CSBA helps forge consensus on disputed regulations
CDE preparing new rules to implement Parent Empowerment Act
Published: May 24, 2011
CSBA participated in an unusual collaboration that’s had a dramatic impact on permanent regulations drafted for the Parent Empowerment Act, a controversial state law that remains on the books despite failing to win the federal funding that led to its passage.
The impromptu partnership was driven in part by the need to clarify unresolved issues surrounding Parent Empowerment, but also by CSBA’s interest in finding common ground with other parties in the education community while standing firm on its core principles.
The group’s efforts were distilled into a “consensus draft” of the regulations that won praise from observers and the State Board of Education April 21. Additional public input then is reflected in an updated draft of the proposed regulations that was released May 23 for a 15-day public comment period; the draft and instructions for comments are available on the State Board’s Parent Empowerment Regulations Web page under Proposed Rulemaking. The proposal regulations will return to the State Board once more, which is then expected to submit them to the Administrative Office of the Law for final approval.
The Parent Empowerment Act allows parents or guardians of students in 75 underperforming schools to petition for one of the federal Race to the Top program’s four reform models—from adding instructional hours and making other modifications to shutting a school down. CSBA Research and Policy Analyst Marguerite Noteware represented the association in intensive telephone and email discussions with the Association of California School Administrators, the Los Angeles-based Parent Revolution group and the California Charter School Association about regulations implementing the law.
“It was a very good process,” Noteware said of the discussions that preceded the State Board’s April 21 meeting, when the regulations were on the agenda. “I think everyone was fair and gave concessions on a lot of things, and really tried to find something workable for all parties.”
Parent Revolution helped write the legislation, and the charter association favors the law’s provisions facilitating the conversion to charters of schools with academic problems. CSBA and ACSA opposed the law when it was introduced in a special session in December 2008, and their analyses of problems in the legislation have been borne out in the difficulty experienced in writing workable regulations to implement it. In March, the board extended emergency regulations that were adopted last fall—more than a year after the law was passed—but those will expire in October.
If permanent regulations are not on the books by then, the regulatory drafting process will have to begin all over again, so all parties wanted to conclude the protracted process that has delayed permanent regulations for more than two years now, Noteware said; they also felt hamstrung by the bureaucratic procedures of the California Department of Education and the State Board of Education.
“They had only provided one-way opportunities to provide input rather than working through issues in the regulations as a group of stakeholders,” Noteware explained of the state agencies. CSBA and ACSA “were also concerned the State Board was leaning in favor of the interests of parents who initiate the petition process, not necessarily all of the parents at a school site,” she continued.
Legislative changes still needed
While their collaboration mitigated some of those issues, Noteware said the four groups remain divided in their assessment of the Parent Empowerment Act itself.
“Districts are in a tough place … parents are in a tough place” as they try to abide by the law, Noteware observed. “The statute lacks the details necessary to create clear and transparent processes for parents and the district. There are far too many unanswered questions.” The only attempt so far to force a school restructuring under the emergency regulations, in the Compton Unified School District, is tied up in court, in large part because of ambiguities or irregularities in the original legislation.
Parents are entitled to demand change at schools that struggle to educate their children, but Noteware remains unconvinced that the Parent Empowerment Act provides options for parents and students that are research-based and have demonstrated significant gains in student achievement.
“It’s such a new, untested approach that we don’t really know how it’s going to play out in terms of student achievement,” Noteware said. CSBA supports Assembly Bill 203, introduced by Assembly Education Committee Chair Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, to address problems with the original law.
“Everyone agrees changes are needed,” Noteware said.
Easy links: