BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1143
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Date of Hearing: June 25, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
SB 1143 (Liu) - As Amended: June 10, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 37-0
SUBJECT : Pupil instruction: independent study
SUMMARY : Makes various changes to existing law governing
independent study (IS). Specifically, this bill :
1) Provides that the ratio of average daily attendance
(ADA) IS pupils to full-time equivalent certificated
employees responsible for IS shall be applied by grade span
for each of the following grade spans:
a. Kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive;
b. Grades 4 to 6, inclusive;
c. Grades 7 to 8, inclusive; and
d. Grades 9 to 12, inclusive.
2) Provides that the ratio shall not exceed the equivalent
ratio of pupils to full-time certificated employees for all
other educational programs operated by the school district
(or, in the case of a county office of education, the
county) for the applicable grade span, unless a new higher
or lower grade span ratio for all other educational
programs offered within the respective grade span is
negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement, or a
memorandum of understanding is entered into that indicates
that an existing collective bargaining agreement contains
an alternative grade span ratio for the applicable grade
span.
3) Provides that only those units of ADA that do not exceed
the applicable grade span ratio shall be eligible for
funding.
4) Deletes the authority for a unified school district to
calculate a separate pupil-teacher ratio for kindergarten
and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, if the district participated
in the former class size reduction program.
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5) Provides that the applicable grade span ratio may, in a
charter school, be calculated by using a fixed
pupils-to-certificated employee ratio of 25-1 or less than
25 pupils per certificated employee.
6) Permits written agreements to be maintained on file
electronically.
7) Provides that LEAs shall not be required to sign and
date pupil work products when assessing the time value of
pupil work products for apportionment purposes.
8) Authorizes school districts, county offices of education
(COEs), and charter schools, beginning in 2015-16, to offer
IS courses to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12,
inclusive, pursuant to the following conditions:
a. The governing board has adopted a policy that
complies with applicable statutory and regulatory
requirements;
b. A signed learning agreement is completed and
on file;
c. Courses are taught under the general
supervision of certificated employees who hold the
appropriate subject matter credential, meet the
federal requirements for a highly qualified teacher,
and are employed by the school district or COE in
which the pupil is enrolled or by a school district or
COE that has a memorandum of understanding to provide
the instruction in coordination with the school
district or COE in which the pupil is enrolled;
d. Courses are annually certified by the school
district or COE, by governing board resolution, to be
of the same rigor and educational quality as
equivalent classroom-based courses. The certification
shall, at a minimum, include the duration, number of
equivalent daily instructional minutes for each school
day that a pupil is enrolled, number of equivalent
total instructional minutes, and number of course
credits for each course, all of which shall be that of
equivalent classroom-based courses;
e. Pupils enrolled are not 21 years of age or
older or, if 19 years of age or older, have been
continuously enrolled since their 18th birthday or, if
the pupil is older than 21 or has not been
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continuously, then the course is required for
receiving a high school diploma;
f. Pupils enrolled must reside within the county
or in a county adjacent to the county in which
apportionment funding is claimed;
g. Certificated employees and each pupil in IS
communicate in person, by telephone or by any other
live visual or audio connection no less than twice per
calendar month to assess whether each pupil is making
satisfactory educational progress;
h. If satisfactory educational progress is not
being made, an evaluation must be made to determine if
it is in the best interest of the pupil to remain in
IS; the written record of the findings of an
evaluation must be treated as a mandatory interim
pupil record to be maintained for three years, and be
forwarded to another California public school if the
pupil transfers;
i. A proctor shall administer examinations;
j. Statewide testing results for pupils enrolled
in IS courses shall be reported and assigned to the
school in which the pupil is enrolled for
classroom-based courses and to any school district or
COE within which that schools testing results are
aggregated;
aa. Statewide testing results for pupils enrolled
in IS courses may be disaggregated for purposes of
comparing the testing results of those pupils with the
testing results of pupils enrolled in classroom-based
courses;
bb. A pupil shall not be required to enroll in an
IS course; and
cc. For each pupil, the combined equivalent daily
instructional minutes for IS courses and enrolled
courses authorized by all other laws and regulations
shall meet existing school day and school year
requirements.
9) Defines "satisfactory educational progress" to include,
but not be limited to, applicable statewide accountability
measures and the completion of assignments, examinations,
or other indicators that evidence that the pupil is working
on assignments, learning required concepts, and progressing
toward successful completion of the course, as determined
by the certificated employees providing instruction.
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10) Requires the combines equivalent daily instructional
minutes for IS courses and other enrolled courses to meet
the minimum instructional day requirements applicable to
the local education agency.
11) Provides that the apportionment ADA for each pupil
enrolled in an IS course be computed by combining the
number of equivalent daily instructional minutes authorized
through IS with the number of daily instructional minutes
attended in all other courses. If the total of
instructional minutes meets the minimum school day
requirement, the school district or COE shall be credited
with one day of attendance for each school day that the
pupil is demonstrating satisfactory educational progress.
12) Requires school districts and COEs, before enrolling a
pupil in an IS course, to provide the pupil and, if the
pupil is less than 18 years of age, the pupil's parent or
legal guardian, with a writing learning agreement that
includes all of the following:
a. A summary of the policies and procedures
adopted by the governing board;
b. The duration of the enrolled course or
courses, the duration of the learning agreement, and
the number of course credits for each enrolled course
consistent with the certifications adopted by the
governing board. The duration of a learning agreement
shall not exceed a school year or span multiple school
years;
c. The learning objectives and expectations for
each course, including, but not limited to, a
description of how satisfactory educational progress
is measured and when a pupil evaluation is required o
determine whether the pupil should remain in the
course or return to a regular school program;
d. The specific resources, including materials
and personnel, that will be made available to the
pupil; and
e. A statement that the pupil is not required to
enroll in IS courses.
13) Requires the learning agreement to be signed by the
pupil and, if applicable, by the pupil's parent or guardian
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and provides that the signed agreement constitutes
permission to receive instruction through IS.
14) Requires a physical or electronic copy of the signed
learning agreement to be retained by the school district or
COE for at least three years.
15) Defines "electronic copy" to include a computer or
electronic stored image of an original document, including,
but not limited to, portable document format, JPEG, or
other digital image file type, that may be sent via fax
machine, e-mail, or other electronic means.
EXISTING LAW
1)Authorizes school districts and COEs to offer independent
study and to generate apportionment ADA for pupils engaged in
independent study, subject to the following:
a) Not more than 10 percent of pupils in an opportunity
school or program or a continuation high school may be
eligible for apportionment credit for independent study;
b) Special needs pupils may participate in independent
study only if it is specifically provided for in their
individualized education plans;
c) Instruction provided to a temporarily disabled pupil
shall not be provided through independent study;
d) Courses required for high school graduation shall not be
offered exclusively through independent study;
e) Pupils enrolled in independent study shall have access
to all existing services and resources of the school in
which he or she is enrolled and that are available to all
other pupils in the school; and
f) The governing board of the school district has adopted
and implemented written policies, as specified, that govern
independent study and the specified written agreement that
is required for each independent study pupil.
2)Specifies that educational opportunities offered through
independent study may include, but shall not be limited to,
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the following:
a) Special assignments extending the content of regular
courses of instruction;
b) Individualized study in a particular area of interest or
in a subject not currently available in the regular school
curriculum;
c) Individualized alternative education designed to teach
the knowledge and skills of the core curriculum;
d) Continuing and special study during travel; and
e) Volunteer community service activities and leadership
opportunities that support and strengthen pupil
achievement.
3)Provides that independent study shall not be provided as an
alternative curriculum.
4)Prohibits LEAs from providing independent study pupils with
funds or any other thing of value that it does not provide to
pupils who attend regular classes.
5)Provides that school districts and COEs can claim
apportionment credit for independent study only to the extent
of the time value of pupil work products as personally judged
in each instance by a certificated teacher.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, potentially significant state costs (General
Fund/Proposition 98), to the extent that the increased
flexibility allows LEAs to increase ADA through definitional
flexibility, increased IS program offerings, and/or increased
success in meeting audit requirements. Also, significant local
savings, due to changes that update and streamline the
accounting and record-keeping process for LEAs offering IS
courses.
COMMENTS : Independent study is offered as an alternative to
classroom-based instruction. IS pupils work independently,
according to a written agreement and under the general
supervision of a credentialed teacher or teachers. While
independent study pupils follow the district-adopted curriculum
and meet the district graduation requirements, independent study
offers flexibility to meet individual pupil needs, interests,
and styles of learning. Because pupils in independent study work
closely with their teachers, in one-on-one meetings or small
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group instruction, independent study can be a highly
personalized form of instruction. In all cases, pupils are
supervised by a certificated teacher who assigns and evaluates
pupil work on a periodic basis. Since IS pupils do not attend
school on a daily basis, funding for IS programs is based on
pupils' academic work products. For each assignment, the
supervising teacher equates a pupils' work to an equivalent
amount of seat time. An IS program can claim full per-pupil
funding if the seat-time equivalent of the students' work is the
same as the time the students would have spent in a classroom
setting.
This bill makes three primary changes to IS:
1) It reduces some of the administrative burden, notably
the requirement to assess and document the "time value" of
a pupil's work.
2) It establishes a grade-level funding model that is
consistent with the recently-enacted Local Control Funding
Formula (LCFF)
3) It allows entire courses to be offered through IS.
The contents of this bill, with a few additional provisions, are
contained in SB 858, the education omnibus trailer bill that was
passed by the Legislature on June 15. It is the author's desire
to move this bill forward in case technical corrections to SB
858 are needed. The provisions contained in SB 858 that are not
contained in this bill are:
1) A prohibition against offering courses required for high
school graduation or for admission to the University of
California or the California State University exclusively
through IS.
2) A requirement that statewide testing results for pupils
enrolled in IS courses be disaggregated for comparison
purposes.
3) A probation against the assessment of fees for IS and
against denying enrollment in IS solely because a pupil
does not have the necessary materials, equipment, or
Internet access.
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4) A clarification that "equivalent total instructional
minutes" means the same number of minutes as required for
an equivalent classroom-based course.
5) A requirement that the SPI conduct an evaluation of IS
to, at a minimum, compare the academic performance of
pupils in IS with demographically similar pupils enrolled
in equivalent classroom-based courses, and to report
findings to the Legislature by September 1, 2019.
To be consistent with the author's intentions, staff recommends
that the committee amend this bill to be identical with SB 858.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Butte County Office of Education
California Association for the Gifted
California Consortium for Independent Study
California Continuation Education Association
California Educational Technology Professionals Association
California School Boards Association
Contra Costa County Superintendents' Coalition
Education Trust-West
EdVoice
Napa County Office of Education
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools
San Diego County Office of Education
San Diego Unified School District
San Francisco Unified School District
Santa Clara County Office of Education
Santa Cruz County Office of Education
School Employers Association of California
Small School Districts' Association
Opposition
California Federation of Teachers
California Teachers Association
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087
SB 1143
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