BILL ANALYSIS
SB 331
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 8, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 331 (Romero) - As Amended: May 28, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 25-13
SUBJECT : Migrant education
SUMMARY : Requires the state master plan and state services
delivery plan for services to migrant children, beginning with
the next adoption cycle, to be developed and revised as
necessary by the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and
the statewide parent advisory council (SPAC). Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires the master plan to include the collection of
individual and aggregate data for migrant pupils regarding all
of the following:
a) Identification of migrant children;
b) Preschool participation;
c) Enrollment in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12,
inclusive;
d) Achievement;
e) Access, enrollment, and completion of courses that
fulfill the A-G subject area requirements;
f) Suspension, expulsion, transfer, and dropout rates, and
failure to enroll or reenroll;
g) Graduation and completion of the high school exit
examination;
h) Retention measures;
i) Enrollment;
j) Designation and redesignation of English learners;
aa) Postsecondary enrollment;
bb) Vocational education opportunities;
cc) Health services;
dd) Intercession programs;
ee) Other supplemental services;
ff) Staff experience and evaluation;
gg) Data collection and evaluation;
hh) Records transfer; and,
ii) Parental involvement, including establishment of and
participation in the migrant parent advisory committee,
SB 331
Page 2
conduct of regular meetings, participation in the
development and approval of the local migrant education
plan, participation in statewide parent advisory committee
activities, and parent training.
2)Specifies that individual and aggregate enrollment data shall
also include separate data concerning the number of migrant
pupils enrolled in alternative education programs including,
but not limited to, juvenile court schools, county community
schools, community day schools, continuation high schools, and
independent studies.
3)Requires interpretation services at each state and regional
migrant parent advisory council meeting by an individual who
has received training in interpreting and who is fully fluent
in English and in the language understandable to the parents.
4)Makes several non-substantive and technical changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that a SPAC participate in the planning, operation,
and evaluation of the state Migrant Education Program and
provides that the membership of the SPAC is comprised of
individuals who are knowledgeable of the needs of migrant
children and are nominated and elected by the parents of
migrant children enrolled in the operating agencies.
2)Requires at least two-thirds of the members of the SPAC be
parents of migrant children and requires the SPAC to meet a
minimum of six times a calendar year to provide input on
issues relating to the operation of the program
3)Provides that each operating agency that receives migrant
education funds or services shall establish a parent advisory
council to actively solicit parent involvement in the
planning, operation, and evaluation of its programs.
Existing Federal Law :
1)Authorizes the allocation of grants to state educational
agencies to establish or improve, directly or through local
operating agencies, programs and educational opportunities for
migratory children to help them succeed in the regular school
program, meet the state academic content standards that all
SB 331
Page 3
children are expected to meet, and graduate from high school.
2)Requires each state that receives a grant shall ensure that
the state and its local operating agencies identify and
address the special educational needs of migratory children in
accordance with a comprehensive statewide plan, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, this bill would entail significant costs, both
one-time and ongoing. There would be costs to the California
Department of Education (CDE) for revising the master plan,
expanded program monitoring, augmenting data systems,
translations, technical assistance and evaluations. There would
also be significant local assistance costs for local evaluations
and interpretations. Further, while the bill requires the
provision of services of migrant youth in alternative education
programs, it should be noted that the program is not currently
funded at a rate that allows services to be provided to every
eligible child. It is estimated that 350,000 children are
eligible but services are provided to only 210,000.
COMMENTS : The Migrant Education Program (MEP) is a federally
funded program, authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB). The MEP is designed to provide supplemental education
services to migrant children to help reduce the educational
disruption and other challenges that result from repeated moves.
According to the CDE, the California MEP is the largest in the
nation and one out of every three migrant students in the United
States lives in California. Currently, there are over 300,000
migrant students attending California schools during the regular
school year and 178,000 attending summer/intersession classes.
This bill redefines the role of the SPAC in the development and
revision of the state master plan and services delivery plan,
provides for the inclusion of specified data in the master plan,
and requires the provision of translation services at state and
regional parent advisory council meetings.
Need for the bill : The author states, "for more than 30 years
the California Department of Education worked under the same
migrant education plan without any comprehensive needs
assessment of the program or evaluation of its effectiveness for
students. An assessment was finally conducted in 2007-- after it
SB 331
Page 4
was mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, Title I, Part C.
The results dramatically reflect that more needs to be done for
these children."
Title I, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, program
regulations, and policy guidance issued by the Office of Migrant
Education (OME) at the U.S. Department of Education (USDE)
require state educational agencies to conduct a Comprehensive
Needs Assessment (CNA) of the MEP in California. Accordingly,
in the summer of 2005, the Migrant, Indian, and International
Education Office of the CDE in collaboration with WestEd
launched the CNA process. The initial Comprehensive Needs
Assessment (2007) report identified several findings, including
that:
1)Forty seven percent of migrant students attending public
schools were in Program Improvement (PI) schools.
2)The dropout rate for migrant students is believed to be well
over 50 percent, although reliable data on this measure are
unavailable.
3)The California Standards Tests show that only 12 percent of
migrant students meet state standards in English-language arts
compared with 33 percent for non-migrant students. Only 18
percent meet mathematics state standards compared with 32
percent for non-migrant students.
4)Approximately 23 percent of migrant students were
significantly overage in kindergarten.
5)By 11th grade, 22 percent of migrant high school students had
not completed any A-G qualifying English courses.
The lack of "hard" data to inform the CNA was noted as one of
the most important findings of the entire process and the
Management Team recommended that a comprehensive study be
conducted on the data needs of the MEP and that a plan be
devised to identify the specific responsibilities of the CDE,
regional offices, and school districts to collect, store, and
report data on migrant students and their families.
While this bill requires the state master plan to include the
collection of very specific data, it does not require a plan
outlining responsibilities of CDE, regional offices and school
SB 331
Page 5
districts on the collection and reporting data on migrant
students. The CDE currently collects and reports some of this
data to the USDE as part of the California state performance
report. As currently drafted the bill is unclear as to who will
collect the data, and whether it is to be reported and to whom.
Staff recommends the bill be amended to clarify this in the
bill.
Additionally, while some of the individual and aggregate data
identified for collection in the bill is or will be available
through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data
System (CALPADS), commencing in 2010-11, not all of the items
listed are or will be available. Some of the items will require
districts to have a role in submitting the data to the SPI.
Staff recommends the following amendments:
1 To specify the use of CALPADS and the use of the Migrant
Student Database (MSD)for the collection of data components
that will/are available through these data systems
commencing with the 2010-11 fiscal year to correspond with
the expected timeline of CALPADS implementation. The items
that shall be collected using CALPADS and the MSD are:
a. Eligible migrant children.
b. Preschool participation in migrant education
funded programs.
c. Enrollment in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12,
inclusive.
d. Achievement based on the California State
Standards Test and the high school exit exam.
e. Enrollment and completion of courses that
fulfill the A-G subject area requirements.
f. Suspensions and expulsions.
g. Dropout rates.
h. Graduation and completion of the high school
exit examination.
i. Retention in grade level.
j. Designation and redesignation of English
learners.
aa. Career Technical Education course completion.
bb. Distribution of teachers based on highly
qualified status and years of experience in education.
cc. Enrollment in juvenile court schools, county
community schools, community day schools, continuation
high schools, and independent study.
SB 331
Page 6
2 To provide for the collection and reporting of parental
involvement data by means other than CALPADS, as that
system does not have the capability to collect such data.
Suggested amendment :
a. Using a system other than CALPADS, collection
and report annually on participation in the
development and approval of the local migrant
education plan, participation in statewide parent
advisory committee activities, and parent training.
Some of the data items listed in the bill are not currently
collected, and there is no statewide mechanism or system in
place to collect data such as postsecondary enrollment. There
is currently no link from CALPADS to higher education data
systems. Additional items in the bill such as access to courses
that fulfill the A-G requirements, health services, intercession
programs, supplemental services, and records transfer would
require further clarification and would necessitate school
districts submitting the data to the SPI. Should the author
wish to include these items, the bill should be amended to
require districts to submit the data to the SPI, particularly
because there is no uniform definition to some of the items
listed, for example, "access to A-G courses." Some districts
may have a way to define "access" that may be different from how
other districts define "access."
In 2006, the LAO produced the report, "Improving Services for
Migrant Students," in which the LAO found that the existing
model for delivering the MEP has led to limited program
accountability, poor coordination with other student services,
and little statewide collaboration. Among its recommendations,
the LAO called for an expansion of the state's migrant education
data system to include more data elements and that district and
school personnel be provided access to the enhanced system. The
LAO cited the importance of collecting consistent information on
these students and sharing it across the state in order to ease
their transitions and to create more coordinated statewide MEP
services. The LAO also identified the incorporation of
additional data fields regarding migrant students into the
California School Information Services (CSIS) system as one
option for achieving this goal.
Revision of the master plan and state delivery plan: Current
SB 331
Page 7
law requires the SPI to establish a SPAC to participate in the
planning, operation, and evaluation of the state MEP. State law
requires SPAC membership to be comprised of individuals who are
knowledgeable of the needs of migrant children and shall be
nominated and elected by the parents of migrant children
enrolled in the operating agencies. This bill expands the
authority of the SPAC in the development and revision of the
state master plan and the state services delivery plan. Federal
and state laws identify the SPAC as an advisory body in the
planning and operation of programs and projects at the state and
local level. Federal law allows for the comprehensive state
plan to be developed in collaboration with parents of migratory
children. Staff recommends the bill be amended to stay
consistent with federal law and instead require the state plan
be developed and revised by the SPI "in collaboration with
parents of migratory children" as provided in federal law.
Technical amendments : The author wishes to make the following
technical amendments:
On page 3, line 23, strike out "five" and insert "three"
On page 3, strike out lines 25-27, inclusive, and insert
"migrant children"
On page 3, line 37, strike out "diagnose" and insert "assess"
On page 4, line 8, strike out "diagnose" and insert "assess" and
strike out "of a physical nature" and insert "that interfere
with the education and learning of migrant children,"
On page 4 line 9 after "environmental" insert "conditions
On page 4 lines 9-10 strike out "that interfere with the
learning processes of migrant children"
On page 8, line 31, strike out "and no more than 8,000
currently"
On page 8, line 32 strike out "based upon full time equivalent
enrollment"
On page 11, line 6, strike out lines 7 and 8 and on line 9
strike out "a" and insert "A"
Arguments in support : The Association of California School
Administrators writes, "It is important that state and local
educational agencies improve the data collection and tracking of
migrant students and prepare a master plan that can be based on
what the data shows are the service delivery needs of this often
neglected group of students. The more accurate data we have
locally the better we can support migrant students and their
families."
SB 331
Page 8
The Superintendent of Public Instruction has taken a "support if
amended" position on this bill and requests the following
amendments: 1) Amending eligibility from five to three years to
remain consistent with federal law; 2) clarify that the SPI is
responsible for creating the master plan in consultation with
the SPAC; 3) use data that exists and established data
collection system to avoid potential mandates; and 4) require
CDE to prepare an annual report on the status of the MEP.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California School Administrators
Superintendent of Public Instruction (If amended)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi?a / ED. / (916) 319-2087