BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2063
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 2063
(Gallagher) - As Introduced February 17, 2016
SUBJECT: Work-based learning opportunities: work experience
education, registered student apprentices, and job shadowing
SUMMARY: Lowers, from 16 years of age to 14 years of age, the
minimum age required for student participation in work
experience education, job shadowing experiences, and
apprenticeship programs. Raises the hour limit on student
participation in job shadowing experiences from 25 to 40 hours
per semester. Specifically, this bill:
1)Lowers the age for participation in work experience education
programs from 16 to 14 years of age.
2)Lowers the age for participation in job shadowing experiences
from 16 to 14 years of age.
3)Lowers the grade limit for participation in job shadowing
experiences from 10th grade to 9th grade.
4)Lowers the age for participation in apprenticeship programs
from 16 to 14 years of age.
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5)Lowers the grade limit for participation in apprenticeship
programs from 10th grade to 9th grade.
6)Raises the amount of hours a student can participate in job
shadowing experiences from 25 hours to 40 hours per semester.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Authorizes school districts that maintain high schools to
establish work-based learning or work experience programs for
the purpose of providing pupils with instruction in skills,
attitudes, and understanding necessary for success in
employment.
2)Defines "work-based learning" as an educational approach or
instructional methodology that uses the workplace or real work
to provide pupils with knowledge and skills that help them
connect school experiences to real-life work activities and
career opportunities.
3)Provides that work-based learning opportunities for pupils may
be delivered by partnership academies, regional occupational
programs, and other educational programs, and may include work
experience education, community classrooms, cooperative career
technical education (CTE) programs, and job shadowing.
4)Requires students to be at least 16 years of age in order to
receive credit for completing a work experience education
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program. Allows students younger than 16 to participate in
work experience education under any of the following
conditions:
a) the student is in grade 11 or higher
b) the principal of the school which the students attends
certifies that the student is in need of immediate work
experience in order to pursue employment opportunities
c) the principal of the school in which the student attends
certifies that there is a probability that the student will
no longer be enrolled as a full-time student without being
provided the opportunity to enroll in a work experience
education program
d) the student's individual education program (IEP)
prescribes the type of training for which participation in
work experience education is deemed appropriate
5)Defines a registered student apprentice as a student who is at
least 16 years of age, a full time high school student in the
grade 10 or higher, and in an apprenticeship program
registered with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards.
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6)Specifies that school districts providing training to students
through work experience education, cooperative vocational
education, community classrooms, or student apprenticeship
programs are considered the employer of the student receiving
the training, unless the student is being paid a cash wage.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "Every 26
seconds, a student drops out of school in the United States.
Students living in low-income families are more likely to drop
out of school. Data from the National Center on Education
Statistics shows that low-income students drop out at a rate 10
times higher compared to their peers. What is more troublesome
is that most students who drop out leave in the middle of 10th
grade.
Exposing students to Career Technical education is crucial. A
California study showed that high school dropout rates in CTE
programs averaged about half the rate of the general population.
Additionally, exposing students earlier allows them to explore
more career options and gives them the knowledge and experience
they need to launch their careers or further their education.
This will also help California close the predicted 1.5 million
worker gap. Career Technical Education is key to providing
students a pathway to postsecondary education and careers."
Focus on CTE in California has grown. With dramatic changes in
industry and workforce demands, as well as renewed focus on
supporting students' "career readiness," policymakers, business
leaders and educators have in recent years enacted numerous
reforms to increase student access to CTE courses. There are
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several different state programs that support CTE opportunities,
including Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROC/Ps),
the CTE Incentive Grant Program, the Career Pathways Trust, and
Partnership Academies. The Legislature has also supported CTE as
an option to meet state graduation requirements.
In January, 2013, the SBE adopted revised CTE Model Curriculum
Standards, which reflect the specific conditions and
expectations of each industry sector. The standards are
organized into 15 industry sectors, which each contain anywhere
from three to seven different pathway learning approaches.
Work Experience Education: According to the CDE, work
experience education (WEE) is a course of study that may be
established by a governing board of any local education agency
(LEA) to provide paid or unpaid on-the-job experiences for high
school students through training agreements with employers. WEE
programs combine an on-the-job component with related classroom
instruction designed to maximize the value of the on-the-job
experiences. The goal of WEE programs is to:
Link the academic core curriculum with the world of work
and promote the students' school-to-career transition
Help students develop skills, habits, and attitudes
conductive to job success and personal growth
Assist students in career exploration and forgoing
rewarding relationships with employers
Develop a positive work ethic and acquire or refine work
related skills and job performance in actual work settings
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WEE includes both paid and non-paid experiences. The school
district may offer any one or more of the following types of
WEE:
Exploratory Work Experience Education (EWEE): The
objective of EWEE is to provide career guidance to students
and ascertain their interests and aptitudes for specific
careers through opportunities to observe and sample a
variety of conditions of work. EWEE includes a combination
of job observations and related classroom instruction in
WEE. The student may be required to perform non-paid work
activities while exploring the occupation on a limited,
periodic, and sampling basis. Students may not participate
in EWEE programs if pay is received for similar work at the
same work station or a similar job during hours when not
assigned to the EWEE program. The LEA must provide Workers'
Compensation Insurance for the student. Students enrolled
in EWEE may be as young as 12 years of age, and students
participating in EWEE do not need a work permit. In the
2014-15 school year, EWEE was offered in 96 schools, with a
total of 316 different courses taught. A total of 2,383
students were enrolled in a EWEE program.
General Work Experience Education (GWEE): The purpose
of GWEE is to provide students with opportunities for
applying the basic skills of reading, writing, and
computation through a combination of supervised paid
employment in any occupational field and related classroom
instruction. Students participating in GWEE typically
require a work permit. In the 2014-15 school year, GWEE was
offered in 304 California schools, with a total of 1,048
different courses taught. A total of 9,772 students were
enrolled in a GWEE program.
Career Technical Work Experience Education (CTWEE). The
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intent of CTWEE is to reinforce and extend vocational
learning opportunities for students through a combination
of related classroom instruction and supervised paid or
unpaid employment. Students enrolled in CTWEE must have a
worksite placement or employment that is related to a
previous or concurrently enrolled Career Technical
Education course of study. In the 2014-15 school year,
CTWEE was offered in 179 California schools, with a total
of 643 different courses taught. A total of 5,284 students
were enrolled in a GWEE program.
Enrollment in WEE relatively small compared to other CTE
options. According to the CDE, in the 2014-15 school year, 523
schools offer some type of WEE program, with 2,007 different
courses taught. There were 17,439 students enrolled in WEE
programs.
Compared to the enrollment in other CTE courses, these numbers
are relatively low. For example, 1,140 schools offer a CTE
program on Arts, Media, and Entertainment, (just one of the 15
CTE industry sectors) with 7,068 courses taught, and a total of
162,093 students enrolled.
Does current law for WEE pose barriers to CTE? Currently,
students must be at least 16 years of age to receive credit for
completing a work experience program, but provides several
exemptions to this age limit. A student younger than 16 may
participate in WEE under any of the following conditions:
the student is in 11th grade or higher
the student's principal certifies that the student is in
need of immediate work experience in order to pursue
employment opportunities
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the student's principal certifies that there is a
probability that the student will no longer be enrolled as
a full time student without the ability to enroll in a WEE
program
the student has an IEP providing that participation in
WEE is necessary
The statutes authorizing WEE date to the 1970s, and haven't been
amended in over 20 years. CTE has evolved significantly since
this time. It now includes a much broader range of
occupations/career pathways, has been integrated with
standards-based coursework, and generally involves a more
rigorous instructional methodology. Based on the age of the
authorizing statutes and low participation numbers shown below,
the Committee may wish to consider if WEE is well aligned to
current CTE programs and standards.
The Committee may also wish to consider if the limits in current
law really pose barriers to participation in the three WEE
programs:
In EWEE courses, students may be as young as 12 years
old to participate.
GWEE courses require a work permit, which may be issued
to students as young as 12 years old. However, the state
does prohibit 12 and 13 year olds from working before,
after, or during the work day, and limits the amount of
hours 14 and 15 year old students may work to 18 hours a
week. According to the CDE, the majority of work permits
are issued to students 16 and 17 years of age, who can work
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a maximum of 48 hours per week.
For CTWEE courses, staff is unaware of any concrete
examples of how the age limits in current law pose a
barrier. If a student is engaged in a career pathway
program starting in 9th grade, for example, there appear to
be other avenues for work experience than enrollment in WEE
courses, including job shadowing and internships.
According to the author, the hour participation limit creates a
barrier to participation in CTE programs as 25 hours only
amounts to roughly 3 days a semester. However, if the student
were allowed to job shadow for 40 hours, as proposed in this
bill, then she could spend an entire week on an internship
during a school break or over the summer, providing a much more
immersive experience.
The author states that the intent of this bill is to allow
younger students to engage in WEE as a means of preventing them
from dropping out of high school, and to allow for early
participation in work-based education. Current law appears to
provide an exemption for students at risk of dropping out of
school without access to such an option, but does not provide an
exemption for students engaged in career pathway programs.
Staff recommends that the bill be amended to replace its current
contents with an addition to the existing list of exemptions
relating to participation in career pathways programs. This new
exemption would allow, if a student's principal certifies that
it is necessary for participation in a career pathway program,
as specified, a lowering of the age limit (down to 14 years) for
WEE programs, and/or the time limits on job shadowing (up to 40
hours).
Related legislation. AB 2237 (Olsen) of this Session establishes
the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
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Partnership Academies program, for the purposes of providing
grants to school districts to establish up to 100 partnership
academies dedicated to training students in STEM occupations.
This bill is currently pending in the Assembly Education
Committee.
SB 1123 (Leyva) of this Session extends the existing authority
for pupils to use CTE as an option to fulfill the high school
graduation requirement to complete a course in visual or
performing arts or foreign language until January 1, 2023. This
bill is currently pending in the Senate Education Committee.
Prior legislation. AB 86 (Committee on Budget), Chapter 48,
Statutes 2014, created the California Career Pathways Trust, and
appropriated $250 million in competitive grants to districts to
build and improve career pathways programs.
AB 104 (Committee on Budget), Chapter 13, Statutes 2014,
established the California Career Technical Education Incentive
Grant Program, a competitive grant program administered by the
CDE to provide support for career technical education in grades
K-12, and provided $400 million in 2015-16, $300 million in
2016-17, and $200 million in 2017-18 for this program.
AB 1330 (Furutani), Chapter 621, Statutes of 2011, added CTE, as
defined, as an option for pupils to fulfill the existing high
school graduation requirement to complete a course in visual or
performing arts or foreign language and sunsets these provisions
on January 1, 2017.
SB 381 (Wright) of the 2009-10 Session would have required
districts adopting a college preparation curriculum for high
school graduation to require students to also compete CTE
courses in order to earn the high school diploma. This bill was
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held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 515 (Hancock) of the 2009-10 Session would have required that
at least half of sequenced CTE courses met are linked to
regional or state high priority workforce needs. This measure
was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
SB 725 (Hancock) of the 2009-10 Session would have authorized
ROC/Ps to offer apprenticeship preparation programs. This bill
was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None received
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by:Christine Aurre and Tanya Lieberman / ED. /
(916) 319-2087
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