BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 835
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 13, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 835 (Mitchell) - As Amended: March 31, 2011
�This bill was referred to and heard by the Assembly Higher
Education Committee as it relates to the issues under its
jurisdiction]
SUBJECT : Community colleges: Economic and Workforce Development
Program
SUMMARY : Authorizes specified practices to apply to Career
Technical Education (CTE) Pathways Initiative programs,
established by SB 70 (Scott), Chapter 352, Statutes of 2005 (SB
70), that serve high school pupils in multiple school districts
or community college districts, or both. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Authorizes a California community college (CCC) district to
enroll a high school pupil who is not a resident of that
community college district in a SB 70 program operated by the
CCC district and provides that the district shall not be
subject to any other geographic limitations for purposes of
the program.
2)Requires a school district or CCC district that participates
in a SB 70 program to accept a fingerprint verification of a
person by another district participating in that program as
meeting that person's fingerprint verification requirements.
3)Stipulates that a SB 70 program shall be deemed to meet the
open-course requirements for dual enrollment of a high school
pupil in community college and high school.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the CTE Pathways Initiative, requiring the Board
of Governors (BOG) of the CCC to assist economic and workforce
regional development centers and consortia to improve CTE
education pathways between high schools and CCC and requiring
the CCC Chancellor to develop, implement and report on a
strategy for CTE Pathway Initiative program objectives and
outcomes.
AB 835
Page 2
2)Establishes several requirements and parameters for high
school students wishing to enroll in CCC courses as part of
concurrent enrollment, including requiring principal
recommendation and parental consent, establishing limitations
on the number of students enrolled during summer school and in
physical education courses, providing that in order for CCCs
to receive state funding courses must be open to the public,
and requiring reporting on concurrent/dual enrollment students
from the CCC Chancellor's Office.
3)Allows school districts to agree among themselves to designate
a single district, or a county superintendent to agree to act
on behalf of participating school districts within the county
or contiguous counties, for the purposes of performing
specified duties regarding criminal background checks.
4)Specifies, notwithstanding any other law, any person, except a
person required to register as a sex offender pursuant to the
Penal Code, may be permitted by the governing board of any
school district to perform specified duties related to
supervising pupils during breakfast, lunch or other nutrition
period, or to serve as a non-teaching volunteer aide under the
immediate supervision and direction of the certificated
personnel of the district to perform non-instructional work
which serves to assist the certificated personnel in
performance of teaching and administrative responsibilities.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background : The CTE Pathways Initiative was
established by SB 70 in 2005 to support the development of
local/regional K-12 and CCC partnerships for purposes of
improving CTE at both the community college and secondary level.
In 2005, the amount of $20 million dollars was allocated from
the Community College reversion account to fund SB 70
activities, and in 2006 additional funds were allocated through
the enactment of SB 1133 (Torlakson), Chapter 751, Statutes of
2006, for five additional years through the 2013-14 fiscal year.
According to a December 2010 CCC Chancellor's Office report on
the CTE Pathways Initiative, as of July 30, 2010, funding for
the SB 70 program has totaled approximately $188 million. The
report notes that all regions of the state have received grant
support, with community college districts forming partnerships
with K-12 districts, business/industry and other organizations
AB 835
Page 3
or higher education institutions. Based on available data, this
funding has helped create or enhance at least 5,134 CTE partner
organizations, 342,957 skills training to students, and 16,806
teachers, counselors and staff have participated in trainings or
externships.
The statutes establishing the CTE Pathways Initiative are broad
in nature and require the CCC Chancellor to develop an
implementation strategy. The CCC and the California Department
of Education (CDE) have worked in partnership to implement SB
70. The CCC has issued grants that support regional linkages
between schools and CCCs and grants to support statewide
infrastructure grants.
This bill makes changes to the SB 70 program to try to address
problems raised by the sponsors of this bill, the Environmental
Academy Boosters, a nonprofit organization that provides
environmental workshops for high school pupils throughout the
state, and is not an SB 70-funded program. According to the
sponsor, most of the students served by these workshops
participate in California Partnership Academies throughout the
state and the workshops add to their CTE work. These workshops
are offered typically during weekends and students travel to
different areas of the state to attend these multi-day workshops
held at school sites, state parks or other locations. These
workshops are extracurricular activities and presently, no
credit is awarded for attending such workshops.
CCC district boundaries : This bill authorizes, for purposes of
specified CTE Pathways Initiative programs, a CCC district to
enroll a high school pupil who is not a resident of that CCC
district and exempts the CCC district from any other geographic
limitations. This would allow CCCs that participate in a CTE
Initiative program to enroll students from various parts of the
state regardless of where the pupil lives for purposes of a SB
70 program. According to information provided by the author,
"This bill is designed to provide clear legislative intent that
would remove administrative barriers to permit high school
students to earn community college credits through intensive
workshops which serve and bring together geographically diverse
students to be held at geographically diverse locations which
best meet the need of the training which do not fit the
traditional concept of the community college service area." The
previous version of this bill included provisions relative to
the awarding of CCC academic credit for specified CTE Pathways
AB 835
Page 4
Initiative programs; however those provisions were amended out
in the Higher Education Committee. The Higher Education
Committee analysis points out that there are existing processes
for courses to be reviewed and approved for credit-awarding
purposes.
Concurrent enrollment : This bill establishes that CTE Pathways
Initiative programs, as specified in this bill, are deemed to
meet the open-course requirements for concurrent enrollment
funding purposes. Existing law establishes numerous provisions
intended to prevent abuses of concurrent enrollment, among those
provisions is the requirement that courses be open to the public
in order for CCCs to claim full-time equivalent student (FTES)
funding, and that courses offered in high schools be offered
during hours that ensure access to members of the general
public. In establishing SB 70 programs, the regional
partnerships between school districts and community college
districts determine the delivery model and if there is a
concurrent enrollment component, the programs have to follow
existing law relative to concurrent enrollment. This bill deems
any SB 70 program to meet the "open-course" requirements for
concurrent enrollment, even if the program is not necessarily
intended to operate as a concurrent enrollment program.
Essentially, this would allow any SB 70 program or course to
claim FTES per concurrent enrollment statutes, thus creating the
potential for abuses and double funding of students
participating in SB 70 programs. This is contrary to prior
efforts to enact protections against "double dipping" of
concurrent enrollment courses. Furthermore, after conversations
with both the author's staff and the sponsor of this bill, it is
not clear as to what problem this provision of the bill seeks to
solve. Given this lack of clarity, staff recommends the bill
be amended to delete the provision relative to dual/concurrent
enrollment.
Fingerprinting : This bill would require school districts or
community college districts to accept fingerprint verifications
performed by other districts participating in the same program,
as specified. According to information provided by the sponsor
of the bill, teachers and students from school districts travel
to other parts of the state to participate in extracurricular
activities to supplement their CTE coursework. During these
trips, a schoolsite hosts the group of students from across the
state and some school districts require additional
fingerprinting from the teachers who escort students from other
AB 835
Page 5
districts. According to the sponsor, these districts claim that
because the teachers are employed in another county, they must
be re-fingerprinted.
Existing law requires all teachers to go through Department of
Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprinting
before obtaining a teaching credential. Existing law also
requires local districts to complete a DOJ fingerprint on all
employees prior to employment. In addition, existing law
authorizes school districts and county offices of education to
collaborate within a county or contiguous counties to complete
criminal background checks on employees, and it is the sponsor's
understanding that this code section is hindering this
particular program from authorizing teachers to escort students
to these programs from another county. Because these programs
are extracurricular in nature, it appears that a solution to
this issue is already in existing law. The teachers or any
other volunteers who escort students to this program can obtain
an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate from the Commission
on Teacher Credentialing pursuant to existing law. This
certificate will allow them to act as activity supervisors for
multiple districts across the state for a period of five years.
Since there is an existing mechanism in place for volunteers to
be able to receive a statewide clearance, the section of this
bill dealing with fingerprinting is not necessary. Staff
recommends the bill be amended to delete the fingerprinting
provisions of the bill.
This bill was heard and passed by the Assembly Higher Education
Committee on March 29, 2011 with a vote of 8-0.
Previous legislation : SB 70 (Scott), Chapter 352, Statutes of
2005, requires the Board of Governors of the Community Colleges
to assist economic and workforce regional development centers
and consortia to improve career-technical education pathways
between high schools and community colleges, as specified.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of Leaders for Career Preparation
Regional Council of Rural Counties
One Individual
Opposition
AB 835
Page 6
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi�a / ED. / (916) 319-2087