Under the Dome: CSBA-backed measures become law
November 2013
The first year of the legislative session wrapped up on a generally upbeat note for CSBA’s Governance First legislative agenda. Watch for the Winter issue of California Schools magazine, coming soon, where CSBA will publish its second annual tally of key bills—and each legislator’s votes on them. In the meantime, the following is a selection of CSBA-supported bills that made it through both houses on the state Legislature in the closing days of the session and were signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
AB 216 High school graduation requirements: pupils in foster care
Stone, D-Scotts Valley
Requires school districts to exempt a pupil in foster care who transfers between schools any time after the completion of the pupil’s second year of high school from all coursework and other requirements adopted by the governing board of the school district that are in addition to the statewide coursework requirements for graduation, unless the school district makes a finding that the pupil is reasonably able to complete the school district’s graduation requirements in time to graduate from high school by the end of the pupil’s fourth year of high school. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.
AB 256 Pupils: grounds for suspension and expulsion: bullying
Garcia, D-Bell Gardens
Refines the term “electronic act,” for purposes of pupil suspension or recommendation for expulsion from a school, as the creation and transmission originated on or off the school site, by means of an electronic device, including, but not limited to, a telephone, wireless telephone, or other wireless communication device, computer or pager, of a communication, as specified.
AB 899 Academic content standards: English language development standards
Weber, D-San Diego
Current law requires each school district that has one or more pupils who are English learners and, to the extent required by federal law, each county office of education and each charter school, to assess the English language development of each of those pupils upon initial enrollment in order to determine the level of proficiency of those pupils, and thereafter to assess each of those pupils annually until the pupil is redesignated as English proficient. This bill additionally requires these standards to be comparable in rigor and specificity to the standards for mathematics and science. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.
SB 185 Instructional materials: digital format
Walters, R-Laguna Nigel
Specifies that school districts, county offices of education and charter schools are not restricted in their ability to negotiate the price of standards-aligned instructional materials and supplemental instructional materials in a printed or digital format if the negotiated price complies with certain requirements. The bill requires instructional materials that are consistent with specific requirements of the Pupil Textbook and Instructional Materials Incentive Program Act to be offered by a publisher or manufacturer as unbundled elements. This bill contains other existing laws.
AB 1257 Energy: State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission: natural gas
Bocanegra, D-Los Angeles
Requires the California Energy Commission, beginning Nov. 1, 2015, and every four years thereafter, concurrent with the preparation of the integrated energy policy report, to identify strategies to maximize the benefits obtained from natural gas as an energy source, as specified.
SB 201 Instructional materials: academic content standards: English learners
Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge
Current law requires the California Department of Education, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to establish procedures for conducting the assessment and reclassification of a pupil from English learner to English proficient. Current law requires a school district to annually conduct the assessment during a period that commences on the day upon which 55 percent of the instructional year is completed through July 1 of that calendar year. This bill applies the above requirements to initial and summative assessments and makes conforming changes. The bill requires the superintendent of public instruction to determine which assessments, if any, meet specified requirements, and requires the assessments to be used for certain purposes.
SB 247 Pupil assessment: grade 2 diagnostic assessments
Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge
Requires the State Department of Education, by Nov. 1, 2014, to identify and make available to school districts information regarding existing assessments in language arts and mathematics aligned to the adopted Common Core academic content standards for pupils in grade 2 for diagnostic use by classroom teachers. The bill requires the savings realized from the elimination of the grade 2 standards-based achievement testing to be used by local educational agencies to administer the identified assessments. This bill contains other related provisions.
Additional resources on legislative bills are available at www.csba.org/PositionsOnLegislation, where you can also track the progress of bills through the 2014 legislative session.