BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2145
AUTHOR: Alejo
AMENDED: May 25, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 27, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Discipline data.
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Department of Education to
disaggregate and report data related to referrals to a school
attendance review board and post disaggregated expulsion and
suspension data on its website, and requires schools
districts to maintain data relative to expended suspensions.
BACKGROUND
School attendance review board
Current law:
1) Defines a truant as a pupil who is absent from school
without a valid excuse three full days in one school
year or tardy or absent for more than any 30-minute
period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on
three occasions in one school year, or any combination
thereof. (EC � 48260)
2) Requires any pupil who has once been reported as a
truant and who is again absent or tardy to again be
reported as a truant. (EC � 48261)
3) Defines a habitual truant as a pupil who has been
reported as a truant three or more times per school year
(at least five days), if an appropriate district officer
or employee has made a conscientious effort to hold at
least one conference with a parent and the pupil. (EC �
48262)
4) Authorizes a pupil to be referred to a school attendance
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review board or to the probation department (if the
probation department has elected to receive these
referrals) if the pupil is a habitual truant or is
irregular in attendance or is habitually insubordinate
or disorderly. (EC � 48263)
Expulsion and suspension data
Current law:
Requires school districts, for purposes of parental
notification and for reporting data to the California
Department of Education, to identify by offense committed in
all appropriate official records of a pupil each suspension
or expulsion of that pupil. (EC � 48900.8)
Requires school districts to maintain the following data:
1) The number of pupils recommended for expulsion.
2) The grounds for each recommended expulsion.
3) Whether the pupil was subsequently expelled.
4) Whether the expulsion order was suspended.
5) The type of referral made after the expulsion.
6) The disposition of the pupil after the end of the period
of expulsion.
(EC � 48916.1)
Prohibits a pupil from being suspended or recommended for
expulsion unless the principal of the school determines that
the pupil has committed certain acts, and gives schools the
discretion to take action for most offenses.
(Education Code � 48900, 48900.2, 48900.3, 48900.4, 48900.7,
48915)
Annual Dropout Report
Current law requires, beginning August 1, 2011, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to produce the Annual
Report on Dropouts in California using CALPADS data. This
report must include specific information, such as dropout and
promotion rates, and when available, other information such
as suspension, expulsion and truancy data. (Education Code �
48070.6)
The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
(CALPADS)
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CALPADS is designed to facilitate program evaluation,
assessment of student achievement over time, the calculation
of more accurate dropout and graduation rates, and the
creation of reports to meet state and federal reporting
requirements. Data for CALPADS is collected from local
education agencies (LEAs), which are required to retain and
report specified individual pupil and staff records. (EC �
60900)
CALPADS includes data about pupils, school staff and courses.
Pupil-level data includes:
1) Enrollments and exits from specific schools.
2) Demographics (e.g. ethnicity, primary language).
3) Program eligibility and participation (e.g. special
education, free-reduced price lunch, Title I).
4) Program information and services.
5) Grade level.
6) English language acquisition status.
7) Course enrollment and completion.
8) Discipline (suspension, expulsion, truancy).
9) Health (immunizations).
10) Statewide assessment (test scores).
ANALYSIS
This bill requires the California Department of Education to
disaggregate and report data related to referrals to a school
attendance review board and post disaggregated expulsion and
suspension data on its website, and requires schools
districts to maintain data relative to expended suspensions.
Specifically, this bill:
Suspension and expulsion data
1) Requires the California Department of Education (CDE),
on an annual basis using CALPADS or other pupil data,
make expulsion and suspension data submitted by school
districts available to the public on its website in a
manner that reflects all fields collected, including:
a) The district and school.
b) The offense for which the suspension or
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expulsion was imposed.
c) The total number of suspensions and expulsions
imposed.
d) The total number of pupils suspended or
expelled.
2) Requires the CDE, to the extent possible, disaggregate
the expulsion and suspension data by:
a) Ethnicity.
b) Special education status.
c) English learners.
d) Socioeconomic status.
e) Gender
3) Adds to the expulsion data that school districts are
required to maintain whether the suspension preceding
the expulsion was extended and if so, the total number
of days served under the extended expulsion.
4) Requires the CDE, on an annual basis using CALPADS or
other pupil data, to the extent possible, make the data
regarding extended suspensions available the public on
its website, and requires CDE to disaggregate this data
by the characteristics listed in #1.
School attendance review board
5) Requires the CDE, on an annual basis using CALPADS or
other pupil data, to the extent possible, desegregate
the number and types of referral to school attendance
review boards by the characteristics listed in #1.
All discipline data
6) Requires the CDE, to the extent possible, to
cross-tabulate all the categories by gender and special
education status, and post the data on its website.
7) Requires the CDE to make the data for the preceding
school year available by July 1 of each year, or if the
data is not available by July 1, requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to report to
the Legislature by July 1 regarding the reasons for the
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delay and the anticipated date the data will be
available.
8) Prohibits disaggregated data from being made publicly
available in a manner that reveals personally
identifiable information.
9) Prohibits the manner in which the data is displayed on
CDE's website from resulting in pupil suspensions being
counted more than one time against the overall
suspension numbers for a school, school district, county
or the state.
Annual Report on Dropouts in California
10) Adds to Annual Report on Dropouts in California report,
if possible, behavioral data, including suspensions and
expulsions.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, "The
current data reported by the state systems are not
sufficient to allow policymakers and California
residents to accurately assess the issue of school
suspensions and expulsion preventing the ability to
create policies that will improve school conditions and
safety. It is also insufficient for purposes of
determining proactive state policy and monitoring for
issues with disproportionate use of suspensions and
expulsions for students of all subgroups. The current
data provided gives enough information to show that
there is a problem but it does not show enough
information to be able to fix it."
2) Work has begun . The CDE has apparently begun work to
implement the CALPADS data collection requirements of
this bill, including collecting disaggregated data.
3) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill imposes minor, absorbable General
Fund (Proposition 98) costs to CDE to collect and
publish data related to pupil suspension and expulsions,
as specified.
4) Related legislation . SB 473 (Price) requires the Annual
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Report on Dropouts in California to include information
on the number of schools in the state that offer dropout
prevention or dropout recovery programs, as specified.
SB 473 was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee's
suspense file.
SB 1088 (Price) requires school districts to conduct a
second review for the readmission of pupils who have
been expelled and denied readmission, and prohibits
school from denying enrollment or readmission to pupils
solely on the basis that he or she has had contact with
the juvenile justice system. SB 1088 is scheduled to be
heard by the Assembly Education Committee on June 27.
SB 1235 (Steinberg) requires schools that have suspended
more than 25% of the school's enrollment or more than
25% of any numerically significant racial or ethnic
subgroup of the school's enrollment in the prior school
year to implement, for at least three years, at least
one specified strategies to reduce the suspension rate
or disproportionality. SB 1235 is scheduled to be heard
by the Assembly Education Committee on June 27.
SB 1497 (Negrete McLeod) prohibits a pupil from being
included more than one time in the dropout rates used
for the Annual Report on Dropouts in California. AB
1497 is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Education
Committee on June 27, 2012.
AB 1729 (Ammiano) removes some discretion for suspension
upon a first offense and authorizes the use and
documentation of other means of correction. AB 1729 is
scheduled to be heard by this Committee on June 27, 2012
AB 1732 (Campos) identifies conduct that would
constitute a post on a social media website, relative to
cyberbullying. AB 1732 is pending on the Senate Floor.
AB 1909 (Ammiano) requires schools to notify a foster
youth's attorney and representative of the county child
welfare agency of pending expulsion or other
disciplinary proceedings. AB 1909 is scheduled to be
heard by the Senate Human Services Committee on June 26,
2012.
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AB 2032 (Mendoza) requires charter schools to be subject
to the same suspension and expulsion provisions as other
public schools. AB 2032 was held on the Assembly
Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
AB 2242 (Dickinson) prohibits pupils who are found to
have disrupted school activities or otherwise willfully
defied the authority of school officials from being
subject to extended suspension or recommended for
expulsion. AB 2242 is scheduled to be heard by this
Committee on June 27, 2012.
AB 2300 (Swanson) requires school districts to expunge
from a pupil's records a suspension for certain acts if
the pupil completes five hours of community service. AB
2300 was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee's
suspense file.
AB 2537 (V. Manuel Perez) grants discretion to school
principals to make a determination of the
appropriateness of the expulsion of a pupil who has
unlawfully sold a controlled substance, and makes other
changes relative to mandatory expulsions. AB 2537 is
scheduled to be heard by this Committee on June 27,
2012.
AB 2616 (Carter) creates a new option for the first time
a truancy report is issued, shifts the existing
consequences for the first truancy to the second
truancy, and eliminates the mandate that a pupil found
truant for the fourth time in one school year be
referred to the juvenile court. AB 2616 is scheduled to
be heard by this Committee on June 27, 2012.
SUPPORT
Advancement Project
American Civil Liberties Union
Association of California School Administrators
Black Organizing Project
Black Parallel School Board
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Association for Parent-Child Advocacy
California Charter Schools Association Advocates
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Californians for Justice Education Fund
Californians Together
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California School Health Centers Association
California State Conference of the National Association for
the Advancement of
Colored People
California State PTA
California Teachers Association
Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice
Children Now
Children's Defense Fund
Community Asset Development Re-defining Education
Community Coalition
Disability Rights California
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
Disability Rights Legal Center
Education Trust-West
EdVoice
Equal Rights Advocates
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Forward Together
Fresno Barrios Unidos
InnerCity Struggle
Labor/Community Strategy Center's Community Rights Campaign
Legal Advocates for Children & Youth
Legal Services for Children
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Nury
Martinez
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
National Center for Youth Law
Northern California Association of Counsel for Children
PICO California
PolicyLink
Public Counsel
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth
Restorative Schools Vision Project
San Francisco Unified School District
Youth & Education Law Project, Mills Legal Clinic
Youth Justice Coalition
Youth Law Center
An individual
OPPOSITION
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None on file.