BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
651 (Romero)
Hearing Date: 05/18/2009 Amended: 05/06/2009
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 9-0
_________________________________________________________________
____
BILL SUMMARY: SB 651 would require the Superintendent of
Public Instruction to prepare a report called the Annual Report
on Dropouts in California and to submit the report to the
Governor, Legislature, and the State Board of Education on or
before August 1, 2011, and annually thereafter. The bill would
require the report to include, among other items, specified data
on dropout rates, graduation rates, pupil promotion rates, and
information on school climate and pupil engagement.
_________________________________________________________________
____
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Dropout Report $300 to $400,
annually, General
commencing in 2011
_________________________________________________________________
____
STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Current law requires each K-12 student to be assigned a
non-personally identifiable Statewide Student Identifier (SSID),
and requires the establishment of the California Longitudinal
Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) that includes statewide
assessment data, enrollment data, teacher assignment data, and
other elements required to meet federal No Child Left Behind
reporting requirements.
The California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) is a confidential
student and school staff report of attitudes, health risk
behaviors, and protective factors. The survey gathers
information on behaviors such as physical activity and
nutritional habits; alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use; school
safety; and environmental and individual strengths. The CHKS is
a requirement of funding for districts that accept federal Title
IV Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities funds or state
Tobacco-Use Prevention Education funds.
Commencing in August of 2011, this bill would require the SPI to
submit an annual report a report that would include specified
data concerning graduation rates, course enrollment patterns,
nonpromotional school movement among pupils, and dropout rates
for high school and middle school pupils, including pupils in
alternative education. The report would also include behavioral
data such as suspensions and expulsions and school climate
information. Data, where possible, would be broken down to the
state, county, district, and school levels. The bill further
specifies that, if possible, the report shall also include key
subgroup data. The report would include data for the most
current year and, at a minimum, the two prior years.
Page 2
SB 651 (Romero)
The bill states legislative intent that the required report be
usable by schools, policymakers, parents and others for purposes
of identifying and understanding trends, causal relations, early
warning indicators, and potential points of intervention to
address the state's dropout rate.
CALPADS includes student demographic, program participation,
grade level enrollment, course enrollment and completion,
discipline, and statewide assessment data. Most of the data
required by this bill would come from this system. Currently,
it is not possible to estimate a precise dropout rate as the
state's data systems do not include enough years of longitudinal
data to track the progress of individual students from 9th to
through 12th grade. Depending on the method uses, estimates of
California's rate of on-time graduation range from approximately
65 percent to 75 percent. By the date of the 2011 report,
CALPADS will have enough years of longitudinal data by which to
determine an accurate dropout rate. Much of the data concerning
behavior and school climate required in the bill would come from
the CHKS.
In order to compile appropriate data and complete an annual
report, the Department of Education (CDE) would need two
positions and assorted other costs for printing and posting.
These costs are estimated at between $300,000 and $400,000 per
year.