BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1278 (Wyland)
Hearing Date: 05/27/2010 Amended: 04/28/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 1278, an urgency measure, would require the
completion of the currently-suspended revision of the curriculum
framework in the area of history-social science and require the
State Board of Education to adopt instructional materials in
that subject area within 30 months afterward.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
History-social science Minor
General
framework
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
The process of adopting instructional materials begins with the
review and update of the curriculum framework for seven subject
areas. Frameworks are the blueprints for implementing the
academic content standards. The framework development process
typically takes 24 months from initiation to approval by the
State Board of Education (SBE). Once the framework for a
particular subject is adopted by the SBE, the instructional
material adoption process begins, which includes submissions
from publishers, review by the Instructional Materials Advisory
Reviewer and Content Review Expert (both are appointed by the
SBE), Curriculum Commission hearings and SBE adoption. The
adoption process typically takes 30 months. Schools were
required to provide pupils with instructional materials within
24 months of adoption by SBE, but this requirement is suspended
from the 2008-09 to 2012-13 fiscal year.
The processes for reviewing frameworks and adopting
instructional materials has been suspended since July 2009,
pursuant to AB 2 of the Fourth Extraordinary Session (Chapter 2,
July 2009), which among other things, prohibited the SBE from
reviewing frameworks and adopting instructional materials until
the 2013-14 school year. ABx4 2 also extended to the 2012-13
fiscal year the suspension of the requirement to purchase
instructional materials within any specific period of time
following adoption of those materials by the SBE.
Prior to the suspension of these activities, a revision of the
framework in history-social science was nearing completion.
Given the substantial amount of work already dedicated to this
activity, the Department of Education indicates costs of
completing the revision would be minimal. The costs of the
materials adoption process, however, are significant. The
Department notes that costs for the previous adoption cycle in
this area were approximately $1.3 million, and it is likely
costs for the adoption required by this bill be similar.
Page 2
SB 1278 (Wyland)
Staff notes that amendments approved in the Senate Education
Committee have not been reflected accurately in the current
version of the bill. To correct the unintended errors, staff
recommends that the bill be amended to delete lines 9 through 25
of page 2 and renumber the current "SEC. 4." as "SEC. 2."
Author's proposed amendments would make technical changes and
eliminate the requirement for a new adoption of instructional
materials.