BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1719
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1719 (Weber and Buchanan) - As Amended: April 22, 2014
SUBJECT : Full-day kindergarten
SUMMARY : Requires, commencing with the 2017-18 school year,
school districts offering kindergarten to implement a full-day
kindergarten program. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes a school district that determines that it cannot
comply with the full-day kindergarten requirements to, after
deliberation and vote of its governing board, postpone the
requirement. Requires the reasons for the postponement to be
submitted to the California Department of Education (CDE)
within one month of the vote.
2)Defines "full-day kindergarten" as instruction provided for
the same number of minutes per schoolday that is offered to
pupils in first grade.
3)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that the governing
board of a school district develop the implementation plan for
full-day kindergarten pursuant to this bill in consultation
with affected employee representatives and parents.
4)Makes several conforming changes to the law, including:
a) Repealing extended-day kindergarten for Early Primary
Programs on July 1, 2017;
b) Repealing, on July 1, 2017, the requirement that
kindergarten not exceed four hours, the authority for
multi-track year round kindergarten classes to operate for
265 minutes and exemptions to the four hour requirement for
Pasadena Unified School District and San Bernardino Unified
School District.
c) Repealing, on July 1, 2017, the requirements for a
single-session kindergarten class, including that the class
is maintained for a minimum of 180 minutes per schoolday,
the teacher is assigned to only one session of kindergarten
daily as a principal teacher, the kindergarten is a
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full-time certificated employee, and the kindergarten
teacher is available to assist in the instructional program
of other primary grades.
d) Repealing, on July 1, 2017, the authorization for a
school district that has fewer than 40 pupils enrolled in
kindergarten classes to apply to the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) to maintain two kindergarten
classes of 150 minutes on the same day taught by the same
teacher.
5)Makes legislative findings and declarations, including that
full-day kindergarten should provide time to meet the
developmentally based instructional needs of the whole child
and should encompass all curricular areas, including visual
and performing arts and physical education, as outlined in the
state adopted curriculum frameworks.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that the school day for kindergarten pupils is at a
minimum 180 minutes but no more than four hours (240 minutes)
with the following exceptions:
a) Extended-day kindergarten under the Early Primary
Programs allows for programs to operate beyond 4 hours but
not to exceed the primary school day. Existing law defines
Early Primary Programs as an integrated, experiential, and
developmentally appropriate educational program for
children in preschool, kindergarten, and grades 1 to 3,
inclusive, that incorporates various instructional
strategies and authentic assessment practices, including
educationally appropriate curricula, heterogeneous
groupings, active learning activities, oral language
development, small-group instruction, peer interaction, use
of concrete manipulative materials in the classroom,
planned articulation among preschool, kindergarten and
primary grades, and parent involvement and education.
b) Schools on multi-track year round scheduling may be kept
in school for 265 minutes.
c) The Pasadena Unified School District or counties that
have between 1.3 and 1.4 million residents are permitted to
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operate a kindergarten program for more than four hours a
day.
d) The San Bernardino Unified School District is permitted
to have a kindergarten program for more than four hours a
day if the principal of the school determines that a child
is developmentally and academically suited for the longer
instructional day based on a recommendation by the pupil's
teacher or a test, or both.
2)Authorizes the kindergarten schoolday to exceed four hours,
exclusive of recess, if the governing board declares that the
extended-day kindergarten program does not exceed the length
of the primary schoolday and the extended-day kindergarten
program takes into account ample opportunity for both active
and quiet activities within an integrated, experiential, and
developmentally appropriate educational program.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill requires school districts to implement
full-day kindergarten programs beginning in the 2017-18 school
year. The bill allows a governing board of a school district to
postpone implementation after voting to postpone implementation
at a governing board meeting. Under current law, kindergarten
students are provided a minimum of 180 minutes of instruction
per day, inclusive of recess but exclusive of lunch, in a
half-day program. Current law also authorizes school districts
to offer extended-day kindergarten (full-day kindergarten) if it
meets specified conditions. Prior full-day kindergarten bills
required 230 minutes of instruction; however, full-day
kindergarten programs typically offer over 300 minutes of
instruction. Rather than specify minimum minutes, this bill
requires kindergarten to be provided for the same number of
minutes as that provided to first grade pupils.
Research on full-day kindergarten . In 2005, WestEd released a
policy brief titled: Full-Day Kindergarten: Expanding learning
opportunities. In that brief they compiled data from several
studies on full-day kindergarten. Full-day kindergarten can
provide teachers with more time to have both formal and informal
interactions, including more time for small-group and individual
activities. WestEd found that students in full-day kindergarten
tend to be better prepared for primary-grade learning than those
in half-day programs. They do better with the transition to
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first grade, show significant gains in school socialization, and
are equipped with stronger learning skills. Studies also show
that full-day kindergarten students show faster gains on
literacy and language measures when compared to half-day
kindergarten students, a finding of particular importance for
the growing numbers of English learners. Moreover, such gains
may last over time. One study, for example, showed higher
reading achievement persisting through third grade and in some
cases through seventh grade, a benefit that bolsters students'
overall school performance.
New academic standards. Full-day kindergarten is important with
the implementation of the common core state standards. Common
core attempts to move away from rote memorization and focus
instead on critical and analytical learning. Providing more
time will be beneficial. For example, the Roseville City School
District plans to implement full-day kindergarten during the
next school year. The district made the decision after piloting
full-day kindergarten in nine of its 14 elementary schools and
found positive test results even before the end of the school
year.
Extended-day kindergarten in California. Prior to 2005, school
districts interested in offering an extended-day program (more
than four hours) must seek a waiver from the State Board of
Education. AB 2407 (Bermudez), Chapter 946, Statutes of 2004,
eliminated the requirement to seek a waiver. A survey of
full-day kindergarten in California conducted by the Public
Policy Institute of California (PPIC) in 2009 found that
full-day classes increased substantially following the enactment
of AB 2407. In 2000-01, 11% of kindergarteners attended
full-day kindergarten programs. In 2007-08, 43% of
kindergarteners attended full-day kindergarten, with
lower-performing and economically disadvantaged schools more
likely to offer full-day programs. PPIC noted that California's
enrollment of kindergarteners in full-day programs lagged behind
those of other states. According to PPIC, two-thirds of all
kindergarteners nationally attend full-day programs.
Full-day kindergarten policies in other states . According to
the Education Commission of the States, while all states permit
full-day kindergarten on some level, as of 2010, 11 states,
including Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and
West Virginia require that full-day kindergarten be offered. In
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New Jersey, schools in certain districts called "Abbott"
districts, who receive additional financial assistance due to a
Supreme Court order in Abbot v. Burke (1997), are required to
offer full-day kindergarten. Some states offer funding to
implement full-day kindergarten but do not require it.
Are there challenges in implementing full-day kindergarten? For
most school districts, the challenge in implementing full-day
kindergarten is not in hiring new teachers. Kindergarten
teachers work full-day currently. They may teach a kindergarten
class in the morning or the afternoon. During the morning or
afternoon when their classes are not in session, they are
assisting another classroom or are doing other duties pursuant
to agreements with the districts. Some districts, especially
districts where there is growth, may have challenges with
facilities as some kindergarten classes are shared by teachers.
Districts that have participated in the class size reduction
(CSR) program should have space. Prior to the implementation of
categorical flexibility in 2009, districts were required to
maintain kindergarten to third grade classes at 20.44 to 1, on
average. Categorical flexibility allowed school districts to
increase class size without losing all CSR funding. It was not
uncommon to find K-3 class sizes at 30 to 1, which freed up
classroom space. However, to address the facilities challenges
school districts may have, staff recommends specifying that the
authority to postpone implementation shall be due to lack of
facilities.
Arguments in support . The author states, "Full-Day Kindergarten
programs allow children an opportunity to strengthen the
foundational skills necessary to succeed in school. These
skills, including socialization, following direction, and basic
critical thinking, are beneficial to the student in both the
short and long terms. Kindergarten students are also being held
to new and more rigorous academic standards, such as Common
Core, and a full-time program would seemingly aid in their
ability to be prepared."
Prior legislation . AB 2046 (Coto), held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee suspense file in 2006, required
kindergarten to be a full-day program, phased in over three
years. The bill defined full-day kindergarten as instruction
provided for a minimum of 230 minutes per schoolday, exclusive
of lunch.
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AB 520 (Koretz) of 2001, would authorize a school district,
county office of education, or a charter school to elect to
participate in the kindergarten full schoolday program that
operates for the full school year and for the minimum schoolday
established by law for pupils in grade 1, in elementary school,
as prescribed. The bill was gut and amended to deal with teacher
paper work issues.
AB 323 (Pavley), introduced in 2001, would have allowed the
State Board of Education to waive provisions of the Education
Code allowing school districts and county offices of education
to offer extended day programs that would meet specific
criteria. The bill was gut and amended to deal with special
education issues.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Child Development Administrators Association
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087