BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 210 (Galgiani) - Special education: deaf and hard-of-hearing
children: language benchmarks.
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|Version: May 6, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 28, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to select language benchmarks to monitor and
track the language acquisition and development of students who
are deaf and hard-of-hearing and requires them to be integrated
into the services, as specified, provided to children who are
deaf and hard-of-hearing from birth to five years of age.
Fiscal Impact (as approved on May 28,
2015):
This bill creates a cost pressure potentially in the low
millions to fund new local requirements to implement and
report upon the identified language benchmarks.
Staff estimates administrative cost pressures to the
California Department of Education (CDE) to be in the low
hundreds of thousands, and a possible increase in costs
related to mediations and due process hearings.
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Background: The California Infant/Toddler Learning & Development
Foundations were developed by the CDE, in collaboration with
many researchers and stakeholders. The Infant/Toddler
foundations were released in 2009.
The California Preschool Learning Foundations were developed by
the CDE, in collaboration with many researchers and
stakeholders. These foundations include three volumes. Volume
1, released on January 22, 2008, includes language and literacy,
and English language development.
Children with disabilities age birth to three years are provided
with an individualized family service plan (IFSP). Students with
disabilities age three to 22 years are provided with an
individualized education program (IEP).
Current law requires each student's IEP team to:
1. Consider, among other things, the communication needs of
the student, and in the case of a student who is deaf or
hard of hearing, consider the student's language and
communication needs, opportunities for direct
communications with peers and professional personnel in the
student's language and communication mode, academic level,
and full range of needs, including opportunities for direct
instruction in the student's language and communication
mode. (Education Code § 56341.1)
2. Specifically discuss the communication needs of the
student, consistent with "Deaf Students Education Services
Policy Guidance" including, among other things, the
following:
A. The student's primary language mode and
language, which may include the use of spoken language
with or without visual cues, or the use of sign
language, or a combination of both.
B. Appropriate, direct, and ongoing language
access to special education teachers and other
specialists who are proficient in the student's
primary language mode and language consistent with
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existing law regarding teacher training requirements.
C. Services necessary to ensure
communication-accessible academic instructions, school
services, and extracurricular activities. (EC §
56345)
In 2011, a panel of parents convened with the CDE to create a
guide for parents that contains information to help parents
understand the services that may be provided through an IFSP and
IEP, including a focus on language development. The purpose of
the Resource Guide for Parents of Infants and Toddlers Who are
Deaf or Hard of Hearing, released by the CDE in 2013, is to
provide parents with an introduction to the benefits of both
signed and spoken language, as well as to the various
communication tools and educational approaches.
Proposed Law:
This bill requires the CDE to select language benchmarks to
monitor and track the language acquisition and development of
students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing and requires them to
be integrated into the services, as specified, provided to
children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing from birth to five
years of age. Specifically, this bill:
1. Requires the CDE Deaf and Hard of Hearing unit, and
CDE's deaf education resource centers located in Fremont
and Riverside, to jointly select language benchmarks from
existing standardized norms for purposes of monitoring and
tracking deaf and hard-of-hearing children's expressive and
receptive language acquisition and developmental stages
toward English literacy.
2. Requires the language benchmarks to be selected from the
language benchmarks recommended an advisory committee
established by this bill.
3. Requires selected language benchmarks to be used by a
child's IFSP team or IEP team, as applicable to assess the
progress of the child's language development using both or
one of the languages of American Sign Language (ASL) and
English, which is required to be reported to the CDE.
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4. Requires CDE to provide the advisory committee with a
list of existing language benchmarks from existing
standardized norms, along with any relevant information by
March 1, 2016.
5. Requires the advisory committee to recommend language
benchmarks for selection by June 1, 2016.
6. By June 30, 2016, the CDE is required to inform the
advisory committee of which benchmarks were selected.
7. Requires the CDE to track development stages that are
equivalent to a child's linguistically age-appropriate
peers who are not deaf or hard-of-hearing, with the goal of
assisting children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to
become ready for kindergarten.
8. Requires the IEP or IFSP team, if a child does not
demonstrate progress in expressive and receptive language
skills according to the language benchmarks, to explain in
detail the reasons why the child is not meeting the
benchmarks or progressing towards the age-appropriate
benchmark, and requires the IEP or IFSP team to recommend
specific strategies, services, and programs that must be
provided to assist the child's success toward English
literacy.
9. Requires the CDE to disseminate the language benchmarks
to a child's IFSP or IEP team, including parents and
guardians of deaf or hard-of-hearing children, and
requires the CDE to provide materials and training to
ensure appropriate language growth as part of the child's
existing IFSP or IEP in order to assist the child in
becoming linguistically ready for kindergarten using both
or one of the languages of ASL or English.
10. Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI)
to establish an ad hoc advisory committee for purposes of
soliciting input from experts on the selection of language
benchmarks for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
that are equivalent to those for children who are not deaf
or hard-of-hearing.
11. Requires the advisory committee to consist of 13
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volunteers, as specified, in which the majority of whom
must be deaf or hard-of hearing, and all of whom must be
within the field of education for the deaf and
hard-of-hearing.
12. Requires that by January 1, 2017, the CDE develop
specific action plans and regulations to fully implement
the language benchmark assessment protocol and processes.
13. Specifies that the provisions of this bill only apply to
children from birth to five years of age.
Related
Legislation: AB 2072 (Mendoza, 2010) required the Department of
Health Care Services to develop an unbiased, comprehensive,
evidence-based informational pamphlet for newborns and infants
identified as deaf or hard of hearing about visual and auditory
communication and language options including, but not limited
to, ASL, and Listening and Spoken Language, that is sufficient
to allow a parent to make an informed decision on which options
to choose for his or her child. AB 2072 was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger.
Staff
Comments: This bill mandates IFSP and IEP teams to: (1) use the
language benchmarks selected by CDE to assess the progress of
the child's development using both or one of the languages of
ASL and English and report the information to the CDE; (2) if
the child does not demonstrate progress in expressive and
receptive language skills according the language benchmarks, the
child's IFSP or IEP team must explain in detail the reasons the
child is not meeting the benchmarks; and (3) recommend specific
strategies, services, and programs that are to be provided to
assist the child's success towards English literacy.
Though current law requires an IFSP to address the levels of
development in various areas, including communication, and the
student's IEP team to consider the language and communication
needs of a student who is deaf or hard of hearing, among other
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things, current law does not prescribe that the IFSP or IEP
teams consider or implement any set of specified language
benchmarks or any other activity stemming from the utilization
of these benchmarks. IFSP and IEP teams may currently use
language benchmarks at their own discretion, but the law does
not mandate them.
To the extent the Commission on State Mandates finds that any of
these activities to be a reimbursable state mandate, this could
drive significant costs to the state. To the extent services
are provided by a local educational agency and assuming the
requirements of this bill require 20 hours of additional work
for each child at the local level annually, cost could be in the
low millions. Reimbursable activities would include staff time:
to train educators on new requirements, to use the language
benchmarks to assess the progress of a child's language
development, to report information to CDE, to record reasons
that are inhibiting a child's ability to meet the benchmarks,
and to recommend strategies to assist the child's success
towards English literacy.
Committee amendments (as adopted on May 28, 2015): Amendments
(1) postpone the development of action plans and regulations
that implement the language benchmark assessment protocol and
processes by one year, and (2) make implementation of this bill
contingent upon an appropriation provided in the budget or
another statute.
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