BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2145
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2145 (Alejo and Dickinson)
As Amended May 25, 2012
Majority vote
EDUCATION 9-1 APPROPRIATIONS 16-1
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Norby, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Butler, Carter, Eng, | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| |Grove, Wagner, Williams | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Gatto, Ammiano, |
| | | |Hill, Lara, Mitchell, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio, |
| | | |Wagner |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Halderman |Nays:|Donnelly |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires data on pupil expulsions and suspensions to
be disaggregated by pupil subgroup and made available on the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires CALPADS to include information on pupil suspensions
and expulsions disaggregated by, grade level, ethnicity,
gender, low socioeconomic status, English learners, and
special education status.
2)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE), to the
extent possible, to make pupil suspension and expulsion data
available on its Internet Web site on an annual basis,
disaggregated by the six subgroups identified above with cross
tabulations by gender and special education status.
3)Requires the CDE, to the extent possible, to use CALPADS or
other data system to disaggregate truancy referrals to school
attendance review boards and juvenile court by the six
subgroups identified above with cross tabulations by gender
and special education status.
4)Requires the CDE to make the data on truancy referrals,
suspensions and expulsions, and the extension of suspensions
AB 2145
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for the preceding year publicly available on its Internet Web
site by July 1 each year; and further requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, if the data is not
available, to report to the Legislature regarding the reasons
for the delay and the date he or she anticipates the data will
become available.
5)Provides that the disaggregated data shall not be made
publicly available in a manner that reveals personally
identifiable information about an individual pupil and shall
not result in pupil suspensions being counted more than once
against the aggregate numbers for a school, school district,
county, or the state.
EXISTING LAW establishes CALPADS, which contains student
demographic, program participation, grade level, enrollment,
course enrollment and completion, discipline, and statewide
assessment data. CALPADS is designed to facilitate program
evaluation, assessment of student achievement over time, the
calculation of more accurate dropout and graduation rates, the
efficient creation of reports to meet state and federal
reporting requirements, and the ability to create ad hoc reports
and respond to questions. Data for CALPADS is collected from
local education agencies (LEAs), which are required to retain
and report specified individual pupil and staff records. LEAs
currently receive $0.25 per enrolled pupil to cover the costs of
compliance with the reporting requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor, absorbable General Fund (Proposition 98) costs
to CDE to collect and publish data related to pupil suspension
and expulsions, as specified. CDE reports CALPADS is fully
functional and in the process of collecting and disaggregating
this data.
COMMENTS : This bill requires the CDE to disaggregate data on
suspensions and expulsions, truancy, and the extension of
suspensions by six subgroups: grade level, ethnicity, gender,
low economic status, English learners, and special education
status; and requires the data to be cross tabulated by gender
and special education status. Most of the data is already
collected by LEAs and reported to the CDE, and the CDE has the
capacity to disaggregate the data as required by the bill. The
CDE reports that it will begin fulfilling the requirements of
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the bill in June 2012.
Arguments in support . Supporters of this bill argue that more
specific data on pupil suspension and expulsion can help
identify disciplinary patterns and lead to the development of
better policies and more effective interventions. An October
2011 report from the National Education Policy Center entitled
"Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice"
recommends, among other things, that "public school educators
should routinely collect, reflect upon, and publicly report data
on school disciplinary removal. Reports at the state, district,
and school level (where permissible) should include data
disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, and disability status
in terms of numbers of each group disciplined."
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0003954