BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1876
AUTHOR: Torlakson
AMENDED: April 28, 2010
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: June 23, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : After School Education and Safety Program
KEY POLICY ISSUES
Should after school programs be allowed to use existing grant
funds to operate on weekends?
Should existing federally funded after school programs
receive priority for continued funding before new programs
may be funded?
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes state-funded after school programs to
operate on the weekends, within existing grant funds, and
gives priority for federal after school funds to existing
programs that have met specified pupil outcomes.
BACKGROUND
After School Education and Safety Program
Proposition 49, passed in 2002, expanded before and after
school opportunities and funding, and renamed the existing
program as the After School Education and Safety (ASES)
program. The ASES program provides state funding to local
before and after school programs, which are administered
through partnerships between schools and local community
resources to provide literacy, academic enrichment and safe
constructive alternatives for pupils in kindergarten through
ninth grade. (Education Code 8482 - 8484.6)
Relative to this bill, current law:
Gives priority for ASES funding to schools where at
least 50% of pupils are eligible for free or reduced
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price meals. (EC 8482.5)
Requires grants made to public school to be awarded
before any other grants are funded, and grants to
elementary and middle school are given priority before
any new grant is awarded. (EC 8482.55)
Until June 30, 2004, gave priority for funding to
current grant recipients. Beginning July 1, 2005, ASES
grantees receive direct funding; once a program is
awarded a grant it continues to receive funding unless
it does not earn attendance or otherwise fails to meet
the parameters of ASES.
(EC 8483.5)
Authorizes ASES programs to operate during any
combination of summer, intersession or vacation periods.
(EC 8483 & 8483.1)
The proposed 2010-11 budget allocates $547 million (General
Fund, Prop 98) for the ASES program. Proposition 49 requires
state funding for after school programs to be continuously
appropriated, thereby no longer requiring approval by the
Legislature as part of the annual Budget Act. ASES funding
is not subject to categorical flexibility or associated
funding reductions. The Senate Budget Committee took action
to place an initiative on the ballot proposing to repeal
Proposition 49. If this initiative passes, ASES funding
would be subject to the K-12 categorical flexibility. The
Assembly Budget Committee did not propose to place a repeal
of Proposition 49 on the ballot, and as such, this item is
before the Budget Conference Committee.
21st Century Community Learning Centers Program
California also administers the federal 21st Century
Community Learning Centers before and after school program.
Fifty percent of 21st Century funding must be dedicated to
serving high school pupils, and may only be awarded to
programs that primarily serve pupils attending Title I
schools. Competitive priority for funding is given to
applicants that serve pupils in Program Improvement schools,
but programs receiving a 21st Century grant are not assured
of grant renewal from future state or federal funding at the
conclusion of the grant period (5 years).
(EC 8484.7 - 8484.8).
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21st Century and ASES programs are required to submit annual
outcome-based data for evaluation, including schoolday
attendance, after school program attendance, positive
behavioral changes, STAR test scores, homework completion
rates and skill development. The California Department of
Education may consider these outcomes when determining
eligibility for grant renewal, and may terminate a program if
it fails to demonstrate measurable program outcomes for three
consecutive years.
ANALYSIS
This bill authorizes state-funded after school programs to
operate on the weekends, within existing grant funds, and
gives priority for federal after school funds to existing
programs that have met specified pupil outcomes.
Specifically, this bill:
After School Education and Safety Program
1) Authorizes the administrators of an ASES before and/or
after school program to provide activities on weekends.
2) Requires costs associated with weekend activities to be
paid from the program's maximum grant or supplemental
grant.
3) Prohibits the participation of pupils in the weekend
activities from being counted toward attendance reported
to the California Department of Education for the
calculation of the amounts for either the maximum or
supplemental grants.
4) Exempts federal 21st Century before and after school
programs from the prohibition detailed in #3 above,
because federal law currently allows those programs to
operate on weekends. Therefore, pupils enrolled in the
21st Century programs on the weekend should be counted
as attendance for purposes of determining grant amounts.
21st Century Community Learning Centers Program
Gives priority for 21st Century funding to programs with
expiring grants if those programs have satisfactorily met
projected pupil outcomes specified in current law (schoolday
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attendance, after school program attendance, positive
behavioral changes, STAR test scores, homework completion
rtes and skill development).
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill : According to the author, "For more
than 20 years, after school providers have been using
public grants for after school services to pay for
expenses incurred in occasional weekend activities.
These activities are generally of an enrichment nature
and are used as incentives for after school students to
attend and successfully participate in week-day after
school activities. Until recently, the programs have
used a small portion of their base grants to pay the
additional expenses. However, in 2007, the Department
of Education opined that base grants could not be used
for weekend activities because the statute does not
explicitly allow it. This opinion has complicated the
efforts of many after school providers to use weekend
activities as a valuable incentive tool and enrichment
opportunity for thousands of inner city youth who would
not get such a chance without the after school program's
involvement."
2) Current practice ? Staff has received anecdotal evidence
that some After School Education and Safety (ASES)
programs have been operating on weekends. The
California Department of Education issued a notice to
providers in 2007 clarifying that ASES programs are not
authorized to operate on the weekend, regardless of
whether attendance was claimed or weekend operations
were paid for using existing grant funds.
3) Outside the scope of Proposition 49 ? In the Governor's
veto message of prior legislation that contained
language very similar to this bill, the Governor opines
that operating after school programs on weekends is
beyond the original scope of the ASES program (see Prior
legislation in #4 below).
The sponsor of this bill has been in discussions with
the Governor's office and has received some indication
that the Governor may be willing to sign this bill.
4) Priority for funding . This bill brings some parity
between the ASES and 21st Century programs with regard
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to giving existing programs priority for being awarded a
grant upon expiration of the existing grant period.
ASES grantees receive direct funding; programs estimate
the number of pupils they will serve, subsequently
submit attendance data, and the CDE adjusts future
funding according to whether the program served the
estimated number of pupils. This process essentially
gives funding priority to existing ASES programs.
5) Prior and related legislation .
AB 983 (Skinner, 2009) would have
authorized ASES programs to operate on weekends.
AB 983 passed this Committee on a 6-2 vote and was
subsequently held on the Senate Appropriations
Committee's suspense file. AB 983 was subsequently
amended to address a different topic.
SB 1674 (Torlakson, 2008), included a
provision that was very similar to this bill. SB
1674 was vetoed by the Governor, whose veto message
read:
As the primary author of Proposition 49 that
created the After School Education and Safety
Program (ASES) Act, I am very proud of the
good work that after school providers have
done in serving kids over the years. While
providing students with educationally
enriching activities during weekend hours is a
worthy goal, this bill takes the program
beyond the original scope of the ASES program.
After school programs are intended to provide
students with access to quality tutoring,
homework assistance, and educational
enrichment during weekday non-school hours,
when they are most at risk of being involved
in dangerous activities.
SUPPORT
After School All-Stars LA
A World Fit For Kids!
California Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs
California Association for Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Dance
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California State Alliance of YMCAs
Central Valley Children's Partnership
Children Now
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
LA's BEST
League of California Afterschool Providers
Partnership for Children and Youth
Team-Up for Youth
Woodcraft Rangers
OPPOSITION
None received.