BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1156
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Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 1156
(Huff) - As Amended June 30, 2016
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|Policy |Education |Vote:|7 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill makes changes to the Open Enrollment Act (Act),
starting July 1, 2018, and extends the sunset on the program
through January 1, 2023. Specifically, this bill:
1)Changes the definition of "low performing school" for purposes
of the Act to include schools identified for comprehensive
support and improvement pursuant to the federal accountability
system (rather than the state Academic Performance Index which
is no longer operative). Specifies that no more than 1,000
schools and no more than 10% of schools from a single school
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district can be designated as "low performing". Exempts court
and community day schools from the definition.
2)Sets forth requirements to prohibit discrimination of students
that seek a transfer, specifically special education students
and English learners. Prohibits denial of a transfer based on
costs to the district. Prohibits the district of enrollment
from targeting parents or neighborhoods with the intent of
recruiting a student based on athletic or academic ability.
Makes these provisions subject to annual audit requirements.
3)Requires, rather than permits, the school district of
enrollment to keep an accounting of all request made for
alternative attendance, as specified, and report this
information to the governing board of the district at a
regularly scheduled meeting. Also requires this information to
be reported to the geographically adjacent school district,
the county office of education, and the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) through the state's data reporting
system (CALPADS). Authorizes the SPI to provide a template to
school districts to ensure the complete reporting of required
data.
4)Requires the SPI develop a plan, by July 1, 2017, for the
collection and reporting of transfer data from each school
district of enrollment. Requires the SPI to provide this
information online and to the Legislature, Governor and
Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO).
5)Requires the LAO to complete an evaluation of the open
enrollment program, as specified, and to make recommendations
on any additional or revised eligibility criteria based on the
state's new accountability system. Authorizes the LAO to also
include recommendations on whether other open enrollment
program provisions should be altered, expanded, or deleted.
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Requires the final evaluation report to be submitted to the
Legislature, Governor, and State Board of Education on or
before December 1, 2021, and for the SPI to provide the data
necessary to complete the report to the LAO by December 1,
2020, or on an otherwise agreed upon date between the SPI and
the LAO.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Administrative costs to the California Department of Education
(CDE) of approximately $230,000, starting July 1, 2018, to
maintain a list of open enrollment schools, develop a template
to assist districts with the collection and maintenance of
data on transfers, and to comply with reporting requirements
to the Legislature, Governor and LAO.
2)Unknown, potentially reimbursable, state mandated costs for
school districts of enrollment to track and report data on
transfer requests and report information to their school
board, county office of education and the SPI. The author
estimates approximately 355 schools would be required to allow
students to transfer under the Act, it is not clear how many
students would choose to transfer and where these students
would choose to enroll.
3)Unknown costs to the LAO, likely in the tens of thousands,
however, for existing staff to produce an evaluation and
recommendation of the Open Enrollment program.
COMMENTS:
1)Background and Purpose. Existing law establishes the Open
Enrollment Act which allows the parent of a student attending
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a school identified as low achieving to submit an application
for the student to attend another school with in the same
district or transfer to another school district. The Act
requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide
an annual list of low-achieving schools based on API rankings
Academic Performance Index (API).
Since the implementation of the state's new student assessment
system, the API has been suspended and the list of low
achieving schools has not been updated to identify schools
newly eligible for the Open Enrollment program. This bill
updates the Open Enrollment Act to reflect federal and state
law definitions of schools that are persistently lowest
performing.
2)Comments. This bill provides that certain requirements of the
Act, including enrolling students without bias and
communications with parents, be subject to the annual audit
process for school districts. This expands the scope of the
internal audits conducted by local education agencies and
could increase costs at a local level. CDE staff note that the
audit is currently limited to financial matters and the
department questions whether this is the correct way to
address programmatic compliance. It is also not clear what the
consequences for non-compliance would be.
Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
SB 1156
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