposes of calculating ADA.

          3)   Specifies that attendance on an online course meeting 
               these requirements is not required to meet the 
               requirements for the Independent Study Program for the 
               purposes of calculating ADA.

          4)   Defines (a) "asynchronous" online course as a course 
               where the teacher and pupil may be online at different 
               times and are unable to interact simultaneously; and 
               (b) "synchronous" online course as a course where the 
               teacher and pupil are online at the same time and able 
               to interact at that time.

          5)   Requires the SPI, in consultation with the DOF, to 
               adopt rules and regulations for the purpose of (a) 
               clarifying or expanding the procedures required for 




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               verifying the identification of pupils participating 
               in asynchronous online courses, and (b) for including 
               pupil attendance in asynchronous online courses in the 
               calculation of ADA.


          6)   Specifies the measure becomes inoperative on July 1, 
               2017.   


           STAFF COMMENTS  

           7    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."

           7    Funding pupil attendance, promoting educational 
               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 




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               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.  

               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 




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               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)    In an asynchronous online course  , a course where the 
               teacher and pupil may be online at different times and 
               are unable to interact simultaneously, mechanisms that 
               could guarantee that a pupil is attending or 
               participating, that the pupil has spent time on task, 
               or that there is some time value to the pupil's work 
               product are not so easily defined.  

               In addition, elimination of simultaneous teacher-pupil 
               interaction, as would be the case in an asynchronous 
               course (teacher checking the students work online at 
               different times) lack of supervision by a teacher 
               presents numerous risks to student learning, 
               particularly for students with special needs and 
               students in need of remediation.  In addition, 
               elimination of immediate teacher supervision means 
               that the state has no mechanism to ensure that a 
               student is actually engaged in the coursework.  From 
               the perspective of the state's interest, these are 
               situations where the state would be unable to ensure 
               that its investment in education is spent directly on 
               instruction.  

               For example, in a substantially similar bill in 2010, 
               the author proposed the use of biometric technologies 
               to ensure that a pupil was "attending" an asynchronous 
               online course; however, that mechanism was deleted 
               from the bill in response to issues raised by this 
               Committee over potential privacy concerns that had not 
               been fully examined particularly with a school age 
               minor involved or utilizing a technology that may be 
               cost-prohibitive at a school level.  This bill 
               proposes mechanisms to provide these guarantees that 
               include: (a) periodic proctored examinations, (b) 
               direct teacher-pupil meetings of no less than twice 
               per calendar month, and (c) a visual connection 
               including, but not limited to, Internet Webcam.  




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               In addition, this bill requires pupils who enroll in 
               an asynchronous online class to meet minimum 
               instructional day and minute requirements in order to 
               generate ADA, which is the basis for calculating 
               revenue limit funding.  There are fiscal questions 
               related to claiming ADA for an asynchronous online 
               course. For example, how does the state, for 
               accounting and audit purposes, ensure that the pupil 
               meets the minimum instructional time and day 
               requirements? This includes basic issues as how 
               attendance is taken in these courses.   Are there 
               unintended consequences (e.g., inequities in access to 
               online instruction, loss of the speaking skills 
               required in the language arts standards, or losses in 
               personal and social skills) that might result from 
               increasing this means of delivering education 
               services? 
               The bill acknowledges some of these challenges by 
               prohibiting school districts, charter schools, and 
               county offices of education from claiming ADA for 
               asynchronous online classes until the State 
               Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), in 
               consultation with the Department of Finance, has 
               adopted rules and regulations for the purpose of 
               verifying pupil identification and calculating ADA in 
               asynchronous courses.

          5)    Focus of bill is to remove barriers for high school 
               students to access high quality courses  .  Consistent 
               with the intended approach and to insure that online 
               courses are offered to students making progress toward 
               a high school diploma and to limit any potential 
               abuses that may occur related to the earning of 
               average daily attendance; staff recommends the 
               following amendment "the average daily attendance may 
               not, in any event, be generated by a pupil who is not 
               a California resident.  To remain eligible for 
               generating apportionments, a pupil over 19 years of 
               age shall be continuously enrolled in public school 
               and make satisfactory progress towards award of a high 
               school diploma. The SPI shall, pursuant to subdivision 
               (k) of this section adopt regulations defining 
               "satisfactory progress."

          6)    Staff note  .  The contents of this measure were 
                                                                     



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               formally in AB 802 which was held under submission by 
               the Assembly Appropriations Committee as of May 2011. 

           7    Past legislative attempts.   In 2002, the Legislature 
               passed AB 885 (Daucher, Chapter 801) that authorized 
               participation by high school students in the Online 
               Classroom Pilot (OCP) program, which allowed the use 
               of an asynchronous, interactive (a teacher and student 
               interact online, but not necessarily at the same time) 
               curriculum. The pilot program addressed the need to 
               provide expanded educational opportunities for pupils 
               attending schools with limited educational offerings; 
               the need to provide access to advanced placement 
               courses where none are available; and the need to 
               provide quality educational access in courses for 
               hard-to-staff subject areas.  

               The pilot program sunset in 2007 and only cursory 
               evaluative information was provided; not a thorough 
               analysis which would assist in decision making for 
               renewing or expanding the pilot.

          8)    Prior and related legislation.  

                      AB 2027 (Blumenfield), substantially similar to 
                 this measure, 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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          California Association for the Gifted
          California Consortium for Independent Study
          California Continuation Education Association
          California County Superintendents Educational Services 
          Association
          California School Boards Association
          EdVoice
          Fresno Unified School District
          San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools
          San Bernardino County Office of Education
          San Diego County Office of Education
          San Diego Unified School District
          Santa Clara County Office of Education
          Torrance Unified School District

           OPPOSITION

           None on file.