BILL NUMBER: AB 696 CHAPTERED 05/08/00 CHAPTER 19 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE MAY 8, 2000 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR MAY 8, 2000 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY APRIL 24, 2000 PASSED THE SENATE APRIL 13, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 29, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 20, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 10, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 2, 1999 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 30, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 14, 1999 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Washington FEBRUARY 23, 1999 An act to amend Section 1 of Chapter 58 of the Statutes of 1997, relating to charter schools, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 696, Washington. Charter schools: community day schools. (1) Existing law provides that a charter school that serves at-risk pupils and operates under a charter approved before June 1, 1997, in the County of Los Angeles may continue to operate until June 30, 1999. This bill would extend the date until June 30, 2003. (2) Existing law requires that the attendance of pupils in a charter school described in (1), above, be funded at the same rates for the same categories of pupils as community schools in the same county. Existing law specifies the method for the determination and reporting of the average daily attendance of such a charter school. This bill would delete those provisions and would authorize a charter school described in (1) to be funded for not more than 2,000 units average daily attendance in any fiscal year, to the extent funding is appropriated therefor, as if it were a community day school operated by a county. This bill would require the county board of education to establish specific accountability criteria applicable to these charter schools and would require charter schools that are not in compliance with the criteria to submit a plan for improvement. (3) Existing law provides that the provisions in (1) above shall not be construed to authorize a county board of education to grant, or to prohibit a county board of education from granting, a charter that has not been denied by a school district. This bill would delete this provision. (4) This bill would require the Legislative Analyst to include in the Analysis of the 2002-03 Governor's Budget, a report on the need to continue community day school funding rates for a charter school. (5) This bill would make certain findings and declarations regarding the inapplicability of a general statute within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 1 of Chapter 58 of the Statutes of 1997, as amended by Section 39 of Chapter 825 of the Statutes of 1997, is amended to read: Sec. 1. (a) A charter school operating under a charter approved before June 1, 1997, by the county board of education of a county of the first class to serve at-risk pupils, may operate until June 30, 2003. (b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of the Education Code, except as set forth in subdivision (c), for the 1999-2000 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, up to and including the 2002-03 fiscal year, the attendance of pupils in a charter school to which this section applies shall be funded at the same rates for the same categories of pupils as community schools and community day schools in the same county. (c) A charter school operated pursuant to subdivision (a) may, if its charter so provides, operate one or more community day schools in compliance with Article 3 (commencing with Section 48660) of Chapter 4 of Part 27 of the Education Code, except for compliance with the employment requirements in subdivision (a) of Section 48663 and subdivision (c) of Section 48664, and the funded average daily attendance limitations of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 48664, and be funded for not more than 2,000 units of average daily attendance in any fiscal year, to the extent that funding is appropriated therefor, pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 48664 as if it were a community day school operated by a county. The average daily attendance of a charter school operating pursuant to this section shall not be in addition to the average daily attendance limitation provided pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 48664 of the Education Code. (d) The Legislative Analyst shall include, in the Analysis of the 2002-03 Governor's Budget, a report on the need to continue community day school funding rates for a charter school operated pursuant to subdivision (a). (e) A county board of education that has approved a charter school as set forth in subdivision (a), shall establish specific accountability criteria to annually measure the performance of the charter school. The performance criteria shall require all of the following: (1) That at least 80 percent of the charter school's pupils have met the pupil objectives of the charter school. (2) That at least 62 percent of the charter school's pupils have graduated from the charter school completing their general education requirements on a timely basis, or have returned to their school district of residence. (3) That the parents of at least 59 percent of the pupils have participated in weekly parenting education sessions and other charter school activities. (f) If a charter school does not comply with the performance criteria set forth in subdivision (e), the charter school shall submit to the county board of education a plan for improvement that is designed to enable the charter school to comply with the criteria within a time determined by the county board of education. SEC. 2. Due to the unique circumstances resulting from the intensely urbanized nature of the affected county, it is necessary to extend the authorization for charter schools as set forth in Section 1, and the Legislature finds and declares that a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution. SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to revise at the earliest possible time the formula for funding community day schools operated by a charter school the charter of which was approved by a county board of education to serve at-risk pupils, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.