BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 200
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Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 200 (Hayashi) - As Amended: April 12, 2011
SUBJECT : Physical education: award program.
SUMMARY : Requires the State Board of Education (SBE), to
establish the Health and Fitness Award Program (Award Program)
to provide an award to one school in each legislative district
that conducts their physical education courses pursuant to the
model content standards and demonstrates that increasing numbers
of pupils meet minimum standards on the physical performance
test. Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes the Excellence in Health and Fitness Act of 2011;
and, requires the SBE to establish the Award Program to
recognize schools that conduct their physical education
courses pursuant to the model content standards and
demonstrate that increasing numbers of pupils meet minimum
standards on the physical performance test designated by the
SBE.
2)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to use
currently collected data to identify one school from each
legislative district in the state to receive recognition,
which may include, but is not limited to, classification as a
distinguished school, being listed on a published public
school honor roll, and public commendations by the Governor
and the Legislature; and, requires that the Legislature, to
the extent funds are available, to recognize the identified
schools.
3)Specifies that the school in each legislative district with
the highest percentage of pupils who meet the minimum
standards on the physical performance test is eligible to
receive recognition; and, specifies that that SPI may
establish additional criteria if appropriate.
4)Requires private funds to be used to pay for all the costs of
implementing the program, including the administrative costs
of the department; authorizes the SPI to receive donations for
these purposes; and, prohibits the SBE from establishing the
program until the Department of Finance certifies to the SPI
AB 200
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that private donations received by the state are sufficient to
implement the program.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies that the California Department of Education (CDE)
shall compile the results of the physical performance test and
submit a report every two years to the Governor and the
Legislature.
2)Requires during the month of February, March, April, or May,
the governing board of each school district maintaining any of
grades 5, 7, and 9 to administer to each pupil in those grades
the physical performance test designated by SBE.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee
for a substantially similar bill, this bill would require
approximately $150,000 in funds for initiating the program,
including the promulgation of regulations. Annual operational
costs would be approximately $50,000 to $75,000 to administer
the program. While the bill states that its provisions will not
become operative unless sufficient private donations have been
received for the purpose, private donations are not a reliable
source of funding for an ongoing program. To the extent
donations are not received, there would be general fund pressure
to operate the program.
COMMENTS : The state's physical fitness test, the FitnessGram,
is administered to students in grades five, seven and nine
annually. It uses objective criteria and standards to evaluate
fitness performance and is designed to test six key fitness
areas that represent three broad components of fitness: aerobic
capacity, body composition and muscle strength and endurance and
flexibility.
According to CDE, a total of 1,380,000 students enrolled in
grades five, seven, and nine were administered the California
Physical Fitness Test (PFT) in 2009. In 2009, 29% of students
in 5th grade achieved the fitness standards in all six areas,
while 34% of students in 7th grade achieved the fitness
standards in all six areas and nearly 38% of students in 9th
grade achieved the same standards. This means that, on average,
more than 65% of public school students did not meet the state
fitness standards in all six fitness areas.
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According to the author, this bill is modeled after the
Governor's Performance Award (GPA) program. The GPA program was
established in 1999 and required the SBE to establish a program
to provide monetary and non-monetary awards to schools that met
or exceeded Academic Performance Index (API) growth targets in
Math and English. The GPA program was established as part of
the Public School Performance and Accountability Program which
created the state Academic Performance Index, the Immediate
Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP), and a
Governor's High Achieving/Improving Schools Program.
According to the author, only 30% of children and 15% of teens
get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity every day.
This deficiency appears to be the result of numerous factors,
including inadequate monitoring of physical education programs,
lack of consistency across program, and disparities among
schools. Adequate physical activity is not only essential for a
child's health, but it is also critical for the child's ability
to learn. Compared to less active children, physically active
children perform better academically, have better classroom
behavior and attendance, have better psychological well-being,
make fewer risky choices, and are at a decreased risk for a host
of chronic conditions, including diabetes and obesity.
Previous Legislation : AB 2072 (Hayashi) of 2008, which was held
on the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense file, was
substantially similar to the introduced version of this bill.
The bill established the Physical Education Award Program for
the purposes of recognizing schools that conduct physical
education courses pursuant to model content standards and
demonstrate that an increasing numbers of pupils pass specified
minimum standards.
AB 2812 (Umberg) of 2006, which failed passage in the Assembly,
would have established the Excellence in Physical Education Act
of 2006 which required the SBE to establish a Physical Education
Award Program to provide monetary and non-monetary awards to
schools that conduct their physical education courses pursuant
to the model content standards and demonstrate that increasing
numbers of pupils enrolled in that school meet minimum standards
on the physical performance test. The bill would have also
given monetary incentives to II/USP schools and budget
flexibility to schools in the High Priority schools grant
program.
AB 200
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association for Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Dance
California Medical Association
California Physical Therapy Association
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087