BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 714 (Block) - Online Instruction: Average Daily Attendance
Amended: May 8, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 20, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 714, beginning in the 2015-16 fiscal year,
permits local educational agencies (LEAs) - school districts,
county of offices of education, and charter schools - to claim
state apportionment funding for three consecutive years for
asynchronous attendance of pupils in "online educational
learning programs" and for an additional three years if
semiannual reports are submitted, as specified. This bill would
cap the apportionment for asynchronous online courses at 10% of
an LEA's total pupil average daily attendance (ADA).
Fiscal Impact:
Apportionment: Unlikely to result in significant additional
state costs. This bill allows programs more flexibility to
claim ADA for nonclassroom based instruction; in the absence
of this flexibility, LEAs are likely to continue their
programs as they are and to continue to collect existing
apportionment levels.
California Department of Education (CDE) administration:
CDE would require a .5 Education Programs Consultant to
manage the regulation development process and to review
school district pupil data for claiming ADA from online
course enrollment. This bill also creates additional cost
pressure to fund an existing departmental budget request for
$145,000. See staff comments.
Background: Existing law requires the majority of the state's
revenue limit funding allocated to LEAs to be based on ADA. ADA
is the average amount of time a pupil attends class under the
immediate supervision of a certificated employee.
(Education Code � 46300 et. seq.)
Currently, within existing ADA requirements, LEAs provide online
SB 714 (Block)
Page 1
courses to pupils in the following ways:
a) Pupils receive online instruction in a classroom setting
under the immediate supervision of a certificated employee.
(EC � 46300 (a))
b) Pupils are enrolled in a part-time or full-time independent
study (IS) program. If a pupil is enrolled full-time in an
IS program, he or she is required to produce a work
product, which is assessed by a certificated employee of
the district.
(EC � 51745 et. seq.)
c) Pupils who have met the minimum instructional requirement
take an online course. Under this scenario, the pupil is
generating full ADA for meeting the minimum instructional
requirement, and is taking the online course in addition.
d) Pupils are enrolled in a charter school, which has less
traditional accounting and attendance requirements for its
pupils. Typically, this must meet statutory requirements or
regulatory guidelines adopted by the State Board of
Education.
Existing law establishes the minimum school day for a high
school student to be 240 instructional minutes in a classroom,
in IS, or in a combination of the two settings, and requires
students taking a combination to meet attendance standards for
both the classroom and IS courses in order for a district to
claim a pupil's attendance for funding purposes. (EC � 46141)
Students are also required in grades 9-12 to attend school for
at least 64,800 minutes per year in no less than 180 days (or
175 days through 2014-15). (EC � 46201)
Proposed Law: SB 714, beginning with the 2014-15 fiscal year,
permits LEAs to claim state apportionment funding for three
consecutive years for asynchronous (defined as "where the
teacher and the pupil are online at different times and do not
interact simultaneously) attendance of pupils in "online
educational learning programs." Specifically, this bill:
1) Permits a pupil in grades 9-12, to participate in online
educational learning programs, if: a) the pupil is a
SB 714 (Block)
Page 2
California resident and enrolled in classes that include
courses in a classroom based setting, courses that are
offered through an online program, or both; b) the pupil
meets state minimum instructional time requirements, as
specified; and, c) each course the pupil is enrolled in is
a high quality online course.
2) Defines a "high quality online course" as meeting specified
requirements, including: a) a teacher teaching an online
course be accessible to each pupil to respond to pupil
queries, assign tasks, and dispense information; and, b)
that a teacher teaching an online course employ all of the
following: i) periodic proctored examinations; ii) direct
teacher-pupil meetings, in person, no less than twice per
calendar month; iii) a visual connection; and, iv) timely
feedback on communications for pupils within 24 hours and
timely feedback for assessing pupils' work within 72 hours
for minor assignments and within one week for major
assignments, as specified.
3) Requires the teacher of the online course(s) to hold the
appropriate subject matter credential and meet requirements
for a highly qualified teacher pursuant to federal law.
4) Requires all statewide testing results for pupils enrolled
in the online course be reported to the school, school
district and county office of education in which the pupil
is enrolled for regular classroom courses. Statewide
testing results may be disaggregated for purposes of
comparing testing results of pupils enrolled on online
course(s) to the testing results of those pupils enrolled
in classroom based courses.
5) Prohibits a pupil from being assigned to the online course
pursuant to this section unless the pupil voluntarily
elects to participate in the online course and the parent
or guardian of the pupil provides written consent.
6) Prohibits a pupil electing to participate in the online
course from being denied access because the pupil lacks the
computer hardware or software necessary to participate in
the online course, and prohibits a pupil from being charged
for their participation in the online course.
SB 714 (Block)
Page 3
7) Requires the pupils to take exams by proctor, or other
reliable methods used to ensure test integrity, and a clear
record of pupil work, using the same method of
documentation and assessment as used in a classroom-based
course.
8) Deems each high quality online course to be 60 minutes for
the purposes of calculating instructional time. A pupil can
be credited with a day of attendance for each school day
the pupil is enrolled in the high quality online course.
Requires that satisfactory pupil progress means a pupil has
earned at least 60 course credits in a school year.
9) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), on
or before January 1, 2015, to adopt implementing
regulations authorizing LEAs to receive state
apportionments for pupils enrolled in online courses.
10) Permits an LEA to receive state apportionments for pupils
enrolled in a high-quality online course for up to 10
percent of that district's or COE's total average daily
attendance, as specified.
11) Permits state funding for online courses for an additional
three years if the pupils are achieving satisfactory pupil
progress, as specified.
12) Requires a participating LEA to develop and adopt policies
that evaluate if a pupil is achieving satisfactory
progress, and if a pupil should be allowed to continue to
participate in the online educational learning program.
13) Requires, if in any year of participation, the pupils that
participate in an online program are earning less than 75%
of the course credits earned by pupils in classroom based
courses, this information shall be sent for review by the
CDE.
14) Requires CDE to develop a process authorizing participating
LEAs to voluntarily reduce state funding (apportionments)
for the online program if projected student enrollment is
not achieved, or if the pupils are not achieving
satisfactory pupil progress.
SB 714 (Block)
Page 4
15) Specifies the CDE may reduce or eliminate apportionments if
the pupils have not achieved satisfactory progress for
three consecutive years or the requirements of semi-annual
reporting has not been complied with.
Related Legislation: AB 644 (Blumenfield) Ch.579/2012 authorizes
a school district or county office of education to claim
attendance for pupils in grades 9 to 12, taking online
synchronous courses, toward ADA for the purpose of calculating
revenue limit funding, subject to certain requirements.
AB 2027 (Blumenfield) 2010 was similar to this measure, and
would have allowed ADA to be claimed for pupils enrolled in
asynchronous online courses. That bill was held under submission
in this Committee.
AB 837 (Torlakson) 2009 would have allowed LEAs to claim ADA on
the basis of a pupil's attendance at a class or classes in the
classroom-based setting on that day, for the purpose of learning
online. That bill was held under submission in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill would permit LEAs to claim state
apportionment funding for three consecutive years for
asynchronous online classes, subject to numerous quality
standards and accountability requirements. This bill would allow
LEAs to offer online courses, as specified, to count ADA in ways
they cannot under existing law. Absent the allowance, they are
unlikely to offer the asynchronous courses provided for in this
bill, because there is a financial disincentive to do so. This
bill is also permissive for LEAs, so any costs or workload
incurred to comply with the CDE accountability provisions of
this bill would be voluntary.
To the extent that pupils enrolled in, or likely to enroll in,
charter schools with online courses instead choose to enroll in
district schools, there will likely be additional state costs
because district schools are typically funded at higher levels
than charter schools.
This bill requires the CDE to create, and the SPI to adopt
implementing regulations authorizing LEAs to receive state
apportionments for pupils enrolled in online courses, and to
monitor schools' compliance with the asynchronous course ADA
SB 714 (Block)
Page 5
apportionment requirements. The CDE anticipated that it would
require a .5 Education programs Consultant consultant to work on
developing the regulations and to review school district pupil
data for claiming ADA from online course enrollment, at a cost
of $52,642.
Staff notes that the CDE's projected costs are less than half of
the amount the department projected to implement AB 644
(Blumenfield) Ch.579/2012, a similar bill that applied to
synchronous online instruction, because this bill's regulations
would build on the synchronous course regulations that the CDE
is already required to develop. The CDE submitted a budget
request for a $145,000 augmentation to develop the AB 644
regulations; this bill would create additional cost pressure for
that augmentation.