BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 473
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   July 13, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                     SB 473 (Price) - As Amended:  June 30, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                             Education 
          Vote:10-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires the Annual Report on Dropouts in California 
          (ARDC) to include information on the number of schools in the 
          state that offer dropout prevention or dropout recovery 
          programs, as specified.  Specifically, this bill: 

          Requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to post a list 
          of schools that offer dropout recovery prevention or dropout 
          recovery programs on its Internet website, as specified.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          GF administrative costs to the SDE, likely between $100,000 and 
          $200,000, to complete the requirements of this measure.  
          Information on the number of schools that offer dropout recovery 
          prevention programs is not easily available to SDE and as such, 
          the department  would need to development protocols to collect 
          this information from local education agencies.  

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  .  SB 651 (Romero), Chapter 197, Statutes of 2009, 
            requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), on or 
            before August 1, 2011 and annually thereafter, to submit a 
            report to the governor, the Legislature, and the State Board 
            of Education (SBE), on the number of dropouts in the state.  
            Specifically, Chapter 197 requires the report to use data 
            produced by the California Longitudinal Achievement Data 
            System, including a one-year dropout rate, four-year cohort 
            dropout rate, and information on the promotion/retention of 
            pupils, as specified.  








                                                                  SB 473
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            Statute also requires information on the full-year dropout 
            rate for alternative schools, including dropout recovery high 
            schools.  Current statute defines a "dropout recovery high 
            school" as one where 50% or more of its pupils have been 
            designated as dropouts pursuant to SDE.  

            Supporters of this measure argue that easily accessible 
            information on the number of existing dropout recovery 
            programs there are in the state will provide valuable 
            information to parents and schoolsite staff, which will lead 
            to better serving students.  

           2)Related legislation  .  SB 180 (Carter), pending in the Senate 
            Appropriations Committee, requires the SPI and SBE to allow a 
            dropout recovery high school to use, as part of the 
            alternative accountability system, an individual pupil growth 
            model that is proposed by the school and certified by the SPI. 




           Analysis Prepared by  :    Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081