BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
1012 (Jones-Sawyer)
As Amended September 3, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 79-0 | (June 3, |SENATE: |39-0 | (September 8, |
| | |2015) | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY: Defines "courses without educational content,"
prohibits a school district serving any grades 9-12 from
assigning students to a course without educational content for
more than one week in any semester, and prohibits the assignment
of any student to a course that the student has previously
completed and received a satisfactory grade, unless specified
conditions are met. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines a "course period without educational content" as a
course period during which any of the following occurs:
a) The student is sent home or released from campus before
the conclusion of the designated school day.
b) The student is assigned to a service, instructional work
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experience, or to an otherwise named course in which the
student is assigned to assist a certificated employee, but
not expected to complete curricular assignments, in a
course the certificated employee is teaching during that
period and where the ratio of certificated employees to
students assigned to the course for curricular purposes is
less than one to one.
c) The student is not assigned to any course for the
relevant course period.
1)Prohibits, commencing with the 2016-17 school year, a school
district maintaining grades 9 to 12 from assigning any student
to any course period without educational content for more than
one week in any semester, unless all of the following
requirement are met:
a) A student is assigned to that course only if the student
or, for a student who has not reached the age of majority,
the student's parent, guardian, or educational rights
holder has consented in writing to the assignment.
b) A school official has determined that the student will
benefit from being assigned to the course period.
c) The principal or assistant principal of the school has
stated in a written document maintained at the school that,
for the relevant school year, no students are assigned to
those classes unless the school has met the conditions
specified in a) and b) above.
1)Prohibits, commencing with the 2016-17 school year, a school
district maintaining grades 9 to 12 from assigning any student
to a course that the student has previously completed and
received a grade sufficient to satisfy the requirements and
prerequisites for admission to the California public
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institutions of postsecondary education and the minimum
requirements for receiving a diploma of graduation from high
school, unless:
a) The course has been designed to be taken more than once
because students are exposed to a new curriculum from
year-to-year and are therefore expected to derive
educational value from taking the course again.
b) For any course that has not been designed to be taken
more than once, all of the following conditions are
satisfied:
i) A student is assigned to the course only if the
student or, for a student who has not reached the age of
majority, the student's parent, guardian, or educational
rights holder has consented in writing to the assignment
for the purpose of improving a lower grade.
ii) A school official has determined that the student
will benefit from being assigned to the course period.
iii) The principal or assistant principal of the school
has stated in a written document to be maintained at the
school that, for the relevant school year, no students
are assigned to those classes unless the school has met
the conditions specified in a) and b) above.
1)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.
2)Excludes students enrolled in an alternative school, a
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community day school, a continuation high school or an
opportunity school from provisions of this bill.
3)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.
4)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 year, to submit the report to the appropriate fiscal
and policy committees of the Legislature.
5)Requires the SPI to develop regulations for adoption by the
State Board of Education (SBE) to establish procedures
governing these requirements.
The Senate amendments:
1)Change the applicability of the bill from school districts
offering grades 7-12 to those offering grades 9-12.
2)Streamline the process by which exceptions may be made to the
prohibition on placement in courses without educational
content and placement in courses which have been
satisfactorily completed.
3)Clarify the definition of "service," "instructional work
experience," or otherwise named course.
4)Clarify that the provisions of the bill apply to course
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placement of students enrolled in grades 9-12.
5)Clarify that the provisions of the bill do not limit or
otherwise affect the authority of a school district to
authorize dual enrollment in community college.
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.
4)Establishes the minimum day in middle school and high school
as 240 minutes.
5)Through regulation, requires LEAs 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 Senate Appropriations
Committee, the California Department of Education (CDE)
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indicates the need of eight full-time positions, one part-time
position, and about $794,000 ongoing funding as no office
currently exists to monitor schools for course content. Costs
also include addressing complaints of noncompliance and appeals
and providing technical assistance to the field.
COMMENTS:
Need for this 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 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
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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 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
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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. On 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."
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
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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 in the 2014-15 school year. School district
officials acknowledged significant problems with the system, and
reported that nearly all scheduling problems were addressed by
the end of 2014. According to media reports, the system worked
smoothly for the start of the 2015-16 school year.
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)
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
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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:
0002202