BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1235
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1235 (Steinberg) - As Amended: July 5, 2012
Policy Committee: Education Vote:8-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill, commencing with the 2013-14 school year and each year
thereafter, requires a school district to implement specific
strategies for a minimum of three years at a schoolsite where
the number of pupils receiving off-campus suspensions exceeds
25% of the school's enrollment or of any numerically significant
pupil subgroup in the prior year.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Annual GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs, likely between
$12 and $20 million, to school districts to implement
specified intervention/support strategies for a minimum of
three years at a schoolsite where the number of pupils
receiving off-campus suspensions exceeds 25% of the school's
enrollment, as specified. There were 9,985 schools in the
2010-11 school year. This estimate assumes between three and
five percent of these schools would be required to implement
these strategies, including partial employment of a counselor
at each schoolsite. Per the bill, the district would make
available these support services to benefit all pupils at each
schoolsite.
2)Annual unknown GF/98 increased revenue limit (general purpose)
funding, likely in the hundreds of thousands to low millions,
to school districts. School districts will receive this
amount, which may offset their costs to provide the support
services required in this measure. For example, a school
district loses approximately $150 per average daily attendance
for every pupil who is suspended five days and is not
attending school. Districts, however, will incur the fixed
costs of hiring additional staff to coordinate these services,
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including a counselor.
3)Annual GF administrative costs, likely less than $75,000, to
the State Department of Education to comply with the reporting
requirements of this measure.
SUMMARY CONTINUED
1)Defines, for the purposes of this measure, "a numerically
significant subgroup" as the following:
a) The subgroup consists of at least 100 pupils enrolled at
the school.
b) The subgroup consists of at least 50 pupils and
constitutes at least 15% of the total population of pupils
enrolled at the schoolsite.
c) The following racial and ethnic subgroups:
socioeconomically/disadvantaged pupils, English learners,
and pupils with disabilities.
2)Requires a school district that meets the above mentioned
criteria to implement at least one of the following strategies
at the school, for a minimum of three years, for the purpose
of reducing the suspension rate:
a) An evidence-based system of schoolwide positive
behavioral interventions /supports that employs school
level information about the behavioral and academic history
of pupils to define and implement systems of
support/interventions at the school, classroom, and
individual levels aimed at improving social, emotional, and
academic success.
b) Other schoolwide strategies that are evidence based and
designed to address school climate to create learning
environments where teachers can teach and pupils can learn
and to reduce suspensions.
3)Requires, commencing with the 2014-15 school year, pupil
suspensions at the schoolsites identified for implementing the
strategies above to be reduced by two percent each year until
the suspension rate is 15% in the 2018-19 school year, as
specified.
4)Requires the school, at the end of the academic year, to
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report to the school district superintendent on the rate of
reduction in the school's off-campus suspensions and the
strategies used to comply with the requirements of this
measure. Further requires the school district to report this
information on an annual basis at a regularly scheduled
governing board meeting and to the county superintendent of
schools.
5)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to publish,
on an annual basis, a list of schools that trigger the
implementation of strategies to reduce pupil suspensions and
include the annual rate of reduction in each school's
off-campus suspensions.
6)Authorizes a school district to use any appropriate state or
federal funding as sources to support the evidence-based
schoolwide strategies specified above.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author, "California has a higher
rate of suspension than most states - 7.5% of all students in
the most recent year for which suspension rates were reported.
More than two decades of research has confirmed that
out-of-school suspensions do not improve student behavior and,
in fact, often exacerbate it. Students who are suspended lose
valuable instructional time, and are more likely to fall
behind in school, drop out, and enter the juvenile delinquency
system, at a great cost to the state. The disproportional
use of suspension is a significant contributor to California's
high dropout rates, which are highest among student of color."
2)Background . Federal law requires the state to report the
number of expulsions and suspensions. There were 700,844
pupils (11% of enrollment) suspended and 18,649 pupils (0.03%
of enrollment) expelled from California schools in 2010-11.
Also, 1.8 million pupils (29% of enrollment) were classified
as truants.
Existing law prohibits a pupil from being suspended from
school or recommended for expulsion, unless the superintendent
or the principal of the school determines the pupil has
committed specified acts, including possession of a firearm or
a controlled substance and willful defiance.
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Current law authorizes a pupil suspended from school for
committing any of the acts delineated above to be assigned to
a supervised suspension classroom for the entire period of
suspension if the pupil poses no imminent danger or threat or
if an action to expel the pupil has not been initiated.
Statute also authorizes school districts to claim revenue
limit funding (general purpose) for these pupils, provided the
classroom is staffed by a certificated employee, the pupil has
access to appropriate counseling services, the classroom
promotes a completion of missed schoolwork, and the pupil
completes assignments provided by the teacher, as specified.
3)AB 2728 (Friedman), Chapter 1016, Statutes of 1994 , states a
school "should consider" implementing at least one of the
following if the number of pupils suspended during the prior
school year exceeded 30% of the school's enrollment:
a) A supervised suspension program (as referenced above).
b) A progressive discipline approach during the school day
on campus (as an alternative to off-campus suspension),
using any of the following activities:
i) Conferences between the school staff, parents and
pupils.
ii) Referral to the school counselor, psychologist,
child welfare attendance personnel, or other school
support service staff.
iii) Detention.
iv) Study teams, guidance teams, resource panel teams,
or other assessment-related teams.
Chapter 1016 further authorizes a school to report to the
school district superintendent in charge of school support
services on the rate of reduction in the school's off-campus
suspensions, as specified. Statute further expresses
legislative intent to encourage schools that implement these
requirements to examine alternatives to off-campus suspensions
that lead to resolution of pupil misconduct without sending
pupils off campus.
4)Unpaid K-12 mandates . According to the Legislative Analyst's
Office, the state owes approximately $3.4 billion in K-12
mandate costs for prior years. Prior to the 2010 Budget Act,
the state deferred mandate payments for several years with the
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promise of making the payments to school districts in future
years. As a result, districts did not received payment for
annual services they were required to conduct, including the
school safety plan mandate. The K-12 pupil suspension and
expulsion mandates total approximately $10.7 million GF/98
annually.
SB 90 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 7,
Statutes of 2011 allocated $80 million GF/98 to school
districts for annual K-12 mandate costs; the state, however,
still owes school districts for the prior year costs.
5)2012 Budget Act established the K-12 Education Mandate Block
Grant . The 2012 Budget Act allocated $166.6 million for this
block grant. Essentially, a school district, charter school,
or county office of education (COE) may choose to receive a
per-pupil allocation to conduct existing K-12 mandated
activities. If the district, charter school, or COE chooses
to receive this allocation it forfeits its ability to claim
mandate reimbursement via the existing state process.
School districts will receive approximately $28 per pupil;
charter schools approximately $14 per pupil; and COEs
approximately $29 per pupil. The advantage of this block
grant is school districts will receive annual funding now
versus waiting to receive payment under the existing claims
process, which the state has deferred paying for a number of
years.
Presumably if this bill is determined to be a state mandated
program, its requirements would be added to the block grant.
6)Related legislation .
a) SB 1088 (Price), pending in this committee, prohibits a
pupil from being denied enrollment or readmission to a
public school based solely on contact with the juvenile
justice system, as specified.
b) AB 1729 (Ammiano), pending on the Senate Floor, recasts
provisions relative to the suspension of a pupil upon a
first offense, and authorizes the use and documentation of
other means of correction.
c) AB 2242 (Dickenson), pending on the Senate Floor,
prohibits pupils who are found to have disrupted school
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activities or otherwise willfully defied the authority of
school officials from being subject to extended suspension,
or recommended for expulsion.
d) AB 2537 (V.M. Perez), pending on the Senate Floor,
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 expulsion
provisions.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081