BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2145 (Alejo) - Suspension and Expulsion Data.
Amended: May 25, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 6-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: AB 2145 requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to disaggregate and report data related to
referrals to a school attendance review board (SARB) and post
disaggregated expulsion and suspension data on its website, and
requires school districts to maintain data relative to extended
suspensions, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
CALPADS changes: $50,000-$100,000 in one-time information
technology costs to change the system to collect required
student-level data.
CDE reporting: Up to $177,000 to produce the Annual Report
on Dropouts currently required, and $30,000 for the
additional reporting required by this bill.
Background: Existing law requires school districts, for
purposes of parental notification and for reporting data to the
CDE, to identify by offense committed in all appropriate
official records of a pupil each suspension or expulsion of that
pupil. (EC � 48900.8)
School districts are required 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; and
6) the disposition of the pupil after the end of the period of
expulsion. (EC � 48916.1)
Pupils are prohibited from being suspended or recommended for
expulsion unless the school principal determines that the pupil
has committed certain acts, and gives schools the discretion to
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take action for most offenses.
(Education Code � 48900, 48900.2, 48900.3, 48900.4, 48900.7,
48915)
Annual Dropout Report : Existing law requires, beginning August
1, 2011, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
produce the Annual Report on Dropouts in California using
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (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)
CALPADS : This system 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, 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 discipline data, among other things.
Proposed Law: AB 2145 requires the CDE 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 extended suspensions. Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires the CDE, on an annual basis using CALPADS or other
pupil data, to make expulsion and suspension data submitted
by school districts available to the public on its website
in a manner that reflects all fields collected, and on an
annual basis disaggregate the number and types of referral
to school attendance review boards by the characteristics
listed below.
2) Requires the CDE, to the extent possible, to disaggregate
the expulsion and suspension data by: a) ethnicity; b)
special education status; c) English learners; d)
Socio-economic status; and, e) gender.
3) Adds to the expulsion data that school districts are
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required to maintain.
4) 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.
5) 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 SPI to report to the
Legislature by July 1 regarding the reasons for the delay.
6) 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
7) Adds to Annual Report on Dropouts in California report, to
the extent possible, behavioral data, including suspensions
and expulsions.
Staff Comments: This bill imposes new requirements on the CDE,
some of which the CDE is working toward meeting currently. The
CDE has begun collecting suspension and expulsion information by
student, and related demographic data about the student, as
required by this bill. This bill further requires that data be
made available on the CDE website to the extent possible. This
additional task is something the CDE can complete within
existing resources.
The CDE does not, however, collect in CALPADS the SARB referral
types at the student level, which is required by the bill in
order to be able to report that information. CALPADS also does
not collect extended suspension data, as specified. The CDE
estimates that the necessary changes to CALPADS programming
would incur a one-time cost of approximately $50,000-$100,000.
This bill requires disaggregated behavioral data, including
suspensions and expulsions, to be included in the Annual Report
on Dropouts established by SB 1357 (Steinberg) Ch. 704/2010 "to
the extent possible". The Annual Report on Dropouts is not
currently funded. The CDE submitted a budget change proposal for
$177,000 to produce the report, and it was denied. Subsequently,
the CDE produced a scaled-down report within existing resources,
which did not meet all of the statutory requirements, and plans
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to produce a similarly basic report in the next fiscal year, as
funding has never been provided. The CDE estimates that in
addition to $177,000 to meet the statutory requirements of the
Annual Report on Dropouts, it would require an additional
$30,000 for the new data reporting.