Under the Dome: CSBA legislative updates

CSBA’s Legislative Committee, an advisory group that reviews and takes positions consistent with the CSBA Policy Platform on bills in the Legislature, deliberated on pending legislation in January and again in March. The following are some of the newly introduced bills that the Legislative Committee considered; AB signifies an Assembly bill, SB a Senate bill. As of press time, all of the following bills were awaiting their first hearings except as noted.

AB 95 School meals: reimbursement

Torlakson, D-Antioch

This bill is an urgency statute that would appropriate an additional $19.5 million for school meal reimbursement in California. Due to a significant increase in the number of free and reduced-price meals served in recent months, the California Department of Education believes the current allocation will run out this month. Failure to appropriate additional funds will mean local educational agencies won’t receive the full 21-cent reimbursement from the state for each meal served to qualifying students.

Position: Support

Status: Pending in the Assembly  Education Committee

AB 261 Pupil records: privacy rights

Salas, D-Chula Vista

This bill would bring California statute into compliance with the new Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulations that were adopted last year and would address the U.S. Department of Education’s conditional approval of the state’s 2008-09 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant. In doing so, this bill would expand student privacy protections.

Position: Support

Status: Passed out of the Assembly Education Committee on a 10-0 vote; now pending in the Assembly Judiciary Committee

AB 351 Physical education

Salas, D-Chula Vista

This bill would provide students with more opportunities to meet the state’s physical education requirement by counting participation in interscholastic programs such as marching band, drill team and JROTC toward the physical education instructional minutes requirement.

Position: Support

Status: Pending in the Assembly Education Committee

AB 683 Local educational agencies: Program Improvement

Chesbro, D-Eureka

This bill would allow school districts identified for corrective action under the federal No Child Left Behind Act’s Program Improvement provisions, but which do not have individual schools in PI, to receive federal Title I funds. Providing federal Title 1 funds to these districts would help them to meet corrective action obligations assigned by the State Board of Education.

Position: Support

Status: Pending in the Assembly Education Committee

AB 980 Emergency apportionments: repayment: charter schools

Swanson, D-Oakland

This bill would require a charter school located within the jurisdiction of a school district that is under state administration and repaying an emergency apportionment to help the school district repay the state. The charter school’s contribution would be determined by the enrollment of students from the school district’s attendance area.

Position: Support

Status: Pending in the Assembly Education Committee

AB 1124 Special education: due process hearings

Yamada, D-Davis

This bill would make changes to the current requirements for local school districts and county offices of education when a child with exceptional needs who has an Individual Family Service Plan transitions into the public education system at the age of 3. The bill would require that the IFSP placement be the student’s “stay put” placement during the pendency of stay put proceedings.

CSBA opposes AB 1124 because the statutory change proposed by the bill would exceed the requirements of federal law and would therefore impose new state mandate requirements.

Position: Oppose

Status: Pending in the Assembly Education Committee

Senate Constitutional Amendment 6 Taxation: educational entities: parcel tax

Simitian, D-Palo Alto

This bill would place a measure on the statewide ballot to seek voter approval to lower the threshold for parcel taxes from the current two-thirds to 55 percent. If passed by voters, school districts would then be able to place parcel taxes on their local ballot with a 55 percent threshold, which conforms to the vote threshold for local school bonds.

Position: Support

Status: Pending in the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee

SB 307, AB 164 School districts: compensation of district superintendents

Alquist, D-Santa Clara

Mendoza, D-Artesia

State Sen. Elaine Alquist and Assembly Member Tony Mendoza introduced these bills to prohibit school districts from entering into contracts that require buyouts of superintendents’ contracts in the event of termination.

CSBA opposes both bills because they would put California school districts at a disadvantage in recruiting superintendents. Existing law balances the need to give districts the flexibility to compete in the market for superintendents while also limiting expenditure of public funds for buyout purposes. California already limits buyouts of superintendent contracts to 18 months.

Position: Oppose

Status: Both bills are pending hearings in their respective education committees.

Related link:

Find updates on CSBA’s positions on current legislation @ www.csba.org/LegislationAndLegal.aspx