BILL NUMBER: AB 1831 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 28, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Solorio
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Ammiano, Brownley, and Torlakson
)
FEBRUARY 11, 2010
An act to amend Section 8482.3 Sections
8482.3 and 8483.55 of the Education Code, relating to after
school programs.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1831, as amended, Solorio. After school programs.
The After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002, enacted
by initiative statute, establishes the After School Education and
Safety Program to serve pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 9,
inclusive, at participating public elementary, middle, junior high,
and charter schools. The act provides a formula for determining an
amount to be continuously appropriated from the General Fund to the
State Department of Education to provide grants to schools
participating in the program. The existing act authorizes the
Legislature to amend certain of its provisions to further its
purposes by majority vote of each house.
This bill would require a program plan to describe the manner in
which the program will support English language development and
acquisition for English learners if English learners comprise 25% or
more of the pupils enrolled in a program. The plan would be required
to include strategies that increase knowledge and usage of the
English language and methods for training and professional
development of staff that are designed to support English language
development and acquisition for English learners.
The After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002
requires the State Department of Education to provide technical
assistance to new programs and programs that are not meeting goals
and request assistance.
This bill would require technical assistance provided by the
department to include training and professional development for
support in English language development and acquisition for English
learners.
This bill would set forth a legislative finding and declaration
that the proposed amendments further the purposes of the existing
act.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(1) California public elementary and secondary schools enroll 1.5
million English learners who make up 24 percent of the total
enrollment in the state's public elementary and secondary schools.
(2) In some California school districts, English learners comprise
an even greater share of all pupils. In the Los Angeles Unified
School District, more than 220,000 pupils are English learners,
comprising 32 percent of all pupils. In the Santa Ana Unified School
District, more than 32,000 pupils are English learners, comprising 56
percent of all pupils.
(3) In 2007, there were 404,847 public school pupils in California
served by state and federally funded after school programs.
(4) Proposition 49 resulted in a significant increase in funding
for after school programs. Funding for after school programs
increased from fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) in 1999 to five
hundred fifty million dollars ($550,000,000) in 2007 as a result of
Proposition 49.
(5) English learners lag behind English speakers in academic
achievement in language arts, mathematics, standardized tests, high
school graduation rates, and college enrollment.
(6) Researchers attribute this achievement gap, in part, to not
enough instructional time to allow English learners to acquire the
language and to learn academic material.
(7) Research on English learner performance in after school
programs shows that these programs significantly increase language
acquisition rates for English learners and decrease the time it takes
these pupils to redesignate into mainstream English classrooms.
(8) California's competitiveness depends on an educated and
productively engaged populace.
(9) It is important that English learners have an equitable
opportunity to participate in after school programs funded by
Proposition 49 because providing them with quality after school
programs will increase their ability to learn English more promptly,
increase their success in school, enhance their career opportunities,
and improve California's competitiveness in the world.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to
amend the After School Education and Safety Program Act to
additionally ensure that English learners are afforded equal access
to after school programs by reserving 24 percent of the overall
funding for after school programs that serve these pupils.
require program providers to develop a plan for supporting
English language development and acquisition for English learners.
SEC. 2. Section 8482.3 of the Education Code is amended to read:
8482.3. (a) The After School Education and Safety Program shall
be established to serve pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 9,
inclusive, at participating public elementary, middle, junior high,
and charter schools.
(b) A program may operate a before school component of a program,
an after school component, or both the before and after school
components of a program, on one or multiple schoolsites. If a program
operates at multiple schoolsites, only one application shall be
required for its establishment.
(c) Each component of a program established pursuant to this
article shall consist of the following two elements:
(1) An educational and literacy element in which tutoring or
homework assistance is provided in one or more of the following
areas: language arts, mathematics, history and social science,
computer training, or science.
(2) (A) An educational enrichment element,
that may include, but need not be limited to, fine arts, career
technical education, recreation, physical fitness, and prevention
activities.
(3)
(B) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
article, the majority of the time spent by a pupil who is in
kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 9, inclusive, and who is
participating in a career technical education element of a program
established pursuant to this article shall be at a site that complies
with Section 8484.6.
(d) When an applicant submits an application to establish a
program pursuant to this article and when a grantee reviews its after
school program plan pursuant to subdivision (h), the applicant or
grantee shall include in the program plan a description of the manner
in which the program will support English language development and
acquisition for English learners if English learners will or do
comprise 25 15 percent or more of the
pupils enrolled in a program. The plan shall include, but not be
limited to, both of the following:
(1) Strategies that increase knowledge and usage of the English
language through the four domains of language acquisition: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing.
(2) Methods for training and professional development of staff
that are designed to support English language development and
acquisition for English learners.
(e) Applicants shall agree that snacks made available through a
program shall conform to the nutrition standards in Article 2.5
(commencing with Section 49430) of Chapter 9 of Part 27 of Division 4
of Title 2.
(f) Applicants for programs established pursuant to this article
may include any of the following:
(1) A local educational agency, including, but not limited to, a
charter school, the California School for the Deaf (northern
California), the California School for the Deaf (southern
California), and the California School for the Blind.
(2) A city, county, or nonprofit organization in partnership with,
and with the approval of, a local educational agency or agencies.
(g) Applicants for grants pursuant to this article shall ensure
that each of the following requirements is fulfilled, if applicable:
(1) The application documents the commitments of each partner to
operate a program on that site or sites.
(2) The application has been approved by the school district, or
the charter school governing board, and the principal of each
participating school for each schoolsite or other site.
(3) Each partner in the application agrees to share responsibility
for the quality of the program.
(4) The application designates the public agency or local
educational agency partner to act as the fiscal agent. For purposes
of this section, "public agency" means only a county board of
supervisors or if the city is incorporated or has a charter, a city
council.
(5) Applicants agree to follow all fiscal reporting and auditing
standards required by the department.
(6) Applicants agree to incorporate into the program both of the
elements required pursuant to subdivision (c).
(7) Applicants agree to provide information to the department for
the purpose of program evaluation pursuant to Section 8483.55.
(8) Applicants shall certify that program evaluations will be
based upon Section 8484 and upon any requirements recommended by the
Advisory Committee on Before and After School Programs and adopted by
the state board, in compliance with subdivision (g) of Section
8482.4.
(9) The application states the targeted number of pupils to be
served by the program.
(10) Applicants agree to provide the following information on
participating pupils to the department:
(A) Schoolday attendance rates.
(B) Pupil test scores from the Standardized Testing and Reporting
Program established under Section 60640, reflecting achievement in
the areas addressed by required program elements, if assessments have
been established in that area.
(C) Program attendance.
(h) (1) Grantees shall review their after school program plans
every three years, including, but not limited to, all of the
following:
(A) Program goals. A grantee may specify any new program goals
that will apply to the following three years during the grant renewal
process.
(B) Program content, including the elements identified in
subdivision (c).
(C) Outcome measures selected from those identified in subdivision
(a) of Section 8484 that the grantee will use for the next three
years.
(D) Any other information requested by the department.
(E) If the program goals or outcome measures change as a result of
this review, the grantee shall notify the department in a manner
prescribed by the department.
(F) The grantee shall maintain documentation of the after school
program plan for a minimum of five years.
(2) The department shall monitor this review as part of its onsite
monitoring process.
SEC. 3. Section 8483.55 of the
Education Code is amended to read:
8483.55. (a) From the funds appropriated pursuant to subdivision
(b) of Section 8483.5, the department may spend 1.5 percent to cover
evaluation costs and to provide training and support to ensure
quality program implementation, development, and sustainability and
may pay its costs of awarding and monitoring grants.
(b) Beginning with the 2006-07 fiscal year, 1.5 percent of the
funds appropriated pursuant to this article shall be available to the
department for purposes of providing technical assistance,
evaluation, and training services, and for providing local assistance
funds to support program improvement and technical assistance.
(1) (A) The department shall provide
directly, or contract for, technical assistance for new programs and
any program that is not meeting attendance or performance goals, or
both, and requests that assistance. The department shall allocate an
appropriate level of technical assistance funds to the regional
system of support to support program startup within 45 days after
grant awards to programs.
(B) Technical assistance also shall include training and
professional development for supporting English language development
and acquisition for English learners pursuant to subdivision (d) of
Section 8482.3.
(2) (A) Training and support shall include, but is not limited to,
the development and distribution of voluntary guidelines for
physical activity programs established pursuant to paragraph (2) of
subdivision (c) of Section 8482.3, that expand the learning
opportunities of the schoolday.
(B) The department shall distribute these voluntary guidelines for
physical activity programs on or before July 1, 2009.
(c) The department shall contract for an independent statewide
evaluation of the effectiveness of programs funded pursuant to this
article to be prepared and submitted to the Legislature. The
evaluation shall include a comparison of outcomes for participating
pupils and similarly situated pupils who did not participate in the
program. A report shall be submitted to the Governor and the
Legislature on or before October 1, 2011, providing data that
includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Data collected pursuant to Section 8484.
(2) Data adopted through the process outlined in subdivision (b)
of Section 8421.5 and subdivision (g) of Section 8482.4.
(3) Number and type of sites and grantees participating in the
program.
(4) Pupil program attendance, as reported semiannually, and pupil
schoolday attendance, as reported annually.
(5) Pupil program participation rates.
(6) Quality of program drawing on the research of the Academy of
Sciences on critical features of programs that support healthy youth
development.
(7) The participation rates of local educational agencies.
(8) Local partnerships.
(9) The academic performance of participating pupils in English
language arts and mathematics, as measured by the results of the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program established
pursuant to Section 60640.
(d) A final report shall be submitted to the Governor and the
Legislature on or before December 1, 2011. The final report shall
include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Updated data on the measures specified in subdivision (b),
including, but not limited to, changes in those measures.
(2) The prevalence and frequency of activities included in funded
programs.
SEC. 3. SEC. 4. The Legislature
finds and declares that this act furthers the purposes of the After
School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002.