BILL ANALYSIS Ó ACR 96 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 20, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES Richard Gordon, Chair ACR 96 (Weber) - As Introduced July 8, 2015 SUBJECT: Dropout Recovery Month. SUMMARY: Declares the month of August 2015 as Dropout Recovery Month, and would state that the Legislature intends to encourage the support of dropout recovery high schools with creative teaching strategies, alternative assessments, and adequate resources. Specifically, this resolution makes the following legislative findings: 1)The America's Promise Alliance found that pupils drop out of high school because they are overwhelmed by the effects of toxic living conditions such as homelessness, violent surroundings, abuse or neglect, and catastrophic family health events. 2)The 2013 and 2014 Building a Grad Nation reports found that the nation cannot achieve its graduation goals without increasing California's graduations rate for Latino and African American pupils. 3)The Alliance for Excellent Education concluded after research that if only one-half of the dropouts from a single year were to earn a diploma, the economic benefits to California would include an additional $1.4 billion in earnings annually for ACR 96 Page 2 the pupils and an annual increase in state and local tax revenues of $167 million. 4)Research shows that reengaged learners demonstrate higher levels of civic engagement, contribute to the cultural strength of their communities, and are significantly less likely to be unemployed, on public assistance, or arrested for a violent crime. 5)Successful dropout recovery high schools utilize multiple strategies, including accelerated learning pedagogies, competency-based instruction, and alternative rate cohorts and these schools retain high-quality staff committed to transforming their pupils from being at risk of failure to being at promise of success. FISCAL EFFECT: None REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators California Charter School Association California County Superintendents Educational Services Association County School Facilities Consortium ACR 96 Page 3 California State Conference, NAACP John Muir Charter Schools Kids Alliance, John Burton Foundation Los Angeles Unified School District Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund Riverside County Office of Education San Diego Unified School District School Energy Coalition SIATech Opposition None on file ACR 96 Page 4 Analysis Prepared by:Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800