BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair AB 2193 (Lara) - Long-term English Learners Amended: As Proposed to be AmendedPolicy Vote: Education 8-0 Urgency: No Mandate: Yes Hearing Date: August 16, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED. Bill Summary: AB 2193 defines "Long-term English Learner" (LTEL) and "English learner at risk of becoming a long-term English learner" (At-risk EL), and establishes notification, reporting, intervention requirements, as specified. Fiscal Impact: Data collection: Approximately $50,000 for .5 PY to compile specified data for each school district. Local assistance: $100,000 - $200,000 to support the expanded role of regional consortia required by this bill. Mandate: Potentially significant reimbursable mandate to expand requirements for existing notifications. Background: Existing law defines "English learner" as a child who does not speak English or whose native language is not English and who is not currently able to perform ordinary classroom work in English. (Education Code §306) Both federal and State law require that each school district with English language learners annually assess these students' English language development until they are redesignated as English proficient. (Education Code § 313) Under No Child Left Behind, the California Department of Education (CDE) and each local educational agency (LEA) must identify any school that has not made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for at least two years as in Program Improvement (PI). Schools that remain in Program Improvement are subject to increasing requirements and sanctions. Existing law further requires that the CDE develop a statewide system of school support to provide for intensive and sustained AB 2193 (Lara) Page 1 support and technical assistance for school districts, county offices of education, and schools in need of improvement. Current law requires that the system of support consist of regional consortia, as well as district assistance and intervention teams, and other technical assistance providers. Regional consortia are required to work collaboratively with school districts and program improvement schools to: 1) review and analyze all facets of the school's operation: 2) assist the LEA or school in developing recommendations for improving pupil performance and school operations; and, 3) assist the LEA or school in efforts to eliminate misassignments of personnel. (Education Code § 52059) Proposed Law: AB 2193 codifies definitions of an LTEL and an At-risk EL. With regard to those groups, this bill expands the duties of the CDE and LEAs, as follows: 1) Expands data gathering responsibilities of the CDE to require that it annually ascertain the number of pupils under the jurisdiction of each school district, charter school, or county office of education (COE) who are LTELs or At-risk ELs, and to post that information on the department website. 2) Expands existing parental notice requirements to include information on whether their child is an LTEL or At-risk LTEL. 3) Expands the explicit responsibilities of regional consortia established to assist schools needing support pursuant to federal and state law requirements to additionally require that they target students that are not meeting federal academic targets, including ELs, LTELs, and At-risk ELs. 4) Expands the standards and criteria that a district assistance and intervention team or other technical assistance provider uses in assessing LEAs to address specified areas that include alignment of curriculum, instruction and assessments to target pupils not meeting the federal academic targets, and specifically includes ELs, LTELs, and At-risk ELs. Staff Comments: This bill expands the CDE's data gathering duties, and website display requirements. The CDE estimates that AB 2193 (Lara) Page 2 .5 PY could complete the annual workload to ascertain the number of LTELs and At-risk LTELs in each district, as specified. It is unclear if this bill requires student level data to be posted on its website, or only school site-level data. Depending on the level of disaggregation, posting student level data may violate federal privacy law. This bill expands existing parental notice requirements to include information on whether their child is an LTEL or At-risk LTEL, as defined in this measure. There are nearly 1.5 million K-12 English learners in California schools, and the majority of grades 7-12 English Learners are LTELs or At-risk LTELs. If even 10% of the total English Learner population is covered by the expanded notification requirements, it would result in 150,000 expanded notifications per year. This new mandate on school districts will likely be deemed reimbursable by the Commission on State Mandates. This bill expands the responsibilities of regional consortia to include in their reviews of academic programs and recommendations for improving pupil achievement (among other required activities) a specific focus on the success of LTELs and At-risk LTELs. Regional consortia were established to assist schools pursuant to federal and state law. When a school enters into Program Improvement status, it is required to contract with regional consortia or district assistance intervention teams to evaluate, support, and improve school operation and performance. Thus, requiring more activities of the regional consortia is a cost to the affected school and/or school district. This is a new mandate likely to be deemed reimbursable, as well. Additionally, it is unclear whether all regional consortia are equipped to take on the newly required activities. The CDE will require 1-2 PYs to provide training and support to regional consortia and district assistance intervention teams in their newly expanded and specialized roles under this bill. Proposed Author Amendments: Remove the expansion of regional consortia duties. Remove the requirements that CDE host specified student information, and instead require the CDE to share that information with schools. Committee Amendments: Remove the expansion of regional consortia AB 2193 (Lara) Page 3 duties. Remove the requirements that CDE host specified student information, and instead require the CDE to share that information with schools. Remove expanded requirements on parent notices.