BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 369
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Date of Hearing: July 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
SB
369 (Block) - As Introduced February 24, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 40-0
SUBJECT: California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System:
pupils of military families.
SUMMARY: Requires the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement
Data System (CALPADS) to be expanded to include data on the
enrollment of pupils of military families. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), on or
before July 1, 2016, to add a reporting process within CALPADS
requiring local educational agencies (LEAs) to report the
enrollment of pupils of military families.
2)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
include pupils of military families as an indicator for
purposes of a currently-required quarterly report on pupil
attendance.
3)Specifies that implementation of this requirement shall not
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subject the CDE to a loss of funding pursuant to Item
6110-001-0890 of the 2015 Budget Act.
4)Defines "pupils of military families" to mean pupils whose
parent or legal guardian is an active duty member of the Armed
Forces of the United States.
EXISTING LAW: Establishes CALPADS to accomplish all of the
following goals:
1)Provide school districts and the CDE access to data necessary
to comply with federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reporting
requirements.
2)Provide a better means of evaluating educational progress and
investments over time.
3)Provide local educational agencies information that can be
used to improve pupil achievement.
4)Provide an efficient, flexible, and secure means of
maintaining longitudinal statewide pupil level data.
5)Facilitate the ability of the state to publicly report data
required by federal law.
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6)Ensure compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Existing law also prohibits, via Budget Bill language, the
expansion of CALPADS for any purpose.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)CALPADS - Minor General Fund costs to the CDE to create a new
indicator in CALPADS to identify pupils of military families,
and communicate the new requirements to LEAs.
2)LEAs - Unknown, but potentially significant one-time mandated
costs on LEAs, reimbursable from the General Fund, for
approximately 1,000 schools districts to develop and implement
a local process for identifying and tracking pupils of
military families, and inputting that information into
CALPADS. Likely minor, but potentially significant ongoing
mandated costs on LEAs for additional data entry to update
CALPADS. (see staff comments)
COMMENTS: CALPADS was created to enable California to meet
federal requirements delineated in the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act of 2001. CALPADS has been operational since 2009 and
contains information on student demographics, program
participation, grade level, enrollment, course enrollment and
completion, discipline, and statewide assessment data. The
student-level, longitudinal data in CALPADS enables the
facilitation of program evaluation, the assessment of student
achievement over time, the calculation of more accurate dropout
and graduation rates, the efficient creation of reports to meet
state and federal reporting requirements, and the ability to
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create ad hoc reports and responses to relevant questions.
CALPADS provides local educational agencies (LEAs) with access
to longitudinal data and reports on their own students, and it
gives LEAs immediate access to information on new students,
enabling the LEAs to place students appropriately and to
determine whether any assessments are necessary.
Impact on CALPADS. The CDE indicates that the change required
by this bill is relatively simple and could probably be achieved
in approximately one year. The process involves adding a new
field to CALPADS and testing and de-bugging the software change.
LEAs would need to change the online user interface, which they
use to report data to CALPADS, and add the military status of
parents/guardians to the information they collect from families.
However, budget language prohibits the CDE from adding
additional data elements to CALPADS. Specifically, provision
13 of budget item 6110-001-0890 of the Budget Act of 2015
provides, in part, "As a further condition of receiving these
[federal] funds, the SDE shall not add additional data elements
to CALPADS, require local educational agencies to use the data
collected through the CALPADS for any purpose, or otherwise
expand or enhance the system beyond the data elements and
functionalities that are identified in the most current approved
Feasibility Study and Special Project Reports and the CALPADS
Data guide v4.1." This bill contains a provision that exempts
its requirements from this Budget Act prohibition.
Arguments in support. Supporters argue that children in
military families experience events that affect their education,
such as moving frequently and having a parent deployed away from
the family. Currently, there is no method of tracking their
attendance and progress to evaluate programs and identify best
practices. Including an indicator in CALPADS for the children
of military families would permit such tracking over time.
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Supporters argue that collecting this information would build
awareness at the school and classroom level of students that may
be affected by the deployment of a parent and facilitate
data-driven decision making to improve the distribution of
Department of Defense and local resources to offer appropriate
support.
Technical correction needed. This bill references Item
6110-001-0890 of the 2015 Budget Act. The correct item number
in the 2015 Budget Act is 6100-001-0890. Staff recommends the
bill be amended to make this correction.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
American Legion-Department of California
AMVETS-Department of California
California State PTA
Military Officers Association of America, California Council of
Chapters
U. S. Department of Defense
Vietnam Veterans of America, California State Council
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Two individuals
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by:Rick Pratt / ED. / (916)
319-2087