BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1256
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1256 (Hancock)
As Amended June 23, 2010
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :34-0
EDUCATION 8-0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, | | |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | | |
| |Carter, Eng, Miller, | | |
| |Torlakson | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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, and his
life-long fight for the rights of individuals with
disabilities.
2)Adds January 23, as Ed Roberts Day, to the list of days having
special significance, and requires the Governor to annually
proclaim January 23 as Ed Roberts Day.
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.
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,
SB 1256
Page 2
thanksgiving or holiday, and any other day designated as a
holiday by the governing board of the school district; also
requires, for some of these holidays that schools conduct
exercises or instruction that focus students on the holiday's
purpose.
2)Authorizes public schools to close on or for 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.
3)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).
4)Designates the Day of the Teacher, John Muir Day, California
Poppy Day, Harvey Milk Day and Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans
Day as days having special significance, when public schools
are encouraged to observe and conduct specified commemorative
exercises.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : 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 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 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
SB 1256
Page 3
requirements.
After high school graduation and attending the College of San
Mateo, he was admitted to the University of California (UC),
Berkeley as the first student with severe disabilities to
attend. He had to fight for support from the state Department
of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) 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. The group later began 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. 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
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.
SB 1256
Page 4
In 1976, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Roberts as the Director
of the DVR - the same agency that had once labeled him too
severely disabled to work. He was the first Director 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
that he made to this state and country.
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0004966