BILL ANALYSIS
SB 552
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Date of Hearing: August 19, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
SB 552 (Padilla) - As Amended: July 15, 2009
Policy Committee: Education Vote:9-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires a school district, beginning with the 2010-11
school year, that offers health classes to grade nine and ten
pupils to provide at least 15 minutes of instruction on organ
procurement and tissue donation, as specified. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Authorizes nonprofit organ procurement organizations,
including Donate Life California, to provide school districts
with the information that will be provided through the 15
minutes of instruction.
2)Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) and the Curriculum
Development and Supplemental Materials Commission (Curriculum
Commission) to ensure that the health framework, evaluation
criteria, and instructional materials (IM) adopted (as part of
the next submission) for pupils in grades nine and ten include
organ procurement and tissue donation.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Potential GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs, likely
between $355,000 and $711,000, to provide 15 minutes of
instruction on organ and tissue donation, as specified.
2)Potential GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs, of
approximately $916,300, to provide professional development to
the 1,309 health teachers to comply with the requirements of
this measure.
3)Potential GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs, likely
between $1.3 and $2.6 million, to provide materials regarding
SB 552
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organ procurement and tissue donation to comply with the
instructional requirement of this measure.
4)Potential GF administrative costs, likely between $200,000 and
$700,000, to the State Department of Education's (SDE)
Curriculum Commission to complete the requirements of this
measure. This assumes a portion or all of the Commission's
funding is restored to complete the development of the health
curriculum framework, as specified. The governor vetoed all
GF funding for the Commission and indicated his intention to
do so for the next several years (see comment #3 below).
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . SB 112 (Spier), Chapter 405, Statutes of 2003,
established a centralized organ and tissue donation registry
for California. As a result of this legislation, the Donate
Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry (Donate Life
California), a private, nonprofit, state-authorized registry,
was established with the goal of providing every person
awaiting a transplant access to information that can provide
him or her with a match.
According to Donate Life California, there are currently more
than 100,000 people on the UNOS National Organ Transplant
Waiting List. Of these individuals, approximately 20,000
(21%) live in California. As of August 2009, there are
currently 5.3 million people registered with Donate Life
California.
This bill requires a school district that offers a health
class to pupils in grade nine and ten to provide 15 minutes
instruction about organ and tissue donation, as specified.
According to the California Nurses Association, "this
instruction would provide students the necessary knowledge
that will enable them to make an informed decision when they
are asked whether or not to be a donor when applying for their
driver's license."
2)Existing law. Prior to the enactment of AB 2 X4, Chapter 2,
Statutes of 2009 in July 2009 (see below), statute required
the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt basic
instructional materials (IM) in the core academic content
areas (English language arts, mathematics, history/social
science, and science) every six years for use in grades K-8.
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It is also required the SBE to adopt statewide academically
rigorous content standards in the core curriculum areas. These
content standards are implemented through the curriculum
frameworks, as adopted by SBE. The adopted IM must be
consistent with the criteria and standards of quality
prescribed in the adopted curriculum frameworks. The
development of curriculum frameworks is a multi-year process.
Also, the governing board of each school district maintaining
one or more high schools is authorized to adopt IM for use in
the high schools (grades 9-12) under its control.
In 2002, the SBE adopted the health curriculum framework for
grades K-12. The current framework does not contain
information related to organ and tissue donation.
Statute also requires the SBE to adopt content standards in
the curriculum area of health education. In March 2008, the
SBE adopted the Health Education Content Standards for grades
K-12. These content standards do not contain information
related to organ and tissue donation.
3)AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009 , specified that
local education agencies are not required to purchase IM
through the 2012-13 fiscal year. Consistent with the
non-purchasing requirement, Chapter 2 also suspended the
requirement for SBE to adopt IM or conduct other procedures
associated with adoption (i.e., adopting curriculum
frameworks) until the 2013-14 school year.
Prior to the enactment of AB 2 X4, the next health curriculum
framework was scheduled for adoption in 2011, with IM for this
subject to be adopted in 2013. However, this timeline is no
longer relevant and the next adoption of this framework has
not bee determined.
4)Governor's July 2009 budget veto . The Curriculum Commission
is an 18-member advisory board to SBE. Commissioners tend to
be recognized authorities in a specific subject matter,
professors, curriculum experts, K-12 teachers, or community
members. The commission advises SBE on the K-12 curriculum
frameworks and K-8 IM. In doing so, it serves as a kind of
intermediary between the field experts and SBE. The commission
holds a public hearing on a framework after the Subject Matter
Committee hearing and before the SBE hearing on the framework.
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In July 2009, the governor vetoed $705,000 GF from SDE's
budget "to capture the maximum amount of savings from the
instructional materials flexibility provided in the Education
trailer bill [AB 2 X4] to school districts, which suspends the
adoption of instructional materials by the State Board of
Education (Board) and the subsequent purchasing requirements
for school districts until 2013-14. As a result, it is
unnecessary for the Curriculum Development and Supplemental
Materials Commission to continue to advise the Board on
content frameworks and instructional materials adoptions for
the next five years or until an agreed-upon process is
reestablished. This reduction removes funding for unnecessary
Commission per diem and travel as well as funding for
Department staff."
5)Previous legislation . AB 1972 (Steinberg), similar to this
measure, was held on this committee's suspense file in May
2004.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081