BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2027
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 19, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2027 (Blumenfield) - As Amended: April 28, 2010
Policy Committee: EducationVote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill, commencing with the 2011-12 fiscal year (FY),
authorizes a school district, county office of education (COE),
or charter school to claim attendance toward average daily
attendance (ADA) for the purposes of calculating revenue limit
funding for an online class, as specified. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires all of the following conditions to apply in order for
a school district, COE, or charter school to claim ADA for
online classes: (a) the pupil is enrolled in any of grades
9-12; (b) the pupil is enrolled in classes that include
courses in a classroom-based setting, courses that are offered
though an online program, or both; (c) the pupil meets minimum
instructional time requirements, as specified; and (d) each
online course is high-quality.
2)Defines "high-quality online course" as meeting all
requirements related to the following: ratio of full-time
equivalent certificated teachers teaching the course;
experience of the teacher (including credential requirements);
subject-matter content of the course; the pupil elects to
participate in the course; no charge to take the course;
course examinations are administered by a proctor; and records
regarding the amount of time the pupil is online are
maintained by the district.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Beginning in the 2011-12 FY, potential on-going GF/98 revenue
limit costs, likely between $590,000 and $1.8 million, for
increased claims of ADA for providing online instruction to
AB 2027
Page 2
pupils in grades 7-12.
2)One-time GF/98 cost pressure, of approximately $260,000, to
local education agencies (LEAs) to purchase equipment to
provide online courses, as specified. There are 1,324 high
schools in the state.
3)This bill authorizes LEAs to claim ADA for asynchronous online
learning courses. To the extent the amount of time a pupil
spends online in this course cannot be verified, there is an
increased risk to the state will provide GF/98 revenue limit
funding to LEAs for attendance that cannot be validated.
Consequently, there is also the potential for LEAs to have
increased audit costs to the extent that ADA attendance cannot
be verified as part of the regular audit process.
4)One-time GF administrative costs to the SPI, likely less than
$125,000, to develop regulations pursuant to this measure.
SUMMARY CONTINUED
3)Defines "asynchronous online course" as a course where the
teacher and pupil are online at different times and are not
able to interact simultaneously.
4)Defines "synchronous online course" as a course where the
teacher and pupil are online at the same time and able to
interact.
5)Requires a "high-quality online course" to have either the
following: (a) the teacher online at the same time as each
pupil, accessible to each pupil attending the synchronous
online course, and able to make a visual connection with each
pupil for the purposes of verifying attendance or providing
immediate supervision, and (b) the teacher is online at a
different time as each pupil, is accessible to each pupil
attending the asynchronous course, and for the purposes of
verifying attendance is able to do at least one of the
following:
a) periodic proctored examinations;
b) biometric verification;
c) a line-of-sight visual connection, including, but not
AB 2027
Page 3
limited to, Internet webcam.
6)Requires a teacher of an online course to be an employee of
the providing school district and meet all of the requirements
for a teacher of an online course, as specified above.
7)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), in
consultation with the Director of Finance (DOF), on or before
December 31, 2011, to do all of the following: (a) make
revisions to any attendance accounting manual necessary to
clarify attendance procedures for online courses, including
asynchronous courses and (b) make recommendations to the
Legislature and the governor regarding statutory changes
necessary to allow attendance in asynchronous online courses
to be included in ADA calculations.
8)Deems a pupil in an online course to be under the immediate
supervision of an employee of the school district, COE, or
charter schools for the purposes of calculating ADA and
meeting instructional minute requirements, as specified.
9)Requires the SPI to adopt rules and regulations for the
purpose of implementing this measure, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . In March 2010, the United States Department of
Education released Transforming American Education: Learning
Powered by Technology, a draft of the nation's educational
technology plan. The plan states ""Just as technology is at
the core of virtually every aspect of our daily lives and
work, we must leverage it to provide engaging and powerful
learning experiences, content, and resources and assessments
that measure student achievement in more complete, authentic,
and meaningful ways. Technology-based learning and assessment
systems will be pivotal in improving student learning and
generating data that can be used to continuously improve the
education system at all levels."
According to the San Diego County Office of Education, sponsor
of this bill, "If California aspires to compete with other
states and nations as an economic engine, it must make
dramatic changes in its classrooms to usher in a meaningful
21st Century education and it must make them soon. The most
obvious example of using technology to make education more
AB 2027
Page 4
relevant is through high-quality online learning. There is
arguably no greater example of how technology has changed
education than the advent of the virtual classroom."
2)Existing law requires the majority of the state's revenue
limit funding (general purpose) allocated to LEAs (i.e.,
districts, COEs, etc.) be based on ADA. ADA is the average
amount of time a pupil attends class under the immediate
supervision of a certificated employee. As a result, the more
the pupil attends class the more ADA the LEA receives, which
leads to increased revenue limit funding.
Within the current ADA requirements, LEAs are able to provide
online courses to pupils in the following ways:
(a) Pupils are receiving online instruction in a classroom
setting under the immediate supervision of a certificated
employee.
(b) Pupils are enrolled in a part-time or full-time
independent study (IS) program (i.e., the pupil may be
taking regular classroom courses and one or two IS program
courses online). If a pupil is enrolled full-time in an
IS program, he or she is required to produce a work
product, which is assessed by a certificated employee of
the district.
(c) Pupils who have met the minimum instructional
requirement and are taking an online course. Under this
scenario, the pupil is generating full ADA for meeting the
minimum instructional requirement and the pupil is taking
the online course in addition to meeting minimum
requirements.
(d) Pupils are enrolled in a charter school, which has less
strict accounting and attendance requirements for its
pupils.
1)Fiscal concerns with asynchronous online learning . The
fundamental principal for allocation of funding under
California's school finance system is the value of
instructional time. The state measures this principal through
the ADA attendance system, including the ability of the pupil
to be under the direct supervision (via a line of sight) of a
certificated employee.
AB 2027
Page 5
This bill requires pupils who enroll in an asynchronous online
class to meet minimum instructional day and minute
requirements in order to generate ADA, which is the basis for
calculating revenue limit funding.
There are fiscal questions with claiming ADA for an
asynchronous online course. For example, how does the state,
for accounting and audit purposes, ensure that the pupil meets
the minimum instructional time and day requirements? This
includes basic issues as how attendance is taken in these
courses.
Also, what type of mechanisms will be provided to verify that
it is the pupil participating in the asynchronous online
course? Currently, the bill requires only one of three
verifications to be used, including periodic proctored
examinations. This verification method is not defined in the
bill and may mean as little as the pupil being online once a
week at the same time as a proctor.
The committee may wish to consider whether or not it is
appropriate to authorize ADA attendance to be calculated for
asynchronous online courses prior to these issues being
resolved. Likewise, the committee may wish to consider
requiring the SPI, in consultation with DOF and the state
controller, to revise accounting manuals and make statutory
recommendations to the Legislature and the governor on these
issues prior to providing authorization for asynchronous
online courses to generate ADA. The author has indicated he
is willing to address these issues.
2)AB 885 (Daucher), Chapter 81, Statues of 2002 , established the
Online Classroom Pilot (OCP) program until 2007. The purpose
of this program was to monitor and evaluate pupil
participation in online interactive instructional programs.
The pilot program addressed the need to provide expanded
educational opportunities for pupils attending schools with
limited educational offerings; the need to provide access to
advanced placement courses where none are available; and the
need to provide quality educational services in courses for
hard-to-staff subject areas in schools where a shortage of
teachers exist.
3)Fiscal implications of the OCP program . The State Department
AB 2027
Page 6
of Education's (SDE) report on this program identifies several
programmatic and fiscal barriers to implementing this program,
including a lack of start-up funding and funding for required
data and evaluation components.
SDE's report also states "All districts maintain fiscal
records that will verify the cost of online program
implementation. Each district was asked to estimate whether
running an online class was more expensive, less expensive, or
about the same as that of a traditional class. In every case,
program contact replies indicated that running an online class
was either about the same or more expensive than running a
traditional class. An initial investment must be made for
necessary equipment, infrastructure, online content and
training to enable successful startup. Although the
development cost will decrease over time, there are recurring
costs associated with online delivery (as there are recurring
costs with traditional content delivery)."
4)Previous legislation . AB 837 (Torlakson) established that a
school district or COE, beginning with the 2010-11 FY, may
claim ADA on the basis of a pupil's attendance at a class or
classes in the classroom-based setting on that day, for the
purpose of learning online. This bill was held on this
committee's Suspense File in May 2009.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081