BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 884|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 884
Author: Beall (D)
Amended: 5/31/16
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/6/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
SUBJECT: Special education: procedural safeguards and
records
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires local educational agencies (LEAs)
and special education local plan areas to collect and report
specific information relative to mental health services,
requires the California Department of Education to monitor and
compare specific information relative to mental health services,
and requires LEAs to provide specified informational materials
to parents.
ANALYSIS:
Existing federal and state law:
1) Provides that every individual with exceptional needs who is
eligible to receive special education instruction and related
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services shall receive that instruction and those services
through a free appropriate public education in the least
restrictive environment. (United States Code, Title 20, §
1412; Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34, § 300.101 and §
300.114; Education Code § 56040 and § 56040.1)
Existing federal law:
2) Provides that related services means transportation, and
developmental, corrective, and other supportive services
(including speech-language pathology and audiology services,
interpreting services, psychological services, physical and
occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic
recreation, social work services, school nurse services
designed to enable a child with a disability to receive a
free appropriate public education as described in the
individualized education program of the child, counseling
services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation
and mobility services, and medical services, except that such
medical services shall be for diagnostic and evaluation
purposes only) as may be required to assist a child with a
disability to benefit from special education, and includes
early identification and assessment of disabling conditions
in children. (United States Code, Title 20 § 1401(26); Code
of Federal Regulations, Title 34 § 300.34)
Existing state law:
Outcomes for students with exceptional needs
3) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
ensure that student and program performance results are
monitored at the state and local levels by evaluating student
performance against key performance indicators.
4) Requires the SPI, as part of state monitoring and
enforcement, to use quantifiable indicators, and qualitative
indicators as needed, to adequately measure performance in
the indicators established by the United States Secretary of
Education in the priority areas, as described. (EC §
56600.6)
Reporting by LEAs
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5) Requires each special education local plan area (SELPA) to
submit to the SPI at least annually information in order for
the SPI to carry out the evaluation responsibilities
described above. (EC § 56601)
Existing federal and state law:
Notification
6) Requires parents to be given a copy of their rights and
procedural safeguards only one time a school year, except
that a copy also must be given to the parents:
a) Upon initial referral or parental request for
assessment.
b) Upon receipt of the first state complaint in a school
year.
c) Upon receipt of the first due process hearing request
in a school year.
d) When a decision is made to make a removal that
constitutes a change of placement because of a violation
of a code of student conduct.
e) Upon request by a parent. (EC § 56301; United States
Code, Title 20 § 1415(d)(1)(A); Code of Federal
Regulations, Title 34, § 300.50(a))
Existing state law:
7)Requires, also, an LEA, when convening an individualized
education program team meeting, to inform the parent and
student of the federal and state procedural safeguards that
were provided in the notice of parent rights. (EC § 56500.1)
Prior written notice
Existing federal and state law:
8) Requires LEAs to provide prior written notice to parents and
in a reasonable time before the LEA proposes to initiate a
change, or refuses to initiate or change the identification,
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assessment, or educational placement of the student, or the
provisions of free appropriate public education to the
student.
9)Requires the notice to include all of the following:
a) A description of the action proposed or refused by the
LEA.
b) An explanation of why the LEA proposes or refuses to
take the action.
c) A description of each assessment procedure,
assessment, record, or report the LEA used as a basis for
the proposed or refused action.
d) A statement that the parents have protection under the
procedural safeguards and the means by which a copy of a
description of the procedural safeguards can be obtained.
e) Sources for parents to contact to obtain assistance in
understanding laws.
f) A description of other options that the individualized
education program (IEP) team considered and the reasons
why those options were rejected.
g) A description of other factors that are relevant to
the proposal or refusal of the LEA. (United States Code,
Title 20 § 1415; Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34, §
300.503; EC § 56500.4)
This bill:
Frequency and duration of mental health services
1) Requires the LEA that is responsible for implementation of a
student's IEP to annually report to the California Department
of Education (CDE) the actual frequency and duration of each
mental health service provided to the student pursuant to the
student's IEP.
Student outcomes
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2) Requires each LEA, for each student receiving IEP mental
health services, to annually provide to the CDE the data
needed to document the student's outcomes on all of the
following outcome indicators that are applicable to the
student:
a) Graduation rate.
b) Dropout rate.
c) Statewide assessment results.
d) Suspension and expulsion rates.
e) Participation in general education classes.
f) Post school outcomes.
CDE monitoring
3) Requires the CDE to monitor the number and frequency of
mental health services reported annually by LEAs and compare
year-to-year changes for each LEA. This bill requires the
CDE to investigate the cause for any significant decline in
service provision.
4) Requires the CDE, as part of its monitoring activities, to
review each LEA's procedures and documents used to meet the
prior written notice requirement, and require corrections to
those procedures and documents if the CDE finds that the
procedures or documents do not fulfill statutory
requirements.
Accounting
5) Requires a SELPA to document and report to the CDE all
mental health and special education services funding
allocations and expenditures, and specify the dollar amount
for each service. This bill requires the CDE to post the
information on its Web site.
6) Requires the CDE align accounting code systems to allow the
CDE and school districts or SELPAs to accurately document the
amount of funds expended for the provision of mental health
and special education services from each funding source.
Prior written notice
7) Requires the LEA that is responsible for implementation of a
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student's IEP to ensure that a copy of each prior written
notice given to the student's parents is included in the
student's records.
Notification to parents
8) Requires each SELPA to require each LEA to provide
informational materials, including, but not limited to,
student and parent rights and information regarding family
empowerment centers and parent training and information
centers in their community.
9) Requires the information to be provided in the three most
common languages used by parents served by the LEA and the
SELPA, and be made available for LEAs to provide to their
parents in the annual parent notification information.
10)Requires the existing annual notification to parents to also
include the informational materials relating to special
education pursuant to 8) and 9) above.
Comments
Recent State audit. The Bureau of State Audits released a
report in January 2016, Student Mental Health Services: Some
Students' Services Were Affected by a New State Law, and the
State Needs to Analyze Student Outcomes and Track Service Costs.
The audit noted key points: the most commonly offered types of
mental health services and the providers of those services
generally did not change; the number of students who received
these mental health services remained steady or grew; the
provider of the most common mental health services generally had
already been, and continues to be, the local educational agency;
the majority of changes to services were unrelated to AB 114
(Budget Committee, Chapter 43, Statutes of 2011).
However, the audit also noted that: LEAs removed mental health
services from student IEPs in the two years after AB 114 took
effect, yet some IEPs did not include the rationale for such
changes; LEAs and the CDE do not know whether student outcomes
have been affected by AB 114; LEAs could not determine their
total costs to provide mental health services; some have not
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spent all the funding they received that is dedicated for mental
health services.
How schools provide mental health services. Most of the mental
health services provided by schools are within the context of
meeting the requirements specified in a student's IEP. Federal
and state law requires the instruction and related services
detailed in an IEP to be provided, irrespective of the internal
capacity of the school to provide the instruction and services.
Schools employ qualified staff directly as well as contract with
county mental health agencies or private providers.
Schools currently have the discretion to provide counseling and
mental health services, or refer to county and community
organizations, to students who do not have an IEP. These
services may be provided by a school counselor, psychologist or
social worker, or other qualified personnel employed by an
outside entity.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Mandate costs: This bill imposes several mandated
activities that would drive unknown but likely significant
costs to the state, potentially in the millions to low tens
millions, if the Commission on State Mandates determines
these activities to be reimbursable. If so, this could
also result in pressure to increase the K-12 mandate block
grant. (Proposition 98)
Administrative costs: The CDE estimates one-time costs
of $300,000 and ongoing costs of $400,000 to implement this
bill. One-time activities include making changes to the
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school accounting manual and software that collects
financial data. (General Fund)
SUPPORT: (Verified5/27/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified5/27/16)
None received
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
5/31/16 21:58:38
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