BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 1159 (Blumenfield) - Charter Schools: Pupil Achievement Data.
Amended: As Introduced Policy Vote: Education 7-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 24, 2013
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1159 requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to provide school districts with individual
pupil demographic, program, and achievement data, for pupils who
attend a charter school for which a school district is the
chartering authority, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Student achievement data: $50,000 (General Fund) in
one-time costs to upgrade the California Longitudinal Pupil
Achievement Data System (CALPADS) system to share charter
school pupil-level achievement data with the authorizing
districts.
Background: Existing law specifies that a school district may
provide statistical data to a public agency or entity, private
nonprofit college, university, or educational research and
development organization, as long as no individual pupil may be
identified from the data. (Education Code § 49076)
Existing law requires every pupil to have an individual record
of accomplishment by the end of grade 12 that includes the
results of achievement tests administered as part of the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, the results
of end-of-course exams, and any vocational education
certification exams a pupil may have taken. Existing law further
specifies that a pupil's record is private and may not be
released to any person other than the pupil's parent or
guardian, or a teacher, counselor, or administrator directly
involved with the pupil, without the express written consent of
either the parent or guardian if the pupil is a minor, or the
pupil if the pupil has reached the age of majority or is
emancipated. (EC § 60607)
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Existing federal law, the Family Educational Rights and privacy
Act (FERPA), generally prohibits the improper disclosure of
personally identifiable information derived from education
records. FERPA applies to all educational agencies and
institutions that receive funding under any program administered
by the U.S. Department of Education. Under FERPA, schools are
required to provide certain privacy protections for the
educational records they maintain.
Proposed Law: This bill requires the CDE to provide to a school
district individual pupil demographic data, program data, and
achievement data, including but not limited to, the results of
the standards-based achievement tests that are part of the STAR
Program, the English Language Development Test, and the
California High School Exit Exam, relating to pupils who attend
a charter school for which the school district is the chartering
authority, as specified. This bill further requires the CDE to
provide this data, to the extent it is available, along with the
unique pupil identification number of each of those pupils, to
the school district in accordance with the FERPA.
Related Legislation: AB 1919 (Brownley) 2011 was, in its
enrolled form, virtually identical to this measure. That bill
was vetoed by Governor Brown, with the following message:
This bill would require the State Department of Education to
send individual pupil level data to school districts that
request the information. The data would cover each and every
student attending a charter school the district authorizes.
Authorizing districts may already collect this data, so
another law is unnecessary. The locals can handle it.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the CDE to share certain
pupil achievement data, to the degree it can without violating
FERPA. In 2010, LAUSD requested student level assessment data
for pupils attending charter schools that it authorized.
Then-Superintendent Jack O'Connell denied the request, citing
current law, which does not allow a pupil's STAR results to be
released to anyone other than the student, parent, law
enforcement, or the school where the student is enrolled.
This bill requires that districts be given CALPADS access to
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view and download the pupil records. The CDE has indicated that
this level of information sharing will require a one-time change
to the CALPADS, which will cost $50,000 General Fund