BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1935
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 1935
(Kim) - As Introduced February 12, 2016
SUBJECT: Local control and accountability plans: posting in
different languages
SUMMARY: Requires Local Control and Accountability Plans
(LCAPs) and updates and revisions to the LCAPs to be posted on a
school district's and county office of education's Internet
website in languages other than English if specified conditions
are met. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires school districts and county superintendents of
schools to post LCAPs on their Internet websites in English
and each primary language other than English spoken by at
least 15% of the pupils enrolled in a school of the district
or county office of education schools.
2)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
post on the California Department of Education's (CDE) website
links to the approved LCAP of each school district and county
office of education in each language posted on the website of
the district or county office of education.
EXISTING LAW:
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1)Requires each school district and county office of education
to adopt and annually update an LCAP.
2)Requires the SPI to post links to each LCAP on the CDE
website.
3)Requires all notices, reports, statements, or records sent to
the parents or guardians of pupils in a school to be provided
in English and the primary language of the pupils if at least
15% of the pupils speak a primary language other than English.
FISCAL EFFECT: State mandated local program
COMMENTS: Existing law requires school districts and county
offices of education to adopt and annually update LCAPs using a
template adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE). Charter
schools are required to annually update their goals and actions
to achieve those goals, also using the template adopted by the
SBE. The template is designed to provide guidance to local
education agencies (LEAs) in providing a listing and description
of expenditures for implementing the specific actions included
in the LCAP and a listing and description of expenditures that
will serve the pupils who are low income, English learners, in
foster care and who have been redesignated as fluent English
proficient.
The SBE -adopted template is a matrix-type document that
consists of several columns and rows. Although the blank
template is 15 pages long, most LCAPs are more than 100 pages
long, and some are more than 300 pages long. Because many
parents and members of the public have found the length of the
templates to be daunting and confusing, many LEAs have produced
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more "user friendly" summaries, which provide the basic elements
of the LCAP, but without the same level of detail. Because the
cost of translating the full LCAP into multiple languages is
likely to be very high, and since the full translated LCAP may
be less useful for its intended audience than a translated
summary, staff recommends that the bill be amended to require a
district or county office of education to translate either the
full LCAP or the summary, if it has one, provided the summary
contains, at a minimum, the following:
A description of the annual goals and specific actions
contained in the plan pursuant to Sections 52060(c) and
52066(c) of the Education Code.
A description of how the plan addresses each of the
state priorities pursuant to Sections 52060(d) and 52066(d)
of the Education Code.
This would be a minimum requirement. A district would still be
able to translate the full LCAP is it chooses.
Charter schools. Charter schools are not required to adopt
LCAPs. Instead, they are required to annually update their
goals and annual actions to achieve those goals that are
identified in the charter petition. The same template that
districts use for their LCAPs is also for use by charter schools
when they update their annual goals and actions. Charter
schools also enroll large numbers of students from families
whose primary language is other than English. There is no
analytical reason to believe that the parents of charter school
students are any less deserving than the parents of traditional
school students to have access to translated copies of their
school's educational plans. One could argue that students
attend charter schools by choice, and therefore have the option
to not attend a charter school if it does not meet the students'
and their family's needs. However, not accommodating the
language needs of families could be a screen that discourages
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attendance by some students, especially English learners. In
such cases, the school would not be fulfilling the intent of the
Legislature that charter schools "increase learning
opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanded
learning experiences for pupils who are identified as
academically low achieving" (Education Code 47601).
Accordingly, staff recommends that the bill be amended to apply
to charter schools as well as to school districts and county
offices of education.
Arguments in support. According to the author's office,
"Considering that the [Local Control Funding Formula] provides
additional funding based upon the number of EL pupils in a
district, parents should be able to view the accountability
piece-the LCAP-so they can meaningfully participate in their
child's education." In addition, the author's office provided
data showing that only about a quarter of districts with an EL
population of more than 20% provided a translated version of
their LCAPs.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Advancement Project
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Federation of Teachers
Californians Together Coalition
AB 1935
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Education Trust West
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by:Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087