BILL NUMBER: SB 473 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 11, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 21, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator Price
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add Article 6.5 (commencing with Section 54720)
to Chapter 9 of Part 29 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education
Code, relating to pupil dropout recovery. An act to
amend Section 48070.6 of the Education Code, relating to pupils.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 473, as amended, Price. Pupils: dropouts: recovery
programs .
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
, on or before August 1, 2011, and annually thereafter, to
submit to the Governor, the Legislature, and the State Board of
Education , a report called the Annual Report on
Dropouts in California. Existing law requires, among other
things, that the report contain specified information on dropout
rates, graduation rates, and pupil promotion rates. Existing
law states the intent of the Legislature that the report be usable by
schools, school districts, policymakers, researchers,
parents, and the public, for purposes of identifying and
understanding trends, causal relations, early warning indicators, and
potential points of intervention to address the high rate of
dropouts in California. Existing law requires county
superintendents of schools and governing boards of school districts
to report attendance information for purposes of apportionment, and
requires the county superintendent of schools to determine a revenue
limit for each school district in the county according to a formula
based on average daily attendance.
This bill would authorize a local educational agency to
continue to claim average daily attendance for pupils who have
dropped out of school if the local educational agency develops a
dropout recovery program that conforms to specified criteria. These
criteria would include developing a strategy for the identification
and enrollment of pupils who have dropped out of a high school in the
school district, a procedure to demonstrate pupil academic growth,
and criteria showing the pupil's readiness for career preparation or
postsecondary education. A program developed pursuant to these
provisions would be required to be approved by the State Department
of Education. The bill would require the department to make available
on its Internet Web site a list of successful dropout recovery
programs developed pursuant to these provisions
require the report also to include information about the availability
of dropout recovery programs .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 48070.6 of the
Education Code is amended to read:
48070.6. (a) On or before August 1, 2011, and annually
thereafter, utilizing data produced by the California Longitudinal
Pupil Achievement Data System pursuant to Section 60900 and other
available data, the Superintendent shall submit to the Governor, the
Legislature, and the state board , a report that
shall be called the Annual Report on Dropouts in California. The
report shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) One-year dropout rates for each of grades 7 to 12, inclusive.
(2) Four-year cohort dropout rates for grades 9 to 12, inclusive.
(3) Two- or three-year cohort dropout rates, as appropriate, for
middle schools.
(4) Grade 9 to grade 10 promotion rates.
(5) Percentage of high school pupils for each of grades 9 to 12,
inclusive, who are on track to earn sufficient credits to graduate.
(6) The average number of nonpromotional school moves that pupils
make between grades 6 to 12, inclusive.
(7) "Full-year" dropout rates for alternative schools, including
dropout recovery high schools, calculated using a methodology
developed by the Superintendent to appropriately reflect dropout
rates in each type of alternative school.
(8) An explanation of the methodology or methodologies used to
calculate "full-year" dropout rates for alternative schools pursuant
to paragraph (7).
(9) Passage rates on the high school exit examination adopted
pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 60850.
(10) Other available data relating to dropout or graduation rates
or pupil progress toward high school graduation.
(11) Information about the availability of dropout recovery
programs.
(b) When cohort dropout rates can be calculated accurately using
longitudinal data, the rates described in paragraph (3) of
subdivision (a) shall be replaced by dropout rates for cohorts of
pupils entering middle school.
(c) When data is available, the report shall also include all of
the following:
(1) Rates at which pupils graduate in four, five, and six years,
pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of
Section 52052.
(2) Percentage of high school graduates and dropouts who completed
courses that are certified by the University of California as
meeting admission requirement criteria for the University of
California and California State University systems.
(3) Percentage of high school graduates and dropouts who completed
two or more classes in career technical education.
(4) Percentage of high school graduates and dropouts who completed
both course sequences described in paragraphs (2) and (3).
(5) Behavioral data by school and district, including suspensions
and expulsions.
(6) Truancy rates.
(7) GED earning rates.
(8) Chronic absentee rates, as defined in Section 60901.
(d) If possible, the data listed in subdivisions (a) and (b) shall
be presented in the report, organized as follows:
(1) By state.
(2) By county.
(3) By district, both including and excluding charter schools.
(4) By school.
(e) The report shall include data from alternative middle and high
schools, including continuation high schools, community day schools,
juvenile court schools, special schools, opportunity schools, and
schools attended by wards of the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice.
(f) The report may include relevant data on school climate and
pupil engagement from the California Healthy Kids Survey.
(g) If possible, the data listed in subdivisions
paragraphs (1) to (10), inclusive, of subdivision
(a) and , in subdivision (b) shall be
presented for the following subgroups, if the subgroup consists of at
least 50 pupils, and the subgroup constitutes at least 15 percent of
the total population of pupils at a school:
(1) Grade level.
(2) Ethnicity.
(3) Gender.
(4) Low socioeconomic status.
(5) English learners.
(6) Special education status.
(h) The first Annual Report on Dropouts in California shall
include data from the most recent year. Subsequent annual reports
shall include data from the most recent year and, at a minimum, the
two prior years, so that comparisons can be made easily.
(i) The Superintendent or his or her designee shall make an oral
presentation of the contents of the report to the state board at a
regularly scheduled meeting of the board.
(j) The Superintendent shall make the contents of the report
available on the department's Internet Web site in a format that is
easy for the public to access and understand.
(k) If inclusion of school-level data would render the written
report unwieldy, the data may be omitted from the written report and
posted on the department's Internet Web site.
(l) It is the intent of the Legislature that the report prepared
by the Superintendent be usable by schools, districts, policymakers,
researchers, parents, and the public, for purposes of identifying and
understanding trends, causal relations, early warning indicators,
and potential points of intervention to address the high rate of
dropouts in California.
(m) For purposes of this section, dropouts shall be defined using
the exit/withdrawal codes developed by the department.
(n) For purposes of this section, "dropout recovery high school"
has the same meaning as defined in subparagraph (C)
(D) of paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of
Section 52052.
SECTION 1. Article 6.5 (commencing with Section
54720) is added to Chapter 9 of Part 29 of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Education Code, to read:
Article 6.5. Dropout Recovery
54720. (a) A local educational agency may continue to claim
average daily attendance for pupils who have dropped out of school if
the local educational agency develops a dropout recovery program
that conforms to the criteria described in this section.
(1) The program shall include all of the following components:
(A) A strategy for the identification, location, and enrollment of
pupils who have previously dropped out of a high school in the
school district.
(B) A procedure to demonstrate individual pupil academic growth
significantly beyond that which would be expected for the pupil's
time in the classroom.
(C) Other meaningful criteria showing the pupil's readiness for
career preparation or postsecondary education.
(2) The program shall be approved by the department.
(3) The local educational agency may partner with another local
educational agency, a governmental agency, apprenticeship program, or
a nonprofit organization with a demonstrated history of dropout
recovery.
(b) The department shall develop and make available on its
Internet Web site a list of successful dropout recovery programs
established pursuant to this section. The purpose of this list is to
illustrate potential models that a local educational agency may
consider in developing a dropout recovery program pursuant to this
section.