BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1256
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 16, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 1256 (Hancock) - As Introduced: February 19, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 34-0
SUBJECT : Ed Roberts Day
SUMMARY : Designates January 23 of each year as Ed Roberts Day,
a day of special significance. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes Legislative findings and declarations regarding the
life, career, contributions and death of Ed Roberts, as well
as his life-long fight for the rights of individuals with
disabilities.
2)Adds January 23 of each year, as Ed Roberts Day, to the list
of days having special significance.
3)Encourages all public schools and educational institutions to
observe this day and conduct exercises remembering the life of
Ed Roberts, recognizing his accomplishments as well as the
accomplishments of other Californians with disabilities, and
familiarizing pupils with the contributions that Ed Roberts
and other Californians with disabilities have made to this
state.
4)Requires the Governor to annually proclaim January 23 as Ed
Roberts Day.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires public schools to close on or for a number of
holidays, including, January 1, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Day, Lincoln Day, Washington Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor
Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, December 25, all days
appointed by the Governor or the President for a public fast,
thanksgiving or holiday, and any other day designated as a
holiday by the governing board of the school district.
2)Requires, for some specified holidays for which schools are
required to close, that schools conduct exercises or
instruction that focus students on the purpose of that
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holiday.
3)Authorizes public schools to close on or for a number of other
holidays, if the governing board pursuant to an agreement
under collective bargaining agrees; these days include Cesar
Chavez Day and Native American Day. Also authorizes public
schools to conduct exercises or instruction that focus
students on the purpose of these holidays.
4)Requires public schools to remain open, and celebrate specific
holidays with appropriate commemorative exercises, including
the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States, the birthday of Luther Burbank, Susan B.
Anthony Day, and the anniversary of the death of Crispus
Attucks (Black American Day).
5)Designates a number of days as days having special
significance, when public schools are encouraged to observe
and conduct suitable commemorative exercises, as specified.
These days include the Day of the Teacher, John Muir Day,
California Poppy Day, Harvey Milk Day, and Welcome Home
Vietnam Veterans Day.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : The author states that, "For countless numbers of
people throughout California and the world, Ed Roberts
(1939-1995) is the embodiment of the disability civil rights
movement for social justice, equality and independence. That is
why, on the 15th anniversary of his death as well as the
anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities
Act, I have introduced Senate Bill (SB) 1256, declaring each
January 23rd to be "Ed Roberts Day" - a day of special
significance to encourage schools and educational institutions
to incorporate the history of the disability rights movement and
the life of Ed Roberts into the curriculum."
Edward Verne Roberts (January 23, 1939- March 14, 1995) was an
international leader and educator in the independent living and
disability rights movement who fought throughout his life to
enable all persons with disabilities to fully participate in
society. Roberts contracted polio at the age of fourteen, two
years before the Salk vaccine put an end to the polio epidemic.
He spent eighteen months in hospitals and returned home
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paralyzed from the neck down except for limited motion in the
fingers on one hand. He slept in an iron lung at night and when
out of the lung he survived by glossopharangeal ("frog")
breathing, a technique for swallowing air using facial and neck
muscles. He credited his mother with teaching him, by example,
how to fight for what he needed after school administrators
objected to his graduation from high school because he had not
completed physical education and driver's education
requirements.
After high school graduation and attending the College of San
Mateo, he was admitted to the University of California (UC),
Berkeley, where he was the first student with severe
disabilities to attend. He had to fight for the support he
needed from the California Department of Vocational
Rehabilitation to attend college because his rehabilitation
counselor thought he was too severely disabled to ever get a
job; he also had to fight for admission to and services at the
university. When his search for university housing met
resistance, in part because of his 800 pound iron lung, the
director of the campus health service offered him a room in an
empty wing of the Cowell Hospital. Roberts accepted on the
condition that his living space was to be treated as a
dormitory, rather than as a medical facility. His admission led
to the admission of other students with severe disabilities, who
joined him over the next few years at what evolved into the
Cowell Residence Program.
This group of students developed a sense of identity, began
calling themselves the "Rolling Quads", and began to politically
approach disability issues. Their success on campus inspired
the group to begin advocating for disabled access (e.g., curb
cuts) in the wider community, and to create the Physically
Disabled Student's Program (PDSP). The PDSP was the first
student-led disability services program in the country, and
offered services that included free counseling, off-campus
housing referrals and a repair crew whose expertise was in
wheelchairs. This program was in part funded by federal grant
monies that Roberts helped secure. Roberts continued to
advocate for UC Berkeley disabled students throughout the 1960s;
he earned his B.A. in 1964, his M.A. in 1966, and became a Ph.D.
Candidate in 1969 - all in political science at UC Berkeley.
PDSP became the model for Berkeley's Center for Independent
Living (CIL) and over 400 independent living centers across the
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country. Roberts was one of the early directors of CIL, which
furthered a nuts-and-bolts approach to solving the problems of
people with disabilities, including help in modifying cars and
vans to enable them to drive. The CIL organized a referral
service to develop a pool of reliable aides to help disabled
people bathe, eat and dress. Under Roberts, the CIL also
campaigned to remove provisions of Federal laws that discouraged
the disabled from working, and also led campaigns demanding
access to public transportation and seating aboard buses and
trains.
In 1976, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Roberts as the Director
of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation - the
same agency that had once labeled him too severely disabled to
work. He was the first Director of Rehabilitation with a
disability, and served in that post until 1983. Roberts later
returned to Berkeley where he co-founded the World Institute on
Disability, an organization that works worldwide "to eliminate
barriers to full social integration and increase employment,
economic security, and health care for persons with
disabilities."
Ed Roberts is often called the father of the disability rights
movement. He said that, "anger is a powerful energy. We don't
need to suppress or get over our anger; we need to channel it
into making change for the greater good. We need to make sure
that we don't turn our anger in on ourselves or our loved ones,
but focus it on removing obstacles, and making things happen. ?
I get angry all of the time." This personal energy and
unwillingness to accept the status quo made Roberts an effective
advocate for persons with disabilities.
This bill requires the Governor to proclaim January 23 as Ed
Roberts Day, and designates January 23 as a day having special
significance. This bill does not result in additional average
daily attendance or funding for a school district, nor does it
result in an additional holiday or day of school closure. The
designation of a day of special significance simply triggers
statutory encouragement for public schools to observe the day
and to conduct commemorative exercises suitable to the day, as
specified in law; however, the decision as to whether to observe
any day of special significance or to conduct suitable
commemorative exercises is left to the local district. If this
day is observed, then suitable exercises would recognize Ed
Roberts' life and accomplishments, as well as the contributions
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that he made to this state and country.
Committee amendments: In recent years, multiple bills have been
introduced proposing to establish a specified date as a day of
special significance under the law. For example, in 2009 two
bills were introduced and ultimately chaptered, and in the
current year four bills are pending in the Legislature. Due to
the structure of the Education Code section within which the day
of special significance provisions currently exist, multiple
bills introduced in a single legislative year creates technical
conflicts which are difficult, and sometimes contentious, to
resolve. Committee staff recommends that this bill be amended
in order to restructure these provisions of the Education Code
so as to avoid these technical conflicts both this year and in
the future. At the same time this restructuring will clean up
previous approaches used to avoid the technical conflict. These
amendments will not have an effect on the content (or the
intent) of this bill or of existing provisions of code, but will
simply restructure these provisions.
Related legislation: AB 1775 (Furutani), pending in the Senate
Education Committee, designates April 19 of each year as Fred
Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, a day of
special significance. AB 2412 (Tran), pending in the Senate
Education Committee, designates February 6 of each year as
Ronald Reagan Day, a day of special significance. SB 944
(Runner and Strickland), pending in this Committee, is
substantially similar to AB 2412.
Previous legislation: SB 572 (Leno), Chapter 626, Statutes of
2009, designates May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day, a day
of special significance. AB 717 (Cook), Chapter 158, Statutes
of 2009, designates March 30 or each year as Welcome Home
Vietnam Veterans Day, as day of special significance. AB 2567
(Leno), vetoed in 2008, was substantially similar to SB 572. SB
984 (Polanco), Chapter 213, Statutes of 2000, establishes March
31 as "Cesar Chavez Day," establishes the Cesar Chavez Day of
Service and Learning grant program, which provided grants for
activities that engaged school pupils in community service on
that day. AB 1953 (Baca), Chapter 637, Statutes of 1998 ,
establishes "Native American Day," authorizes public school
governing boards to close for this holiday (pursuant to a
collective bargaining agreement), and authorizes school
districts to conduct exercises or instruction that focuses
students on the contributions of Native Americans to this
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country. SB 1373 (Torres), Chapter 1011, Statutes of 1994,
authorizes public school governing boards to close for "Cesar
Chavez Day" (pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement). SB
2410 (Rogers), Chapter 364, Statutes of 1990, establishes the
current list of days having special significance, when public
schools are encouraged to observe and conduct suitable
commemorative exercises, as specified.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Alliance for Retired Americans
California Association of Public Authorities for In-Home
Supportive Services
California Federation of Teachers
California Foundation for Independent Living Centers
Center for Independent Living
Developmental Disabilities Board Area 5
Developmental Disabilities Council of Contra Costa County
Disabled Students' Program, University of California, Berkeley
Disabled Students' Union, University of California, Berkeley
Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco
Marin Center for Independent Living
San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools
The Arc of California
World Institute on Disability
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087