BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2698
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2698 (Weber) - As Amended April 27, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill establishes the School Climate and Student Achievement
Act, and requires low-achieving schools, as defined, to begin an
assessment of school climate on or before September 1, 2017, and
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complete this assessment by July 1, 2018. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires every school assessed for school climate to do the
following:
a) Requires schools to publish the results of the
assessment on the school website, provided that personally
identifiable information is not shared.
b) Share the school climate assessment results through
meaningful engagement and collaboration with pupils,
teachers, school personnel, and parents in order to develop
corrective action recommendations.
c) Share the outcomes and corrective action recommendations
with school district local control accountability plan
(LCAP) committees. Requires the school district to
incorporate these recommendations and implement them no
later than one year after completion of the assessment. If
the recommendations are not implemented in the first year,
the school district is required to hold a meeting within 60
days to explain why corrective actions were not
implemented.
2)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
develop and post on the department's website, an easily
accessible page listing available school climate assessment
instruments and organizations.
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3)Requires the CDE to convene an advisory committee comprised of
stakeholders and professionals who have participated in the
development and expansion of alternative discipline programs,
such as restorative justice and positive behavioral
interventions and supports.
4)Requires the committee to make recommendations on a variety of
issues including: improving pupil social and emotional
support; expanding trauma-informed practices and cultural
competency; collecting best practices of alternative
discipline; developing a network of teachers who have
effectively implemented these best practices and can provide
training to other schools and school districts, county offices
of education, and charter schools; and developing evaluation
tools to measure the effectiveness of alternative discipline
strategies.
5)Requires, on or before January 1, 2023, the Legislative
Analyst's Office (LAO) to compile data of the changes in pupil
academic achievement at targeted low-achieving schools, and
provide a report on implementation and strategies, as
specified, to the CDE, the Governor, and the appropriate
legislative budget and policy committees.
6)Defines "low-achieving schools", "school climate" and "school
climate assessment" for purposes of the bill. Sunsets
provisions of the bill on July 1, 2023.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Unknown Proposition 98/GF state-mandated costs, likely in the
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hundreds of thousands of dollars, for the lowest 5% of
schools, as specified, to conduct school climate assessments.
There are approximately 10,000 schools in California. Costs
can range from $300 to $1,000 per assessment. Assuming 500
schools were required to conduct the assessments, costs could
range from $150,000 to $500,000. Actual costs will depend on
the number of schools identified as the lowest 5% in need of
comprehensive support and the cost of each local assessment.
2)Proposition 98/GF cost pressures, in the millions of dollars,
to implement recommendations from the school climate
assessments. If 50 schools invested $100,000 to $175,000 each,
costs could range from $5 million to $8.7 million.
3)General Fund administrative costs to the CDE of approximately
$170,000 to convene the advisory group, to develop and post
assessment instruments online, and to provide technical
assistance to schools.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the co-sponsor, the Alliance for
Education Solutions, positive school climate, including the
use of alternative disciplinary practices, such as restorative
justice and positive behavioral interventions and supports, is
critical for improving student achievement and reducing
student suspensions and expulsions. The sponsors state school
climate assessments are needed to provide educators and
education leaders a comprehensive understanding of the tools
and steps needed to address low student achievement levels,
student dropout rates, student suspensions and chronic
absenteeism.
2)Safe supportive schools (S3) grants. This bill is modeled
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after the Safe Supportive Schools (S3) grant process. In
October 2010, California became one of 11 states selected to
receive an S3 grant from the U.S. Department of Education,
Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. This four-year grant was
intended to support statewide measurement of conditions for
learning (known also as school climate), as well as targeted
programmatic interventions to improve those conditions. The S3
grant addressed issues of school safety and bullying,
substance abuse, positive relationships, other learning
support, and student engagement. The grant targeted
California's comprehensive high schools (grades nine through
twelve) with the greatest needs in multiple areas of school
climate.
The CDE invited 98 districts with the lowest achieving high
schools to participate in the S3 Program and 58 accepted the
invitation. Fifty-eight programmatic intervention schools
received a three-year grant ranging from $100,000 to $175,000
depending on their school size. The grant period ran from
October 2010 through September 2014 and the S3 grants
officially closed out in September 2015.
3)Comments. This bill requires the LAO to compile data about the
changes in academic achievement and other variables (including
truancy and expulsion) at high-needs schools that implement
school climate changes and submit a report outlining best
practices by July 1, 2023.
The CDE currently compiles much of the data the LAO would need
to access to do this report. The bill also creates an advisory
committee, under the advisement of the CDE, to make
recommendations on a variety of issues including best
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practices.
The committee may wish to consider requiring the CDE to
collect the data and report recommendations from the advisory
committee, rather than require the LAO do a separate report.
Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081