BILL ANALYSIS
AB 868
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 868 (V. Manuel Perez) - As Introduced: February 26, 2009
SUBJECT : Four-Day School Week
SUMMARY : Authorizes the Palo Verde Unified School District
(PVUSD) to operate one or more schools in the district on a
four-day school week if the district complies with the
instructional time requirements and other requirements for
operating a four-day school week. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that if any school in the PVUSD operating a four-day
school week fails to meet its Academic Performance Index (API)
growth target, the authority of that school to operate a
four-day school week shall be permanently revoked.
2)Authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
waive minimum time and five-consecutive-day program operating
requirements for preschools, before and after school programs,
independent study programs, child nutrition and food service
programs, community day schools, regional occupational centers
or programs, and continuation high schools that operate on a
four-day school week.
3)Requires the SPI to reduce the PVUSD's base revenue limit
funding by amounts the district received in instructional time
incentive funding, adjusted for cost-of-living since the
inception of the incentive, if the District does not maintain
180 days in a school year and provide the instructional time
required under current law.
4)Specifies that if the PVUSD operates one or more schools on a
four-day school week, the school district shall submit a
report to the California Department of Education (CDE), the
Senate Committee on Education and the Assembly Committee on
Education on January 15, 2014. The report shall include, but
not necessarily be limited to, information on the following:
a) Programs the PVUSD offered on the fifth day and their
participation rates;
b) Whether the four-day school week schedule resulted in
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any fiscal savings;
c) Impact on overall attendance of the schools operating a
four-day school week; and,
d) Programs for which the SPI waived minimum time and
five-consecutive-day requirements and the operational and
educational effect of the programs if they operated at less
time than required.
5)Sunsets on January 1, 2016, and as of that date is repealed,
unless a statute enacted before January 1, 2016 deletes or
extends that date.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires schools to provide for an instructional program five
days per week and for attendance-counting purposes, defines a
school month as 20 days or four weeks of five days each,
including legal holidays but excluding weekend makeup classes.
2)Authorizes the following school districts to operate a
four-day school week:
a) Pacific Unified School District (Monterey County);
b) Leggett Valley Unified School District (Mendocino
County);
c) Reeds Creek Elementary School District (Tehama County);
d) Borrego Springs Unified School District (San Diego
County);
e) Julian Union High School District (San Diego County);
f) Warner Unified School District (San Diego County); and,
g) Potter Valley Community Unified School District (PVCUSD)
(Mendocino County) (until January 1, 2015).
3)Authorized Jamul-Dulzura Union Elementary School District (San
Diego County) and Marysville Joint Unified School District
(Yolo County), from January 1, 2004 to July 1, 2006, and
authorized Death Valley Unified School District (Inyo County),
until July 1, 2008, to operate a four-day school week.
4)Provides that participating school districts may only operate
four-day school weeks if they reach mutual agreement to the
operation in a memorandum of understanding with their
collective bargaining units.
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5)Requires a school site council to be involved in the planning
and evaluation of a four-day school week.
6)Requires a school district to consider the impact of the
longer school-day on primary grade pupils, and the impact of
the four-day school week on working parents who may be
required to arrange for additional childcare services.
7)Requires a participating school district to provide on an
annual basis not less than 560 hours of instructional time for
kindergarten, not less than 700 hours for grades 1, 2, and 3,
and not less than 845 hours for grades 4 through 12.
8)Prohibits a school day from exceeding eight hours and a school
week from being less than four days.
9)Specifies that a school district operating in a four-day week
cannot receive longer day and year incentive funding if the
instructional offering of the school district is not at least
180 days in length and provides the minimum instructional
minutes required by existing statute.
10)Provides that if the Borrego Springs Unified School District,
Julian Union High School District, Warner Unified School
District, Death Valley Unified School District, Jamul-Dulzura
Union Elementary School District, Marysville Joint Unified
School District, and PVCUSD do not meet their Academic
Performance Index (API) growth targets, the authority to
operate a four-day school week shall be permanently revoked.
11)For PVCUSD, authorizes the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to waive minimum time and
five-consecutive-day program operating requirements for
preschools, before and after school programs, independent
study programs, child nutrition and food service programs,
community day schools, regional occupational centers or
programs, and continuation high schools that operate on a
four-day school week.
12)Specifies that if the PVCUSD operates one or more schools on
a four-day school week, the school district shall submit a
report to the California Department of Education (CDE), the
Senate Committee on Education and the Assembly Committee on
Education on January 15, 2014.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Prior to 1983, school districts were required to
operate schools for five days per week and 175 days per year.
The Hughes-Hart Educational Reform Act of 1983 (SB 813, Chapter
498, Statutes of 1983) offered incentive funding for districts
to offer 180 days of instruction each year. Current law
authorizes seven districts to operate on a four-day school week.
According to CDE, only two districts, Pacific Unified School
District (Monterey County) and Leggett Valley Unified School
District (Mendocino County), operate on a four-day school week
schedule, mainly due to extreme weather or geographic
conditions. Pacific Unified's school year is 148 days and
Leggett Valley operates between 142 and 166 days depending on
the grade level. The other districts, despite having received
authorization, have chosen to continue operating on a five-day
school week schedule.
Palo Verde Unified School District . According to the author,
"Palo Verde Unified School District (PVUSD) is a small school
district with a current student enrollment of 3,674 students.
PVUSD is located in the City of Blythe- a remote community with
a population of about 8000. The closest major cities are Yuma,
Arizona (85 miles) and Palm Springs, CA (110 miles).
"According to the City of Blythe's Planning Department, there
are four major employers in the city of Blythe: two state
prisons, the City of Blythe, the school district, and the
agricultural sector. The City of Blythe reports that most
employees of both state prisons and the City of Blythe are now
on a 4-day work week in order to reduce administrative and
operational costs. The majority of parents of students in Palo
Verde USD are working 4-day work weeks. Due to Blythe's rural
and remote location, parents often use their day-off to take
students to out of town medical appointments, for weekend trips,
and/or to do family errands. As a result, the district
experiences high absentee rates on these days with many students
missing a full day of classroom instruction. The result is lost
hours of instruction and a decrease in the school's ADA
revenues. The school district would like to move to a schedule
that more closely reflects the local employers' calendars in
order to improve student attendance with the ultimate goal of
improved student achievement."
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The PVUSD reports that for the 2008-09 fiscal year, the average
daily attendance (ADA) for Fridays is 92.85% district wide while
the weekly average ADA is at 94%. The PVUSD estimates losing
around $180,000 from the longer day, longer year incentive
funding, but anticipates making up the loss of funds through
increased ADA revenue. The PVUSD intends to increase an
elementary school day by 45 minutes and the secondary school day
by 79 minutes.
The provisions of AB 868 are virtually identical to AB 1889,
Chapter 661, Statutes of 200, which authorize the PVCUSD to
operate a four-day school week, except that AB 868 sunsets on
January 1, 2016 while AB 1889 sunsets on January 1, 2015.
In the past, this Committee has applied the following criteria
to school districts seeking approval for this option:
Experiences extremes of climate and geography.
Serves a widely dispersed population requiring long travel
times for significant number of students in the school
district.
Demonstrates the expected benefits to the school(s) and
students of operating on shorter school week and instructional
year.
Has considered and addressed concerns about possible negative
consequences of a longer school day and shorter week on
employees, students and families.
Is held to the requirements of existing law governing those
school districts already operating schools on a four-day week.
Effects of a four-day school week . The Christian Science
Monitor reported in March 2004 on the use of four-day school
weeks in other states. The key points from the article are
summarized below:
1)Mostly rural school systems in twelve states are experimenting
with the shorter week, finding that lengthening the school day
by an hour or more and knocking off Monday or Friday saves
money on things like transportation and heating.
2)While monetary savings may result from reducing the school
week by one day, there are other costs associated with a
four-day week, including longer, possibly more tiring days in
class, and difficulty finding day care during the "off" day
for children whose parents work outside the home.
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3)Reviews of the program are mixed and research is scanty on
whether cost savings are significant and if students suffer
academically.
4)Both student and teacher attendance seems to be higher when on
a four-day week schedule.
5)One superintendent is quoted as saying, "In order to make the
economics work it's really necessary that you be a widely
disbursed operation with extreme climate swings, so that
closing a building down for a day means something."
The Fall 2007 issue of the Rural Educator, a publication of the
National Rural Education Association, contained an article
summarizing reports and studies on four-day school week
schedules and found that a four-day school week schedule:
1)can result in energy savings, less gasoline and bus
maintenance, less food service costs, and salary savings from
a reduced need for classified employees and substitute
teachers;
2)has not resulted in lower student scores for the districts
examined, except that scores in one middle school in New
Mexico did decline and the superintendent advocated a return
to the five-day school week schedule;
3)has increased student attendance ranging from 2% to 5.8%; and,
4)can lead to less teacher absenteeism -- teachers like the
shorter schedule because it provides time to make medical or
dental appointments and more time to prepare lessons plans.
The article also reported that 42% of primary grade students in
Idaho reported that they got tired and that the day was too long
and 41% of parents were concerned that their children were more
fatigued, but only 24% of teachers believed that student and
teacher fatigue were greater.
This bill, like other four-day school week bills, raises
important questions regarding the purpose for authorizing
four-day school week schedules. Should the Legislature limit
such authorizations to districts experiencing extreme climate
and geographical conditions? Are fiscal conditions or other
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motivations such as coordinating parent work schedules good
policy reasons for eliminating one school day per week? In
order to meet minimum instructional time requirements, districts
operating a four-day school week schedule would have to lengthen
instructional time in a day. What are the effects of a longer
school day on pupils, teachers and parents? Would students
learn just as much with one extra hour per day for four days
versus a regular school day during the fifth day? What are the
impacts on pupils, teachers and parents on the day school is
closed? Do parents have child care for the day school is out?
Related Legislation . AB 691 (Gilmore), also scheduled for this
committee hearing, authorizes the Alpaugh Unified School
District to operate one or more schools on a four-day school
week.
Prior Legislation . In addition to AB 1889, SB 1138
(Hollingsworth), Chapter 465, Statutes of 2004, authorizes
Borrego Springs Unified School District, Julian Union High
School District, Warner Unified School District, Jamul-Dulzura
Union Elementary School District, and Marysville Joint Unified
School District, to operate a four-day school week.
AB 1820 (Maze), Chapter 481, Statutes of 2004, authorizes the
Death Valley Unified School District to operate a four-day
school week.
SB 1142 (Chesbro), introduced in 2004, would have authorized the
Pacific Unified School District, Leggett Valley Unified School
District, and Reeds Creek Elementary School District to operate
for less than 180 days without penalty as long as the same
number of annual minutes of instruction is provided. Governor
Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill stating that it would defeat the
objective of the incentive funding program.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California School Boards Association
Dr. Alan Jensen, Superintendent, Palo Verde Unified School
District
Kenneth M. Young, Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
Small School Districts' Association
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087