BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 491|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 491
Author: Gonzalez (D)
Amended: 8/19/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: English learners: identification: notice
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill expands parental notification requirements
relative to long-term English learners (EL), requires the
California Department of Education (CDE) to develop a sample
notification letter disclosing the use of the results of the
home language survey used to determine the primary language of a
student upon enrollment, and requires districts to provide the
letter to parents at the time the home language survey is
provided.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 delete reference to an
outdated Education Code section.
ANALYSIS:
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Existing federal law requires that a school district that
receives federal funds for providing a language instruction
education program for limited English proficient students to
provide notice to a parent within 30 days of the start of the
school year of specified information if their child has been
identified for participation in the program. In addition, state
law requires that, in conformance with these provisions, that
the notice include specified information. (Title 20, § 7012,
USC)
Existing state law:
1)Defines a long-term EL and a student at risk of becoming a
long-term English learner. (Education Code § 313.1)
2)Requires that the CDE annually ascertain and report the number
of students who are, or are at risk of becoming, long-term
English learners and to provide this information to districts
and schools. (EC § 313.2)
3)Requires the determination of a student's primary language
upon enrollment and assessment of the language skills of all
students whose primary language is other than English. (EC §
52164.1)
4)Requires, under federal and state law, that each school
district with English language learners annually assess these
students' English language development until they are
redesignated as English proficient. (EC § 313)
This bill:
1)Expands parental notification requirements regarding the
assessment of a student's English language proficiency to
additionally contain the following information:
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a) Whether the child is a long-term EL or at risk of
becoming a long-term EL.
b) The manner in which the English language development
instruction will:
i) Meet the long-term EL or at risk of becoming a
long-term EL educational strengths and needs.
ii) Help the EL or at risk of becoming a long-term EL
develop English proficiency and meet age-appropriate
academic standards.
2)Requires the CDE to develop and make available a sample
notification letter explaining the purposes of the home
language survey letter and the procedures for identification
and reclassification of ELs. Additionally, it:
a) Requires that the notification letter include specified
statements advising parents how they can dispute the
school's determination.
b) Requires that districts provide the notification letter
to the parent/guardian at the same time the home language
survey is provided.
Comments
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, while federal law
requires parental notification of a student's English
proficiency within 30 days of the start of school, no
information is currently provided regarding students who are
long term ELs or who are at risk of becoming long-term ELs.
Additionally, the author is concerned that the home language
survey required under sunset California law does not provide
parents with an understanding of the purpose of the survey and
the procedures for identification and reclassification of ELs.
This bill is intended to prevent students from being
misclassified upon initial enrollment at a school.
2)Long-term English Learners. A 2010 report by Californians
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Together, Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of
Educational Opportunity for California's Long-Term English
Learners, presented survey data collected from 40 school
districts. Major findings of the survey included the
following:
a) The majority (59%) of secondary school ELs are
"Long-Term English Learners (defined as being in US schools
for more than six years without sufficient English
proficiency to be reclassified).
b) California school districts that do not have a shared
definition of Long-term ELs.
c) Several contributing factors include; no receipt of
language development programs, being given elementary
school curricula and materials that were not designed to
meet EL needs, weak language development program models,
inconsistent programs, social and linguistic isolation and
other things.
d) Few districts have designated programs or formal
approaches designed for Long-Term ELs.
As a result of this report, legislation was enacted (AB 2193,
Lara, Chapter 427, Statutes of 2012) to statutorily define
"long-term English learner" and "at risk of becoming a
long-term English learner" and to require that the CDE
ascertain and provide the number of students who meet these
definitions to districts and schools.
This bill requires that existing notification requirements
regarding the assessment of a student's English language
proficiency include specific information for students
identified as a long-term EL or at risk of becoming a
long-term EL.
3)Home Language Survey. Existing law requires schools to
determine the language(s) spoken in the home of each student.
This determination begins with a home language survey (HLS),
which is completed by the parents or guardians at the time the
student is first enrolled. The CDE provides a sample form,
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available in various languages to assist with this
identification process.
According to the CDE, a redetermination of a primary language
is only required if the results are disputed by a parent or
guardian. If a language other than English was inaccurately
included on the HLS, a parent/guardian may request to update
the HLS to accurately reflect the language(s) spoken in the
home. However, if a pupil has already completed a California
English Language Development Test (CELDT) and has been
designated an English learner, the pupil must take the
assessment annually until they are reclassified fluent English
proficient.
This bill is intended to respond to concerns that the current
home language survey process "misidentifies" students as ELs
and makes it difficult to correct any "misidentifications".
The bill requires that the home language survey information
include disclosures regarding the purpose of the home language
survey, the ability of a parent to dispute the determination,
and the inability to make any changes once the child has been
tested and identified as an EL.
4)Are there issues? In March 2013, in response to concerns
regarding inaccurate identification of ELs, CDE gathered
suggestions for possible HLS revisions from the statewide
Bilingual Coordinators' Network of district and county
professionals. In September 2013, the CDE participated in a
national working session with several states, stakeholders,
and researchers convened by the Council of Chief State School
Officers aimed at strengthening the reliability, accuracy, and
usefulness of HLS questions and processes. In February and May
of 2014, the CDE met with representatives from five local
educational agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders to
review the current HLS and make recommendations for revising
the tool. From these meetings, the workgroup developed survey
questions to be used in an HLS Pilot Study conducted by the
West Ed Regional Education Laboratory-West and California
Comprehensive Center in collaboration with the University of
California Los Angeles Graduate School of Education &
Information Studies.
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The HLS Pilot Study examined the clarity of the HLS (questions
and the extent to which these may better predict which
students are potential ELs and need to be assessed.
Approximately 20 schools participated in the study from five
participating districts including ABC Unified School District,
Coachella Valley Unified School District, Inglewood Unified
School District, Robla Elementary School District, and
Torrance Unified School District.
According to the CDE, because the sample size was limited to
150 students, the results of the pilot study do not yield
sufficient information to recommend policy decisions. The CDE
recommended a more extensive and systematic study be conducted
at a later date when the English Learner Proficiency
Assessment is operational.
5)English learners. The CDE provides the following information
on English learners in California's public schools:
a) In the 2014-15 school year there were approximately 1.4
million ELs in California public schools, constituting 22.3
percent of the total enrollment.
b) Over 2.6 million students (42.9 percent of public school
enrollment) spoke a language other than English in their
home.
c) 73 percent of ELs are enrolled in the elementary grades
(K-6) with the remaining 27 percent enrolled in grades
7-12.
d) Although EL data is collected for 60 language groups, 94
percent speak one of the top ten languages in the state,
which include Spanish (83.7 percent), Vietnamese, Pilipino
(Filipino or Tagalog), Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic, Hmong,
Korean, Punjabi, and Russian.
e) During 2013-14 the CDE administered the CELDT) to 1.4
million students, 1.1 million of whom were tested under the
annual assessment window.
f) In 2012-13 and 2013-14, approximately 12 percent of ELs
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were reclassified as English proficient. Prior to that
approximately 11 percent of English learners were annually
reclassified, with the notable exception that in 2011-12,
16.3 percent were reclassified.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Committee on Appropriation, this bill
would impose the following costs:
The CDE estimates one-time costs of $32,000 General Fund to
develop a sample notification letter.
State reimbursable mandate costs potentially in the hundreds
of thousands for school districts to provide the notification
letter to parents or guardians of a student when the home
language survey is provided, and to expand the information to
be included in the parent notice of assessment of his or her
child's English language proficiency. (Proposition 98)
SUPPORT: (Verified8/22/16)
Association of California School Administrators
Los Angeles Unified School District
San Diego Unified School District
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/22/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/15
AB 491
Page 8
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
Prepared by:Olgalilia Ramirez / ED. / (916) 651-4105
8/22/16 20:38:05
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