Under The Dome

Feb. 23 was the legislative deadline for the introduction of bills. CSBA’s sponsored bills, listed below, are awaiting their first committee hearings.

AB 366 (Wolk) School finance: declining enrollment
This bill expresses the intent of the Legislature to revise the existing calculation of average daily attendance related to school districts experiencing a decline in enrollment. CSBA is working with a broad coalition of education groups, legislative staff and the administration to develop a formula that will provide greater protection for declining enrollment districts.

AB 835 (Krekorian) School districts: declining enrollment
This bill would modify existing law pertaining to declining enrollment districts by allowing them to claim the greater of the average daily attendance of the current year or the average of the prior three years. Districts can now claim the current year’s ADA or the prior year, whichever is greater. This bill would double those options and provide declining enrollment districts with much-needed time to adjust to the loss of students.

AB 925 (Hancock) School accountability: adequate yearly progress
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to define the concept of “proficiency” in a manner to determine whether local educational agencies are meeting grade-level requirements for adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Legislation dealing with this issue was vetoed last year. CSBA is working with
AB 925’s author to develop an approach that will align proficiency in California with the intent of NCLB.

AB 1281 (Soto) Charter schools: special education
This bill would require a charter school petition to define and demonstrate that the petitioners have the ability and training to develop a special education program and the capacity to serve the needs of special education pupils.

AB 1379 (Brownley) High schools: requirements for graduation
This bill would require additional measures by which high school pupils who are regarded as proficient but unable to pass the high school exit examination could demonstrate their competence and receive a high school diploma. The state superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the secretary for Education and the High School Exit Examination Standards Panel, would have to identify those measures and their criteria, and the superintendent would be required to report findings and make recommendations for the development of a multiple-measures approach to the Legislature.

AB 1609 (Leno) Charter schools
This bill will be amended to expand the findings that the governing board of a school district may rely on to deny a petition; specifically, the board could find that a charter school would have a negative educational impact on the school district where it is located. The amended bill would repeal the authority of the state Board of Education to approve a statewide benefit charter school. The amended bill will be substantially similar to AB 2954 (Liu) from the last legislative session.

SJR 3 (Aanestad) Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000: extension
This measure would urge the 110th Congress to reauthorize or extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.