BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          SB 1108 (Padilla) - Reclassification of English Learners.
          
          Amended: April 19, 2012         Policy Vote: Education 9-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: Yes
          Hearing Date: May 24, 2012      Consultant: Jacqueline 
          Wong-Hernandez
          
          SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.

          
          Bill Summary: SB 1108 requires school districts, county offices 
          of education (COEs), and charter schools, as a condition of the 
          receipt of funds for the administration of the California 
          English Language Development Test (CELDT) for 2013-14, to report 
          the criteria it uses to determine whether or not to reclassify 
          an English learner student to the state Department of Education 
          (CDE) by July 1, 2013. It requires the CDE to review and analyze 
          the reported information, as specified. This bill further 
          requires the CDE report to the Legislature its findings, as well 
          as recommendations for guideline, regulation, and statutory 
          changes related to reclassifying English learners, by January 1, 
          2014. The CDE is also required to issue an updated report 
          reflecting any changes related to Common Core standards 
          implementation, by January 1, 2017.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              CDE reports: The proposed amendments reduce the workload 
              associated with completing the required report, and will 
              likely reduce costs to $200,000-$300,000. 

          Background: Existing federal and state law both require that 
          schools with English language learners annually assess these 
          students' English language development until they are 
          redesignated as English proficient. The state assessment tool, 
          the CELDT, must be administered to all students whose primary 
          language is not English within 30 calendar days after they are 
          enrolled in a California public school for the first time, and 
          annually thereafter during a period of time determined by the 
          Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the State Board 
          of Education (SBE) until they are reclassified as English 
          proficient. During the 2010-2011 school year, the CELDT was 
          administered to 1.57 million students.








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          Existing law requires the CDE, with the approval of the SBE, to 
          establish procedures for administering the CELDT and for the 
          reclassifying a pupil from English learner to English 
          proficient. Reclassification procedures developed by the CDE 
          must use multiple criteria, including, but not limited to: 1) an 
          assessment of language proficiency; 2) teacher evaluation, 
          including, but not limited to, a review of the pupil's 
          curriculum mastery; 3) parental opinion and consultation; and 4) 
          comparison of the student's performance in basic skills against 
          an empirically established range of performance in basic skills 
          based upon the performance of English proficient pupils of the 
          same age. (Education Code § 313)

          Proposed Law: This bill conditions the receipt of CELDT 
          administration funds on a school district, county office of 
          education, and charter school reporting, by July 1, 2013, to the 
          CDE the criteria it uses to determine whether or not to 
          reclassify a pupil as English proficient. The bill further 
          requires the CDE, by January 1, 2014, to review and analyze the 
          criteria, policies, and practices that school districts use to 
          reclassify English learners and recommend to the Legislature and 
          the SBE any guideline, regulatory, or statutory changes it deems 
          necessary. This bill also requires the CDE, by January 1, 2017, 
          to issue an updated report that reflects any changes in analysis 
          and recommendations as a result of the adoption of the Common 
          Core standards.

          Related Legislation: SB 1109 (Padilla) requires the SPI to 
          develop an English Learner Master Plan to expand support 
          services, as specified, by January 1, 2014. It requires the SPI 
          to report on the plan and provide recommendations for statutory, 
          regulatory, and administrative changes needed to the Legislature 
          and the SBE by July 1, 2014. This bill is also being heard in 
          this Committee on May 14, 2012.

          Staff Comments: This bill requires a school district, COE, and 
          charter school to report to the CDE the criteria it uses to 
          determine whether or not to reclassify a pupil as English 
          proficient as a condition of receiving of CELDT administration 
          funds. Legislative counsel has identified this as a potential 
          reimbursable state mandate because the activity of assessing 
          English learners is required by state law, with or without 
          funding allocated for this purpose. Thus, if the reporting 








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          entities did not provide the information, they would still be 
          required to administer the CELDT without funding. It is, 
          however, unlikely that the required entities would not submit 
          their reclassification criteria to the CDE, since it would be a 
          matter of simply printing and submitting the criteria they are 
          already statutorily required to have and that they use each 
          year. This simple task will not likely drive additional costs to 
          the local agencies required to submit the information.

          Staff notes, however, that the compliance enforcement mechanism 
          is unclear for charter schools to comply. Some independent 
          charter schools do not receive CELDT administration funding, but 
          instead receive the physical materials and paraprofessional 
          support from their charter authorizers (e.g. a school district) 
          to administer the CELDT; in these cases, the authorizer receives 
          CELDT administration funding for all of the schools in its 
          jurisdiction, and allocates both material and intangible 
          resources to its schools. It is not clear what would happen if a 
          charter school that does not receive direct CELDT funding failed 
          to submit its English Learner reclassification criteria to the 
          CDE. 
          
          This bill requires the CDE, by January 1, 2014, to review and 
          analyze the criteria, policies, and practices that school 
          districts use to reclassify English learners and recommend to 
          the Legislature and SBE any guideline, regulatory, or statutory 
          changes it deems necessary. Further, the CDE, by January 1, 
          2017, is required to issue an updated report that reflects any 
          changes in analysis and recommendations as a result of the 
          adoption of the Common Core standards. The CDE has indicated it 
          would likely contract out the work required for both reports, 
          and estimates that such a contract would likely cost 
          $450,000-500,000. The bulk of the work and cost would likely be 
          incurred by the first report, which would be a fully new 
          activity and product. Updating recommendations that are already 
          presented in a report would involve considerably less work. To 
          the extent that the CDE makes recommendations to the SBE and the 
          Legislature which call for additional services or resources, 
          there will be cost pressure to implement those recommendations.

          Proposed Author Amendments: The proposed amendments remove 
          provisions requiring school districts, COEs, and charter schools 
          to report their reclassification criteria to the CDE. Require 
          the CDE, in completing its report, to analyze a sampling of 








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          districts that represent the geographic, socioeconomic, and 
          demographic diversity of California's school districts. The 
          amendments also specify that the required activities are 
          contingent upon the availability of private or federal funds.