BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2193 (Lara) - Long-term English Learners
Amended: As Proposed to be AmendedPolicy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 2193 defines "Long-term English Learner" (LTEL)
and "English learner at risk of becoming a long-term English
learner" (At-risk EL), and establishes notification, reporting,
intervention requirements, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Data collection: Approximately $50,000 for .5 PY to compile
specified data for each school district.
Local assistance: $100,000 - $200,000 to support the
expanded role of regional consortia required by this bill.
Mandate: Potentially significant reimbursable mandate to
expand requirements for existing notifications.
Background: Existing law defines "English learner" as a child
who does not speak English or whose native language is not
English and who is not currently able to perform ordinary
classroom work in English. (Education Code �306)
Both federal and State law require that each school district
with English language learners annually assess these students'
English language development until they are redesignated as
English proficient. (Education Code � 313)
Under No Child Left Behind, the California Department of
Education (CDE) and each local educational agency (LEA) must
identify any school that has not made adequate yearly progress
(AYP) for at least two years as in Program Improvement (PI).
Schools that remain in Program Improvement are subject to
increasing requirements and sanctions.
Existing law further requires that the CDE develop a statewide
system of school support to provide for intensive and sustained
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support and technical assistance for school districts, county
offices of education, and schools in need of improvement.
Current law requires that the system of support consist of
regional consortia, as well as district assistance and
intervention teams, and other technical assistance providers.
Regional consortia are required to work collaboratively with
school districts and program improvement schools to: 1) review
and analyze all facets of the school's operation: 2) assist the
LEA or school in developing recommendations for improving pupil
performance and school operations; and, 3) assist the LEA or
school in efforts to eliminate misassignments of personnel.
(Education Code � 52059)
Proposed Law: AB 2193 codifies definitions of an LTEL and an
At-risk EL. With regard to those groups, this bill expands the
duties of the CDE and LEAs, as follows:
1) Expands data gathering responsibilities of the CDE to
require that it annually ascertain the number of pupils
under the jurisdiction of each school district, charter
school, or county office of education (COE) who are LTELs
or At-risk ELs, and to post that information on the
department website.
2) Expands existing parental notice requirements to include
information on whether their child is an LTEL or At-risk
LTEL.
3) Expands the explicit responsibilities of regional consortia
established to assist schools needing support pursuant to
federal and state law requirements to additionally require
that they target students that are not meeting federal
academic targets, including ELs, LTELs, and At-risk ELs.
4) Expands the standards and criteria that a district
assistance and intervention team or other technical
assistance provider uses in assessing LEAs to address
specified areas that include alignment of curriculum,
instruction and assessments to target pupils not meeting
the federal academic targets, and specifically includes
ELs, LTELs, and At-risk ELs.
Staff Comments: This bill expands the CDE's data gathering
duties, and website display requirements. The CDE estimates that
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.5 PY could complete the annual workload to ascertain the number
of LTELs and At-risk LTELs in each district, as specified. It is
unclear if this bill requires student level data to be posted on
its website, or only school site-level data. Depending on the
level of disaggregation, posting student level data may violate
federal privacy law.
This bill expands existing parental notice requirements to
include information on whether their child is an LTEL or At-risk
LTEL, as defined in this measure. There are nearly 1.5 million
K-12 English learners in California schools, and the majority of
grades 7-12 English Learners are LTELs or At-risk LTELs. If even
10% of the total English Learner population is covered by the
expanded notification requirements, it would result in 150,000
expanded notifications per year. This new mandate on school
districts will likely be deemed reimbursable by the Commission
on State Mandates.
This bill expands the responsibilities of regional consortia to
include in their reviews of academic programs and
recommendations for improving pupil achievement (among other
required activities) a specific focus on the success of LTELs
and At-risk LTELs.
Regional consortia were established to assist schools pursuant
to federal and state law. When a school enters into Program
Improvement status, it is required to contract with regional
consortia or district assistance intervention teams to evaluate,
support, and improve school operation and performance. Thus,
requiring more activities of the regional consortia is a cost to
the affected school and/or school district. This is a new
mandate likely to be deemed reimbursable, as well. Additionally,
it is unclear whether all regional consortia are equipped to
take on the newly required activities.
The CDE will require 1-2 PYs to provide training and support to
regional consortia and district assistance intervention teams in
their newly expanded and specialized roles under this bill.
Proposed Author Amendments: Remove the expansion of regional
consortia duties. Remove the requirements that CDE host
specified student information, and instead require the CDE to
share that information with schools.
Committee Amendments: Remove the expansion of regional consortia
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duties. Remove the requirements that CDE host specified student
information, and instead require the CDE to share that
information with schools. Remove expanded requirements on parent
notices.