BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1012
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1012 (Jones-Sawyer)
As Amended June 1, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Education |7-0 |O'Donnell, Chávez, | |
| | |Kim, McCarty, | |
| | |Santiago, Thurmond, | |
| | |Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, | |
| | |Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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AB 1012
Page 2
SUMMARY: This bill prohibits, starting with the 2016-17 school
year, a school district maintaining any of grades seven to 12 from
assigning any students to any "course period without educational
content" for more than one week in any semester, or to a course
that the student has previously completed with a grade sufficient
to meet the A-G requirements and graduation requirements, unless
specifically authorized per requirements of the bill.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "course period without educational content" as one
course period during which any of the following occurs: the
pupil is sent home or released from campus before the conclusion
of the designated school day; the pupil is assigned to service,
instructional work experience, or to a course that has a
different name, but involves the pupil providing assistance to a
certificated employee in a situation in which the ratio of pupil
to employee is greater than one to one; or the pupil is not
assigned to any course for the relevant course period.
2)Sets forth reasons why a pupil may be assigned to a course
without educational content and requires the principal or
assistant principal to certify and place the rationale in the
student's cumulative file.
3)Clarifies a school district is not prohibited from establishing
and offering evening high school classes, independent study,
courses of work-based learning or work experience, or distance
learning if the program otherwise meets all of the requirements
of law governing that program.
4)Excludes pupils enrolled in an alternative school, a community
day school, a continuation high school or an opportunity school
from provisions of this bill.
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5)Makes these requirements subject to the Uniform Complaint
Procedures (UCP), requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to respond to appeals within 60 days, and
requires that if merit is found in an appeal the local
educational agency to provide a remedy to the affected student.
6)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
annually prepare an annual report detailing actions taken
regarding related complaints, and requires the SPI, by January 1
of each fiscal year, to submit the report to the report to the
appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature.
Requires the SPI to adopt regulations that set forth the
procedures governing complaint procedures.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Specifies requirements for graduation from high school,
including: three courses in English; two courses in
mathematics; two courses in science; three courses in social
studies; one course in visual or performing arts, foreign
language, or career technical education; and two courses in
physical education. Authorizes school districts to adopt
additional requirements for graduation.
2)Establishes course requirements for admission to the University
of California and the California State University, known as the
A-G requirements.
3)Requires that only the attendance of students under the
immediate supervision and control of a certificated employee is
counted toward the computation of average daily attendance.
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4)Establishes the minimum day in middle school and high school as
240 minutes.
5)Through regulation, requires local education agencies to adopt
uniform complaint procedures through which the public can
register complaints regarding educational programs and rights.
(California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Section 4600).
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98 (1988) General
Fund state mandated costs related to the expansion of the UCP, and
unknown administrative costs to the CDE to process UCP appeals,
likely not to exceed $300,000.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. The author's office states, "Thousands of high
school students across California are tracked into so-called
'classes,' where they are given meaningless 'credits' for sitting
at home, in the office, or taking a course they've already passed.
School districts have given these courses different names ('home,'
'service,' 'work-experience,' 'college,' 'adult'), but they all
have a common trait: they rob students of learning time and the
opportunity for a real education. And many of the affected
students need real, academic classes to fulfill graduation or
college access requirements.
The schools where this occurs serve almost exclusively low-income
students of color. Although this is not the norm across
California, it is all-too common in communities where students can
least afford to lose learning time. It is time to ensure that all
AB 1012
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of our schools have the support they need to provide real classes
to every student until they graduate."
Bill related to lawsuit filed by the sponsor. This bill is
related to Cruz v. State of California, a class action lawsuit
filed May 29th, 2014, in Alameda County Superior Court against the
state on behalf of students in seven schools.
The suit names as plaintiffs a class of current or future students
attending Castlemont High School in the Oakland Unified School
District, John C. Fremont High School in the Los Angeles Unified
School District (LAUSD), Nystrom Elementary School in the West
Contra Costa Unified School District, Franklin S. Whaley Middle
School in the Compton Unified School District, Fremont High School
in the Oakland Unified School District, Florence Griffith Joyner
Elementary School in the LAUSD, and Compton High School in the
Compton Unified School District. The suit names as defendants the
State of California, the State Department of Education, the State
Board of Education (SBE), and the Superintendent of Public
Instruction Tom Torlakson.
The plaintiffs allege that the state has violated the rights of
the plaintiffs provided by the Equal Protection clauses of the
state constitution "by failing to provide them with basic
educational opportunities equal to those that other students
elsewhere in the State receive" with regard to meaningful learning
time.
They allege that this lack of instructional time is due to several
factors, including:
1)Assignment of students to administrative tasks or free periods
instead of assignment to classroom periods of instruction
because of insufficient curricular offerings and a lack of
AB 1012
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available qualified teachers;
2)Violence or security disruptions, which result in cessation of
instruction and traumatic after-effects, and insufficient access
to mental health professionals to assist students and faculty in
coping with these disruptions;
3)Late changes to the master course schedule requiring course and
teacher changes well into the semester;
4)Unstable, transient teaching faculties and administrative teams
(including principals, assistant principals, and counselors),
resulting from under-resourced and stressful campuses not
conducive to professional development and growth; and
5)Unaddressed student absenteeism, resulting in whole or part from
campus conditions.
The complaint requests that the court address the state's
monitoring system and its intervention to prevent and remedy the
causes of lost learning time.
On February 5th of this year the plaintiffs filed a motion for a
preliminary injunction. Last week (April 24th), Alameda County
Superior Court Judge George C. Hernández, Jr. denied this motion,
stating that, "If, at this stage, Plaintiffs cannot supply
reliable evidence regarding the actual practices of most
California high schools with regard to the use of contentless
classes and the timely implementation of appropriate master
schedules, the court lacks a fair standard against which to
measure the performance of Plaintiff's own high schools and cannot
determine, even preliminarily, whether Plaintiffs have some
possibility of prevailing on their claims."
AB 1012
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Districts respond to lawsuit by curtailing some practices.
According to a reply brief submitted in support of the motion for
preliminary injunction, Compton High School has ceased scheduling
students in "home" periods and has placed "sharp limitations" on
service periods since this suit was filed, and LAUSD has indicated
that it will take some measures to limit "home" and "service"
periods and produce timely, complete master schedules.
2014-15 scheduling problems in LAUSD caused by data system
failure. In August, 2014 students at Jefferson High School in the
Los Angeles Unified School district (LAUSD) walked out of class
during their third week of school in protest over a new scheduling
system which failed to assign students to classes and assigned
some to classes they'd already taken. Students reported sitting
in auditoriums all day for days while course schedules were worked
out, and being assigned to classes they had already completed.
Teachers found elementary school students listed on high school
attendance sheets.
The problems which occurred in LAUSD were related to a new data
system, called MiSis, which was developed by the district and
introduced this year. School district officials acknowledged
significant problems with the system, and reported that nearly all
scheduling problems were addressed by the end of 2014.
Student declarations point to management problems. Student and
staff declarations provided by counsel for the plaintiffs paint a
picture of five high schools in the Oakland, Compton, and Los
Angeles school districts with numerous management problems. These
include:
1)Scheduling problems (evidenced by students being placed into
courses late, being placed in courses already completed,
overcrowding of courses, and cancelled courses).
AB 1012
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2)Staffing problems, including high teacher and administrator
turnover (evidenced by students being instructed by multiple
substitute teachers, report of high administrator turnover).
3)Counseling services problems (evidenced by overwhelmed
counselors and poor counseling).
4)Insufficient course offerings for A-G completion (evidenced by
students not able to enroll in A-G courses).
Some statements also indicated that the limited elective course
offerings was associated with a decision on the part of the school
districts to focus their resources on remedial instruction, which
the plaintiffs acknowledge is necessary for many students in these
schools. They state, "Fremont has invested its limited resources
in providing intervention classes, which are necessary for many
students to graduate, but this has come at the expense of offering
sufficient classes and electives to fill the course schedules of
students who are on track to graduate."
Analysis Prepared by:
Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN: 0000814