BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 473
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Date of Hearing: June 22, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 473 (Price) - As Amended: May 11, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : Pupils: dropouts: recovery programs
SUMMARY : Requires the Annual Report on Dropouts in California
(Annual Report) to include information about the availability of
dropout recovery programs.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
submit to the Governor, the Legislature, and the State Board
of Education (SBE) the Annual Report on Dropouts in
California, on or before August 1, 2011, utilizing data
produced by the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data
System (CALPADS).
2)Requires the Annual Report to include specified data of
dropout rates, including, among others, one-year dropout rates
for each of grades 7 through 12, four-year cohort dropout
rates for grades 9 through 12, two- or three-year cohort
dropout rates for middle schools, grade 9 to grade 10
promotion rates, and "full year" dropout rates for alternative
schools, including dropout recovery high schools, calculated
using a methodology developed by the SPI to appropriately
reflect dropout rates in each type of alternative school.
3)Requires the Annual Report to include additional specified
information when data is available, including, among others,
rates at which pupils graduate in four, five, and six years,
percentage of high school graduates, percentages of high
school graduates and dropouts who complete specified courses,
and behavioral data that include suspensions and expulsions,
truancy rates, and chronic absentee rates.
4)Authorizes the Annual Report to include relevant data on
school climate and pupil engagement from the California
Healthy Kids Survey.
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5)Requires the SPI or his or her designee to make an oral
presentation of the Annual Report to the SBE and post the
report on the California Department of Education's (CDE)
Internet Web site.
6)Defines "dropout recovery high school" as a high school in
which 50% or more of its pupils have been designated as
dropouts pursuant to the exit/withdrawal codes developed by
the CDE.
7)Authorizes the CALPADS and requires the CDE to contract for
the development of a system that will provide for the
retention and analysis of longitudinal kindergarten through
grade 12 pupil achievement data on Standardized Testing and
Reporting Program test scores assessments, high school exit
examination, and English language development assessments.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : Existing law requires the SPI to compile an annual
dropout report using CALPADS and other data. The report is
intended to provide an indication of the extent of the problem
with dropouts shown in multifaceted ways. For example, required
components of the report not only includes data on the dropout
rate by grade level, it also includes high school exit exam
passage rates, graduation rates, General Educational Development
(GED) earning rates, and behavioral data such as
suspension/expulsions and truancies. The first report is
required to be submitted to the Governor, Legislature, and SBE
by August 1, 2011. This bill requires the Annual Report to also
include information on the availability of dropout recovery
programs.
The term "dropout recovery programs" is not defined in the
Education Code and is not defined in this bill; however, current
law defines "dropout recovery high school" as a high school in
which 50% or more of its pupils have been designated as dropouts
pursuant to the exit/withdrawal codes developed by the CDE.
According to the author's office, the intent of this bill is to
determine how many schools are actively seeking out their
dropouts and bringing them back to school. The author's office
further states that the bill does not target specific programs.
The bill is intended to identify the types of programs currently
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available so that other schools may learn from those
experiences. According to the author, the bill is intended to
capture both dropout prevention and dropout recovery programs.
It is unclear whether "dropout recovery" programs are intended
to encompass "dropout prevention" programs for the purposes of
this bill.
The Dropout Prevention and Recovery Act, enacted through SB 65
in 1985, provided funding for dropout prevention programs that
include the Pupil Motivation and Maintenance Program,
Alternative Education Outreach Consultant Program, and the
Education Clinic Program. According to the CDE, the Educational
Clinic Program is designed to return students who had been out
of school 45 or more consecutive days or were expelled from
school to an educational setting. The Educational Clinic
Program appears to be a "dropout recovery" program. In 2004, SB
65 funds were incorporated into the Pupil Retention Block Grant.
In 2009, as part of the budget deliberations, the Pupil
Retention Block Grant was incorporated into the categorical
flexibility provisions, pursuant to SBX3 4 (Ducheny), Chapter
12, Statutes of the 2009-10 Third Extraordinary Session, which
give districts the authority to use 39 categorical funds for any
educational purpose from fiscal year (FY) 2008-09 through
2012-13. Recent budget actions have extended the flexibility
provisions to FY 2014-15.
The analysis of the bill that established the Annual Report, SB
651, Chapter 197, Statutes of 2009, states that the purpose of
the Annual Report is to compile statistics to inform public
policy decisions. The Annual Report, therefore, is mainly data
driven and intended for policy makers. Qualitative information
may be more useful for parents and local educational agencies
and may not be appropriate for the Annual Report.
Committee Amendments . Staff recommends the following
amendments:
1)Rather than require the Annual Report to include "information
about the availability of dropout recovery programs," require,
instead, data on the number of schools that offer dropout
prevention or dropout recovery programs, which may include
dropout recovery high schools.
2)For qualitative information regarding the programs, require
the CDE to post on its Internet Web site the schools that
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offer dropout prevention or dropout recovery programs and
include descriptions of the programs.
Arguments in Support . The California Teachers Association
states, "School districts have many ways of identifying and
serving students that do not fit into the typical classroom
setting. Many of these students can be served in
non-traditional classroom settings. Identifying how many
programs are available will provide a clearer picture of what is
needed as well as what is currently being provided to assist
these students."
Related legislation . AB 1070 (Huber), pending in the Assembly
Rules Committee, makes technical, nonsubstantive changes to the
Annual Report.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Teachers Association
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087