BILL NUMBER: SB 302 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Yee
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
An act to add Chapter 6.4 (commencing with Section 52060) to Part
28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, relating to
pupils.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 302, as introduced, Yee. Pupils: Comprehensive Pupil Learning
Support System.
(1) Existing law establishes various educational programs for
pupils in elementary, middle, and high school that are administered
by the State Department of Education.
This bill would establish the Comprehensive Pupil Learning Support
System to provide each pupil with a support system to ensure that
each pupil will be a productive and responsible learner and citizen.
The bill would require the State Department of Education to
administer and implement the program through existing resources that
are available to the department for the purposes of the program. The
bill would require the department to adopt regulations to implement
the program.
The bill would require each elementary, middle, and high school to
develop a school action plan, as specified, based on guidelines to
be developed by the State Department of Education. The bill would
require each school action plan to, among other things, enhance the
capacity of each school to handle transition concerns confronting
pupils and their families, enhance home involvement, provide special
assistance to pupils and families, and incorporate outreach efforts
to the community. The bill would require the department to evaluate
the program in accordance with prescribed criteria.
By imposing additional duties on school districts, this bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement, including the creation of a State Mandates Claims Fund
to pay the costs of mandates that do not exceed $1,000,000 statewide
and other procedures for claims whose statewide costs exceed
$1,000,000.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) The UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools, the WestEd
Regional Educational Laboratory, the State Department of Education,
and other educational entities have adopted the concept of learning
support within ongoing efforts to address barriers to pupil learning
and to enhance healthy development.
(b) Learning supports are the resources, strategies, and practices
that provide physical, social, emotional, and intellectual supports
intended to enable all pupils to have an equal opportunity for
success at school. To accomplish this goal, a comprehensive,
multifaceted, and cohesive learning support system should be
integrated with instructional efforts and interventions provided in
classrooms and schoolwide to address barriers to learning and
teaching.
(c) There is a growing consensus among researchers, policymakers,
and practitioners that stronger collaborative efforts by families,
schools, and communities are essential to pupil success.
(d) An increasing number of American children live in communities
where caring relationships, support resources, and a profamily system
of education and human services do not exist to protect children and
prepare them to be healthy, successful, resilient learners.
(e) Especially in those communities, a renewed partnership of
schools, families, and community members must be created to design
and carry out system improvements to provide the learning support
required by each pupil in order for each pupil to succeed.
(f) Learning support is the collection of resources, strategies,
and practices, and environmental and cultural factors extending
beyond the regular classroom curriculum that together provide the
physical, emotional, and intellectual support that every pupil needs
to achieve high-quality learning.
(g) A school that has an exemplary learning support system employs
internal and external supports and services needed to help pupils
become good parents, good neighbors, good workers, and good citizens
of the world.
(h) The overriding philosophy is that educational success,
physical health, emotional support, and family and community strength
are inseparable.
(i) To implement the concept of learning supports, the state must
systematically realign and redefine existing resources into a
comprehensive system that is designed to strengthen pupils, schools,
families, and communities rather than continuing to respond to these
issues in a piecemeal and fragmented manner.
(j) Development of learning supports at every school is essential
in meeting the needs arising from the federal No Child Left Behind
Act (Public Law 107-110) and the federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (Public Law 94-142). The state needs to
ensure that each pupil is able to read, write, and relate
effectively, has self-worth, has meaning-based learning
opportunities, and has positive support networks from his or her
peers, teachers, and family members, and from pupil support
professionals and other school and community stakeholders.
(k) It is essential that each pupil becomes literate, confident,
caring, and capable of thinking critically, solving problems,
communicating effectively, and functioning as a contributing member
of society.
( l ) The education climate in the public schools of
the state, as measured by overcrowded schools, absenteeism,
increasing substance and alcohol abuse, school violence, sporadic
parental involvement, dropouts, and other indicators, suggests that
the state is in immediate need of learning supports.
(m) A learning support system needs to be developed at every
school to ensure that pupils have essential support for learning,
from kindergarten to high school.
(n) A learning support system should encompass school-based and
school-linked activities designed to enable teachers to teach and
pupils to learn. It should include a continuum of interventions that
promote learning and development, prevent and respond early after the
onset of problems, and provide correctional and remedial programs
and services. In the aggregate, a learning support system should
create a supportive and respectful learning environment at each
school.
(o) A learning support system is a primary and essential component
at every school, designed to support learning and provide each pupil
with an equal opportunity to succeed at school. The learning support
system should be fully integrated into all school improvement
efforts.
(p) The State Department of Education, other state agencies, local
school districts, and local communities all devote resources to
addressing learning barriers and promoting healthy development. Too
often these resources are deployed in a fragmented, duplicative,
categorical manner that results in misuse of sparse resources and
failure to reach all the pupils and families in need of support. A
learning support system will provide a unifying concept and context
for linking with other organizations and agencies as needed and can
be a focal point for braiding school and community resources into a
comprehensive, multifaceted, and cohesive component at every school.
(q) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Comprehensive
Pupil Learning Support System (CPLSS) be fully integrated with other
efforts to improve instruction and focuses on maximizing the use of
resources at individual schools and at the district level.
Collaborative arrangements with community resources shall be
developed with a view to filling any gaps in CPLSS components.
SEC. 2. Chapter 6.4 (commencing with Section 52060) is added to
Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, to read:
CHAPTER 6.4. COMPREHENSIVE PUPIL LEARNING SUPPORT SYSTEM
52060. (a) There is hereby established the Comprehensive Pupil
Learning Support System (CPLSS). The CPLSS shall be implemented with
existing personnel and program resources, without the need for
additional or new appropriations.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature in establishing the CPLSS
to provide all pupils with a support system to ensure that they will
be productive and responsible learners and citizens. It is further
the intent of the Legislature that the CPLSS ensure that pupils have
an equal opportunity to succeed at school and to do so in a
supportive, caring, respectful, and safe learning environment.
(c) These goals shall be accomplished by involving pupils,
teachers, pupil support professionals, family members, and other
school and community stakeholders in the development, daily
implementation, monitoring, and maintenance of a learning support
system at every school and by braiding together the human and
financial resources of relevant public and private agencies.
52061. The department shall facilitate the establishment of the
CPLSS by doing all of the following:
(a) Developing standards and strategic procedures to guide the
establishment of the CPLSS component at each school.
(b) Providing ongoing technical assistance, leadership training,
and other capacity-building supports.
(c) Rethinking the roles of pupil services personnel and other
support staff for pupils and integrating their responsibilities into
the educational program in a manner that meets the needs of pupils,
teachers, and other educators.
(d) Detailing procedures for establishing infrastructure
mechanisms between schools and school districts.
(e) Coordinating with other state agencies that can play a role in
strengthening the CPLSS.
(f) Ensuring that the CPLSS is integrated within the organization
of the department in a manner that reflects the school action plans
developed by schools pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 52062.
(g) Enhancing collaboration with state agencies and other relevant
resources to facilitate local collaboration and braiding of
resources.
(h) Including an assessment of the CPLSS of each school in all
future school reviews and accountability reports.
52062. (a) Each elementary, middle, and high school shall develop
a CPLSS component by developing a school action plan based on the
guidelines developed by the department pursuant to Section 52061.
(b) Each school action plan shall be developed with the purpose of
doing all of the following:
(1) Enhance the capacity of teachers to address problems, engage
and reengage pupils in classroom learning, and foster social,
emotional, intellectual, and behavioral development. The component of
the school action plan required by this paragraph shall emphasize
ensuring that teacher training and assistance include strategies for
better addressing learning, behavior, and emotional problems within
the context of the classroom. Interventions may include, but not be
limited to, all of the following:
(A) Interventions that address a greater range of pupil problems
within the classroom through an increased emphasis on strategies for
positive social and emotional development, problem prevention, and
accommodation of differences in the motivation and capabilities of
pupils.
(B) Classroom management that emphasizes reengagement of pupils in
classroom learning and minimizes over reliance on social control
strategies.
(C) Collaboration with pupil support staff and the home in
providing additional assistance to foster enhanced responsibility,
problem solving, resilience, and effective engagement in classroom
learning.
(2) Interventions that enhance the capacity of schools to handle
transition concerns confronting pupils and their families. The
component of the school action plan required by this paragraph shall
emphasize ensuring that systems and programs are established to
provide supports for the many transitions pupils, their families, and
school staff encounter. Interventions may include, but are not
limited to, all of the following:
(A) Welcoming and social support programs for newcomers.
(B) Before, during, and after school programs to enrich learning
and provide safe recreation.
(C) Articulation programs to support grade transitions.
(D) Interventions that address transition concerns related to
vulnerable populations, including, but not limited to, those in
homeless education, migrant education, and special education
programs.
(E) Vocational and college counseling and school-to-career
programs.
(F) Support in moving to postschool living and work.
(G) Outreach programs to reengage truants and dropouts in
learning.
(3) Respond to, minimize the impact of, and prevent crisis. The
component of the school action plan required by this paragraph shall
emphasize ensuring that systems and programs are established for
emergency, crisis, and followup responses and for preventing crises
at a school and throughout a complex of schools. Interventions may
include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Establishment of a crisis team to ensure immediate response
when emergencies arise, and to provide aftermath assistance as
necessary and appropriate so that pupils are not unduly delayed in
reengaging in learning.
(B) Schoolwide and school-linked prevention programs to enhance
safety at school and to reduce violence, bullying, harassment, abuse,
and other threats to safety in order to ensure a supportive and
productive learning environment.
(C) Classroom curriculum approaches focused on preventing crisis
events, including, but not limited to, violence, suicide, and
physical or sexual abuse.
(4) Enhance home involvement. The component of the school action
plan required by this paragraph shall emphasize ensuring there are
systems, programs, and contexts established that lead to greater
involvement to support the progress of pupils with learning,
behavior, and emotional problems. Interventions may include, but are
not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Interventions that address specific needs of the caretakers of
a pupil, including, but not limited to, providing ways for them to
enhance literacy and job skills and meet their basic obligations to
the children in their care.
(B) Interventions for outreaching and reengaging homes that have
disengaged from school involvement.
(C) Improved systems for communication and connection between home
and school.
(D) Improved systems for home involvement in decisions and problem
solving affecting the pupil.
(E) Enhanced strategies for engaging the home in supporting the
basic learning and development of their children to prevent or at
least minimize learning, behavior, and emotional problems.
(5) Outreach to the community in order to build linkages. The
component of the school action plan required by this paragraph shall
emphasize ensuring that there are systems and programs established to
provide outreach to, and engage strategically with, public and
private community resources to support learning at school of pupils
with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Interventions may
include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Training, screening, and maintaining volunteers and mentors to
assist school staff in enhancing pupil motivation and capability for
school learning.
(B) Job shadowing and service learning programs to enhance the
expectations of pupils for postgraduation opportunities.
(C) Interventions that enhance limited school resources through
linkages with community resources, including, but not limited to,
libraries, recreational facilities, and postsecondary education
institutions.
(D) Interventions that enhance community and school connections to
heighten a sense of community.
(6) Provide special assistance for pupils and families as
necessary. The component of the school action plan required by this
paragraph shall ensure that there are systems and programs
established to provide or connect with direct services when necessary
to address barriers to the learning of pupils at school.
Interventions may include, but are not limited to, all of the
following:
(A) Special assistance for teachers in addressing the problems of
specific individuals.
(B) Processing requests and referrals for special assistance,
including, but not limited to, counseling or special education.
(C) Interventions that ensure effective case and resource
management when pupils are receiving direct services.
(D) Connecting with community service providers to fill gaps in
school services and enhance access for referrals.
(c) The development, implementation, monitoring, and maintenance
of the school action plan shall include, but not be limited to, all
of the following components:
(1) Ensuring effective school mechanisms for assisting individuals
and families with family decisionmaking and timely, coordinated, and
monitored referrals to school and community services when indicated.
(2) Creating a mechanism for an administrative leader, support
staff for pupils, and other stakeholders to work collaboratively at
each school with a focus on strengthening the school action plan.
(3) Establishing a plan for capacity building and regular support
for all stakeholders involved in addressing barriers to learning and
promoting healthy development.
(4) Complying with the guidelines developed by the department
pursuant to Section 52061.
(5) Establishing accountability reviews.
(6) Minimizing duplication and fragmentation between school
programs.
(7) Preventing problems and providing a safety net of early
intervention.
(8) Responding to pupil and staff problems in a timely manner.
(9) Connecting with a wide range of school and community
stakeholder resources.
(10) Recognizing and responding to the changing needs of all
pupils while promoting the success and well-being of each pupil and
staff member.
(11) Creating a supportive, caring, respectful, and safe learning
environment.
52063. Each school shall integrate the CPLSS school action plan
with other programs to improve instruction. Each school shall focus
on maximizing its use of available resources at the individual school
level and the school district level in order to implement this
program. The school action plan shall be integrated into any existing
school improvement plans and shall reflect all of the following:
(a) School policies, goals, guidelines, priorities, activities,
procedures, and outcomes relating to the implementation of the CPLSS.
(b) Effective leadership and staff roles and functions for the
CPLSS.
(c) A thorough infrastructure for the CPLSS.
(d) Appropriate resource allocation.
(e) Integrated school-community collaboration.
(f) Regular capacity-building activity.
(g) Delineated standards, quality and accountability indicators,
and data collection procedures.
52064. (a) For the purposes of this section, "complex of schools"
means a group of elementary, middle, or high schools, associated
with one another due to the natural progression of attendance linking
the schools.
(b) To ensure that the CPLSS is developed cohesively, efficiently
uses community resources, and capitalizes on economies of scale,
CPLSS infrastructure mechanisms shall be established at the school
and district level.
(c) Complexes of schools are encouraged to designate a pupil
support staff member to facilitate a family complex CPLSS team
consisting of representatives from each participating school.
(d) Each school district shall establish mechanisms designed to
build the capacity of CPLSS components at each school, including, but
not limited to, providing technical assistance and training for the
establishment of effective CPLSS components.
52065. (a) The department shall evaluate the success of the CPLSS
component of each school according to the following criteria:
(1) Improved systems for promoting prosocial pupil behavior and
the well-being of staff and pupils, preventing problems, intervening
early after problems arise, and providing specialized assistance to
pupils and families.
(2) Increasingly supportive, caring, respectful, and safe learning
environments at schools.
(3) Enhanced collaboration between the school and community.
(4) The integration of the CPLSS component with all other school
improvement plans.
(5) Fewer inappropriate referrals of pupils to special education
programs or other special services.
(b) The department shall consider all of the following in
evaluating the success of the CPLSS component:
(1) Pupil attendance.
(2) Pupil grades.
(3) Academic performance.
(4) Pupil behavior.
(5) Home involvement.
(6) Teacher retention.
(7) Graduation rates.
(8) Literacy development.
(9) Other indicators required by the federal No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) and included in the
California Healthy Kids Survey.
SEC. 3. A local educational agency shall use funds made available
pursuant to Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20
U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) for the purposes of implementing this act.
SEC. 4. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.