BILL NUMBER: AB 2721 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 9, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 8, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Blakeslee
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to amend Section 51228 of, and to repeal Article
1.7 (commencing with Section 52336) of Chapter 9 of Part 28 of
Division 4 of Title 2 of, the Education Code, relating to career
technical education. An act to add and repeal Section
56510 of the Education Code, relating to special education.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2721, as amended, Blakeslee. Career technical
education. Special education disputes: report.
Existing law establishes the right of individuals with exceptional
needs to a free appropriate public education and ensures the right
to special education and related services. Existing law requires that
a pupil with exceptional needs be accommodated through the creation
and implementation of an individualized education plan. Existing law
establishes procedural safeguards under state and federal law to be
established and maintained by agencies that provide education and
related services to children who are individuals with exceptional
needs, including procedural requirements for parties to special
education disputes.
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction,
in consultation with specified other entities, to prepare a report
identifying options for reducing administrative and legal costs borne
by local educational agencies resulting from disputes and litigation
over the adequacy and administration of individualized education
plans. This bill would require the superintendent to submit an
interim report to the Legislature by July 1, 2011, and a final report
to the Legislature by December 1, 2011. The provisions of this bill
would be repealed on December 1, 2015.
(1) Existing law authorizes any business, trade or professional
association, union, or state or local governmental agency operating
within this state to establish and operate, under the auspices of the
local school district, a career preparatory program that meets
specified requirements. An entity establishing and operating a
program is required to develop and implement a course of instruction
for all pupils enrolled in the program that satisfies the graduation
requirements set forth in existing law that are applicable to grades
11 and 12. Existing law authorizes an entity establishing and
operating a career preparatory program to propose and implement a
program that is designed to provide on-the-job training and
instruction in specific career technical skills to prepare pupils for
future employment. Pupils who successfully complete all aspects of
the program receive a certificate of completion that supplements a
high school diploma.
This bill would repeal these provisions.
(2) Existing law defines a "multiple pathway program" as a
multiyear, comprehensive high school program of integrated academic
and technical study, as specified, that ensures that all pupils have
curriculum choices that will prepare them for career entry and a full
range of postsecondary options, and that is comprised of certain
components relating to the integration of academics and career
technical education. Existing law requires each school district
maintaining any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer to all
otherwise qualified pupils in those grades a course of study that
fulfills the requirements and prerequisites for admission to the
California public institutions of postsecondary education, and that
provides an opportunity for those pupils to attain entry-level
employment skills in business or industry upon graduation from high
school.
This bill would encourage school districts to fulfill these
requirements by developing industry-focused multiple pathway
programs.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 56510 is added to the
Education Code , to read:
56510. (a) The Superintendent, in consultation with the Secretary
for Education, the state board, the Department of Finance, each
house of the California Legislature, local educational agencies or
their representatives, school counselors, elementary and secondary
education teachers, teachers of pupils with special needs,
representatives from special education local plan areas, parents and
advocates of pupils with special needs, representatives of governing
boards of local educational agencies, and others deemed appropriate
by the Superintendent, shall prepare a report identifying options for
reducing administrative and legal costs borne by local educational
agencies resulting from disputes and litigation over the adequacy and
administration of individualized education plans. The report shall
include all of the following:
(1) The protections afforded to every pupil under state and
federal law that establish the right of individuals with exceptional
needs to a free appropriate public education, and the right to a fair
hearing when an individualized education plan provided by the local
educational agency is disputed by a pupil's representative.
(2) Regulations, policies, and practices that may reduce the
frequency of litigation, and the associated administrative and legal
costs borne by local educational agencies.
(3) The current cost and budgetary implications of special
education litigation borne by local educational agencies across the
state.
(4) Recommendations to improve the development, approval,
administration, and monitoring of individualized education plans so
that funding allocated to local educational agencies is spent more
efficiently on pupil education, and expenditures on administrative
and legal costs associated with resolving individualized education
plan disputes are reduced.
(5) Possible roles and responsibilities of other departments or
agencies to reduce the cost of litigation borne by local educational
agencies.
(6) Strategies for increasing the use and effectiveness of
alternative dispute resolution and other litigation alternatives.
(b) The Superintendent shall use existing state resources and
federal funds to prepare the interim and final reports.
(c) The Superintendent shall submit an interim report to the
Legislature on the status of the final report and any preliminary
recommendations no later than July 1, 2011. The Superintendent shall
submit a final report with recommendations to the Legislature and the
Governor no later than December 1, 2011.
(d) (1) A report to be submitted pursuant to this section shall
be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(2) Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this
section is repealed on December 1, 2015.
SECTION 1. Section 51228 of the Education Code
is amended to read:
51228. (a) Each school district maintaining any of grades 7 to
12, inclusive, shall offer to all otherwise qualified pupils in those
grades a course of study fulfilling the requirements and
prerequisites for admission to the California public institutions of
postsecondary education and shall provide a timely opportunity to
each of those pupils to enroll within a four-year period in each
course necessary to fulfill those requirements and prerequisites
prior to graduation from high school.
(b) Each school district maintaining any of grades 7 to 12,
inclusive, shall offer to all otherwise qualified pupils in those
grades a course of study that provides an opportunity for those
pupils to attain entry-level employment skills in business or
industry upon graduation from high school. Districts are encouraged
to provide all pupils with a rigorous academic curriculum that
integrates academic and career skills, incorporates applied learning
in all disciplines, and prepares all pupils for high school
graduation and career entry.
(c) School districts are encouraged to fulfill the requirements
described in subdivisions (a) and (b) by developing industry-focused
multiple pathway programs, such as those described in Section
52372.5.
(d) A school district that adopts a required curriculum that
meets or exceeds the model standards developed and adopted by the
state board pursuant to Section 51226 shall be deemed to have
fulfilled its responsibilities pursuant to subdivision (b).
(e) A school district that adopts a required curriculum pursuant
to subdivision (d) that meets or exceeds the model standards
developed by the state board pursuant to Section 51226, or that
adopts alternative means for pupils to complete the prescribed course
of study pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 51225.3, may
substitute pupil demonstration of competence in the prescribed
subjects through a practical demonstration of these skills in a
regional occupational center or program, work experience,
interdisciplinary study, independent study, credit earned at a
postsecondary institution, or other outside school experience, as
prescribed by Section 51225.3.
SEC. 2. Article 1.7 (commencing with Section
52336) of Chapter 9 of Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the
Education Code is repealed.