BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           1301 (Simitian)
          
          Hearing Date:  05/27/2010           Amended: As Introduced
          Consultant:  Dan Troy           Policy Vote: ED 8-0
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   SB 1301 would require the State Board of  
          Education to ensure that permanent K-12 pupil records include a  
          unique student identifier.
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions        2010-11      2011-12       2012-13     Fund
                                                                  
          Pupil records                    Unknown, but significant costs,  
          likely         General*
                                           in the millions

          *Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding  
          guarantee
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.   AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.

          Under current law, school districts are required to establish,  
          maintain, and destroy pupil records according to regulations  
          adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE).  Among other  
          things, these regulations establish state policy as to what  
          items of information shall be placed into pupil records.   
          Elements required to be maintained in the permanent records are  
          established in regulation and include: the pupil's legal name,  
          date of birth, method of verification of the birth date, sex,  
          place of birth, name and address of the parent of a minor pupil,  
          entrance and exit dates of each school year, summer session or  
          other extra session, subjects taken, the mark or number of  
          credits toward graduation allowed for work taken, verification  
          of or exemption from required immunizations, and date of high  
          school graduation or equivalent.  It is hoped that including the  
          pupil's unique identifier on the permanent record will  
          facilitate the linkage of K-12 and postsecondary records, among  
          other benefits.











          The costs of complying with the bill represent an unknown but  
          likely significant mandate on local school districts.  There  
          were over 6.2 million pupils enrolled in California's public  
          K-12 system in the 2008-09 school year, so many records will  
          require updating.  Further, it is reasonable to assume at least  
          some costs would be ongoing as new pupils enter the system each  
          year (there were over 460,000 kindergartners on the 2008-09  
          school year), though these costs should decrease over time as  
          local education agencies establish an efficient practice for  
          attaching the unique identifier.  Staff assumes initial costs  
          would be in the low millions given the volume of records that  
          will require the addition of a unique identifier.

          Author's proposed amendment would require the SBE to provide  
          districts with cost-effective options to comply with the bill.