BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






                         SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
                                Carol Liu, Chair
                           2013-2014 Regular Session
                                        

          BILL NO:       SB 590
          AUTHOR:        De Leon        
          INTRODUCED:    February 22, 2013
          FISCAL COMM:   Yes            HEARING DATE:  April 10, 2013
          URGENCY:       No             CONSULTANT:Lenin Del Castillo

           SUBJECT  :  Classified School Employee Staff Development  
          Program.

           SUMMARY  

          This bill establishes the Classified School Employee Staff  
          Development and Training Program for classified employees  
          at community colleges and local educational agencies  
          (school districts, county offices of education, and charter  
          schools) and allows a portion of the funds provided from  
          state, federal, or local sources for teacher professional  
          development to be set aside for professional development  
          training for classified school employees. 
           
           BACKGROUND  
           
           Currently, there is not a state funded professional  
          development training program for classified employees.  The  
          Administrator Training and Chief Business Officer Training  
          programs provided incentive grants of up to $3,000 per  
          person to local educational agencies for training  
          principals, vice principals, and chief business or  
          financial officers.  However, these programs were recently  
          repealed.  

          Classified school employees include paraprofessionals,  
          healthcare professionals, office and clerical staff, bus  
          drivers, groundskeepers, custodians, information technology  
          assistants, instructional assistants, food service workers,  
          and school safety personnel.  They are employed in K-12  
          public school settings or at the community colleges and  
          have major responsibilities for reinforcing classroom  
          instruction and the health and safety of students.   
          Classified school employees include both part-time and  
          full-time staff. 




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          Current law authorizes the Professional Development Block  
          Grant, which supports professional development activities  
          allowed by the Staff Development Instructional Support,  
          Teaching as a Priority, and Intersegmental programs.  These  
          activities include teacher recruitment and retention  
          incentives, staff development projects designed to improve  
          elementary teacher skills, and programs that promote  
          development of highly qualified teachers.  While the Budget  
          Act of 2012 includes $218.4 million for this block grant,  
          the funds are subject to categorical flexibility whereby  
          school districts may utilize the funds for any educational  
          purpose.


           ANALYSIS
           
          This bill establishes the Classified School Employee Staff  
          Development and Training Program for classified employees  
          at community colleges and local educational agencies and  
          allows a portion of the funds provided from state, federal,  
          or local sources for teacher professional development to be  
          set aside for professional development training for  
          classified school employees. 

          Additionally, this bill:

          1)   Defines a "classified school employee" as a person  
               employed on a full-time or a part-time basis as a  
               classified school employee at a community college, a  
               public school, a charter school, or a county office of  
               education. 

          2)   Declares legislative intent that a portion of the  
               total funding for staff development from state,  
               federal, or local funds be set aside for professional  
               development training for classified school employees  
               to update their skills and learn about best practices  
               for any of the following:

               a)        Pupil learning and achievement training. 
               b)        Pupil campus safety.
               c)        Education technology.
               d)        School facility maintenance and operations.
               e)        Special education.
               f)        School transportation and bus safety.




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               g)        Parent involvement.
               h)        Food service.
               i)        Health and nursing standards.
               j)        Environmental safety.

           STAFF COMMENTS  

           1)   Need for the bill  .  Classified employees perform a  
               variety of functions on school campuses, including  
               instructional aide, maintenance, accounting,  
               transportation, food service, and safety.  Schools  
               often rely on paraprofessionals, healthcare  
               professionals, information technology assistants and  
               other classified school employees to perform these  
               duties.  These jobs may require specific training,  
               certifications or licenses, Peace Officer Standards  
               and Training certification, medical procedures, food  
               handling, etc.  Under current law, there is no  
               categorical program that provides specific training  
               for classified school employees and teaches them new  
               approaches in fulfilling their job responsibilities.   
               The author's office believes that professional  
               development is necessary to ensure that these  
               employees continue to maintain and update their skills  
               and knowledge to implement new statutory requirements  
               for student care, and to better assist students,  
               parents, and other educators.

               Staff recommends that the bill be amended to require  
               any of the funds set aside for classified employee  
               training to emphasize common core standards and school  
               safety, while also instituting an accountability  
               system in which a school district must meet specified  
               preconditions that include the development of a plan,  
               in conjunction with parents and teachers, to  
               accelerate pupil progress towards academic  
               proficiency. 
                
           2)   Governor's Local Control Funding Formula  .  As part of  
               the 2013-14 Governor's Budget, the administration  
               proposes to restructure the existing K-12 finance  
               system and eliminate over 40 existing programs while  
               also repealing, what the administration determines are  
               countless "discretionary" provisions of statute, while  
               implementing a new formula known as the Local Control  
               Funding Formula (LCFF).  The LCFF would consolidate  




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               the vast majority of state categorical programs and  
               revenue limit apportionments into a single source of  
               funding (12 categorical programs, including Special  
               Education, Child Nutrition, Preschool, and After  
               School programs, would be excluded).  The LCFF  
               proposal would also eliminate the statutory and  
               programmatic requirements for almost all existing  
               categorical   programs - the programs would be deemed  
               "discretionary" and programs in any of these areas  
               would be dependent on local district discretion.  To  
               the extent that the LCFF or a modified version of it  
               is adopted as part of the budget, the majority of  
               currently required categorical activities would be  
               left to local districts' discretion.  Therefore, the  
               provisions of this bill could be diluted, eliminated,  
               rendered obsolete or discretionary at the local level.  
                    

           3)   Prior related legislation  .  AB 406 (Yamada, 2009)  
               would have created the Classified School Employee  
               Training Program to provide grants to school and  
               community college districts through the consolidation  
               of existing funds for classified staff training and  
               from any new funds from state, federal, or local  
               sources.  This bill was held in the Assembly  
               Appropriations Committee.  

           SUPPORT  

          California School Employees Association (sponsor)
          California Federation of Teachers

           OPPOSITION

           None on file.