BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
317 (Solorio)
Hearing Date: 07/15/2010 Amended: 01/15/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 317, an urgency measure, would, for the
2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, deem an epidemic to exist for
the purposes of granting emergency credit to school districts
for lost average daily attendance as a result of pupil absences
due to confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus and for pupil absences
in which the reasons for absence is "consistent with the
symptoms" of the H1N1 virus.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
H1N1-related absence Potentially millions in lost
savings General*
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Current law provides general purpose funding to school districts
based on a pupil's average daily attendance (ADA), and, thus,
does not generally fund schools for pupil absences. Current law
permits the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to credit
the level of ADA a district would otherwise have earned if the
district experiences material decreases in ADA due to certain
emergency circumstances. These circumstances include fire,
flood, impassable roads, epidemic, earthquake, and other
specified conditions.
The H1N1 flu is a new type of flu, first identified in the US in
April of 2009, which can lead to respiratory disorders that have
in some cases led to hospitalization, or in extreme cases,
death. Like other seasonal flu viruses, H1N1 can be spread from
person to person through coughing, sneezing or close contact.
Symptoms of H1N1 are similar to symptoms of seasonal flu
viruses, such as coughing, fever, loss of appetite, and
lethargy. The Department of Public Health notes that that the
largest number of confirmed cases of H1N1 have occurred among
those in the age group 5 to 24, those at the greatest risk of
developing complications are those under the age of 5, pregnant
women, and people with chronic medical conditions (e.g., heart
disease, asthma, diabetes). Public data indicates that
California experienced 2,000 severe cases, over 1,900 intensive
care unit cases, and 546 deaths attributable to the H1N1.
In April of 2009, the Governor declared a state of emergency
related to the H1N1 virus. This allowed districts to receive
ADA credit for the 2008-09 and, in many cases, the 2009-10
fiscal year (statute allows the SPI to extend the ADA credit
period into the next fiscal year if the district can demonstrate
that such an extension is essential to avoiding continued
material decreases).
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AB 317 (Solorio)
This bill would deem that an epidemic exists for the 2009-10 and
2010-11 fiscal years for the purposes of allowing the SPI to
credit districts for material decreases in ADA owing to pupil
absences due to confirmed cases of H1N1 and also to pupil
absences relating to symptoms consistent with H1N1. Proponents
suggest this measure is necessary to protect school districts
from revenue losses due to circumstances beyond the control of
districts.
In the 1990s, the Legislature became concerned that pupil
absences, for whatever reason, was associated with poor academic
performance and that funding school absences gave districts as
much incentive to collect notes from parents as it did to ensure
a pupil's attendance in school. A pilot program conducted
earlier that decade suggested that eliminating excused absences
from funded ADA resulted in significant increases in school
attendance. Chapter 855 of the Statutes of 1997 (SB 727,
Rosenthal) changed the method by which local education agency
ADA was calculated for funding purposes by eliminating the
inclusion of "excused" absences (including illness, medical
appointments, funeral attendance, etc.). This change to ADA was
accompanied by a rebenching of a district's funding per unit of
ADA to account for the number of excused absences the district
experienced in the 1995-96 school year, effectively making the
change revenue neutral to districts. So, while current law does
not literally fund districts for absences, excused or otherwise,
it has built in, since the passage of SB 727, funding for a
district's "normal" rate of absence. Indeed, to the extent
schools were able increase attendance rates, they would gain
more funding than they would under the previous system.
The key questions posed by this bill are whether or not absences
related to H1N1 result in a substantive and unusual increase in
district absences, whether the provisions of the bill are
properly prescribed, and whether there is already sufficient
authority in current law to deal with an epidemic, should one be
determined to exist. As enrollment and attendance data for the
2009-10 school year are not yet publicly available, it not yet
clear that statewide rates of absence are substantively
different from normal year to year variations. As testing for
H1N1 was rarely conducted after the late spring/early summer of
2009, there is a lack of data to authoritatively document the
prevalence of H1N1.
By allowing districts to be credited with ADA for H1N1-related
absences for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, this bill
would result in new costs for the state that might best be
understood a loss of otherwise expected savings. An average
cost of a day of attendance for is approximately $33 (this
includes revenue limit and special education funding). The
state's estimated K-12 ADA for the 2010-11 fiscal year is over
5.9 million and the state funds attendance (for most districts)
assuming 175 days in a school year. This totals more than a
billion days of possible attendance. Even a minor change in
statewide attendance can result in cost impacts in the millions
of dollars.
Staff further notes that the bill may be overly broad in its
current form. The Department of Public Health notes that the
H1N1 symptoms are similar to symptoms of seasonal flu viruses.
By crediting district ADA for absences that are "consistent with
the symptoms of H1N1," the bill exposes the state to costs for
absences that are attributable to
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AB 317 (Solorio)
seasonal flu viruses and colds. This would be costly and would
run counter to the provisions of SB 727.
Also, it is not clear that current law provisions are
insufficient to handle the existence of a true epidemic. The
Governor declared an epidemic relation to H1N1 in April of 2009
and the SPI was credited districts with lost ADA. This bill
presupposes a similar problem for 2010-11. It may be prudent to
wait and see if an H1N1 epidemic occurs during the school year.
If an outbreak occurs that current law cannot account for, there
would still be time for the Legislature to address the issue.