BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1988
AUTHOR: Hagman
AMENDED: May 28, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 30, 2010
URGENCY: Yes CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez
SUBJECT : Chino Valley Unified School District: minimum
school day.
KEY POLICY ISSUE
Should the Legislature provide an alternative remedy to the
existing process for a school district in violation of
existing Longer Year Incentive Funding?
SUMMARY
This bill, an urgency measure, deems the Chino Valley Unified
School District to have complied with the requirements for
Longer Year Incentive Funding for the 2008-09 school year, if
the district meets specified conditions.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1) Establishes a minimum school year of 175 days to be
offered within a single school year running from July 1
through June 30, and provides financial incentives under
the Longer Year Incentive program to school districts
that offer their pupils 180 days or more of instruction
during a school year. (Education Code 46200)
However, current law authorizes school districts to
reduce the number of instructional days from 180 to 175
per year, without losing Longer Instructional Day and
Year program funding. Districts have this authorization
from the 2009-10 through the 2012-13 fiscal year. (EC
46201.2)
2) Imposes penalties for noncompliance with the Longer Year
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program equal to an offset of the district's revenue
limit apportionment (based on average daily attendance)
for each affected grade level; the penalty equals 1/180
(one day) multiplied by that apportionment for each day
less than 180 offered by the district. (EC 46200 (c))
3) Establishes the length of a schoolday for grades four
through eight to be 240 minutes, and 180 minutes for a
minimum schoolday (when pupils are released early for
parent/teacher conferences, etc). Current law
authorizes a school district to use an alternative
method to meet the requirement for minimum minutes as
long as the average number of minutes of attendance in
any 10 consecutive school days in the school year is 240
or greater, and no schoolday has less than 180 minutes
of attendance. (EC 46100 - 46119)
4) Authorizes the State Board of Education to waive
instructional time penalties and the definition of the
standard school year. (EC 46206)
ANALYSIS
This bill , an urgency measure, deems the Chino Valley Unified
School District (CVUSD) to have complied with the
requirements for Longer Year Incentive Funding for the
2008-09 school year, if the district meets the following
specified conditions:
1) Operates grades four through six in the Dickson
Elementary School and the Rolling Ridge Elementary
School for 10 additional schooldays for two consecutive
school years, where each schoolday contains at least 240
instructional minutes for each grade level.
Defines two consecutive school years as either the
2009-10 school year and the 2010-11 school year, or the
2010-11 school year and the 2011-12 school year.
2) Maintains, for each of the 10 additional days of
operation and each school being operated, attendance
equal to at least 75% of the 2008-09 total enrollment
reported to the California Department of Education for
grades four through six at that school.
3) Reaches an agreement on employee compensation for the 10
additional days of operation with each local bargaining
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unit representing certificated or classified district
employees.
4) Provides a quality educational program during each of
the 10 additional days of operation that includes
standards-aligned instruction by highly qualified
teachers, class sizes that are approximately the same as
those during the rest of the 2008-09 school year and
support services (access to computers, library services,
counselors and school nurses) that are equivalent to
those provided during the rest of the 2008-09 school
year.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . The Chino Valley Unified School
District adopted a calendar for the 2008-09 school year
that provided minimum days for each Friday, whereby
pupils were released early. Two elementary schools in
the district, Doris Dickson and Rolling Ridge, released
pupils in grades four through six before reaching the
required minimum number of 180 minutes for a shortened
day. Doris Dickson Elementary released pupils five
minutes too early, and Rolling Ridge Elementary released
pupils 10 minutes too early. This erroneous early
release occurred on 34 days, and as a result, those 34
days do not count as schooldays for pupils in grades
four through six at those two schools (those days do not
count at all, not even the minutes pupils did receive
instruction on those days). For this error, the Chino
Valley Unified School District will be assessed a
penalty in an amount equal to 1/180 (one day) multiplied
by the revenue limit apportionment for each of the 34
days not offered by the district, for each of the three
affected grade levels at the two elementary schools, for
a total of over $7.5 million.
2) State Board of Education (SBE) action . Current law
allows the SBE to waive the fiscal penalties for a
school district or county office of education that fails
to maintain the prescribed minimum length of time for
the instructional school year, minimum number of
instructional days, or both. Statute also specifies the
SBE may only grant a waiver if the school or schools
maintain the instructional minutes and days equal to
those lost, as specified.
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In order to avoid any fiscal penalty, the CVUSD wanted
to offer the full 34 days as part of the 2008-09 school
year. The CVUSD applied for a waiver to the SBE to
provide the instructional days after June 30, 2009 (the
official end of the school year). The waiver was denied
by SBE.
3) Few remaining remedies exist . In denying the waiver the
SBE indicated that CVUSD has a few options in which the
district can remedy shortages in instructional time:
Seek the traditional waiver from the board
under EC 46206 in which the financial penalty is
waived in exchange for providing the amount of
instructional time lost in addition to the regular
school program for two subsequent years.
Submit an appeal of an audit finding to the
Education Audit Appeals Panel (EAAP), which has the
flexibility to not only waive the penalty in
exchange for additional instructional time, but the
EAAP can also negotiate on the amount of additional
instructional time that they will provide.
Seek legislative relief from the penalty.
1) Longer Instructional Day and Year Incentive (LIDYI)
Program . This program was established in SB 813 (Hart),
Chapter 498, Statutes of 1983. The program provides
incentive funding per average daily attendance (ADA) to
participating districts for meeting specified minimum
instructional day and minute requirements. Over 90% of
school districts, including CVUSD, participate in this
program and receive this funding as an adjustment to
their revenue limit funding (general purpose). Most
school districts receive between $80 and $100 per ADA to
participate in this program.
In order to receive the LIDYI funding, school districts
are required to provide a minimum of 180 days of
instruction each school year and a minimum of 240
minutes of instruction a day or an average of minutes
calculated as an alternative method, as specified. If
districts do not meet these minimum requirements, severe
fiscal penalties are imposed by the state.
2) A reasonable remedy ? Current law clearly requires a
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minimum number of minutes and days of instruction.
School districts are currently afforded several options
to remedy the situation in which Chino Valley Unified
School District finds itself. Does the remedy proposed
by this bill undercut current penalties and other
options? Will this bill set a dangerous precedent by
allowing districts a new option to avoid paying
penalties?
Staff recommends an amendment that would apply the
definition of "two consecutive school years" to the
entire measure, not just the subdivision dealing with
the additional school days and instructional minutes.
3) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis, this bill would result in a
potential loss of Proposition 98 General Fund savings to
the state, of approximately $7.6 million.
4) Chino Valley Unified School District , is located in San
Bernardino County, enrolled a total of 32,428 pupils in
36 schools in 2008-09. Dickerson Elementary schools
enrolled a total of 247 pupils and Rolling Ridge
enrolled a total of 278 pupils in grades four through
six during this time period.
5) Prior and related legislation .
AB 35 (3rd Extraordinary Session of 2009) - this measure
is nearly identical to this measure. ABX3 35 passed
this committee on a 7-0 vote; however it was ultimately
held on the Senate Appropriations suspense file.
SUPPORT
California Teachers Association
Chino Valley Unified School District
OPPOSITION
None received.