CSBA-sponsored transportation COLA bill, other key legislation moving forward following Senate and Assembly suspense hearings
Published: September 6, 2017
Both the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees heard their suspense files on Sept. 1, determining which bills with significant fiscal impacts will continue to advance in 2017, and which will not progress this year.
Click here for full results of Sept. 1 suspense hearings
Click here for all 2017–18 bills with CSBA positions
Senate Bill 527 (Galgiani, D-Stockton), CSBA’s sponsored bill to provide a statutory cost-of-living-adjustment for home-to-school transportation, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee with a unanimous vote on Sept. 1; this was the fifth unanimous committee vote on the bill, which also unanimously passed the Senate Floor in May. SB 527 now moves to the Assembly Floor.
SB 328 (Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge), the CSBA-opposed bill mandating an 8:30 a.m. or later start time for all middle and high schools, will also go to the Assembly Floor after passing the Appropriations Committee with amendments to clarify that the bill will apply to charter schools.
Other key bills advancing out of the Appropriations Committee:
Assembly Bill 1217 (Bocanegra, D-Pacoima) – State school: STEM instruction – Oppose – AB 1217 would establish a state-run STEM school in Los Angeles County. The bill raises major local governance concerns, as it would circumvent existing processes for school authorizations at the local school board, county board of education and State Board of Education levels and establish a precedent of the Legislature serving as an authorizer. CSBA maintains that the decision to authorize new schools should be made by local school and county boards of education, and that the need for a curriculum-specific school should be based on local evidence that existing programs are not meeting the needs of existing students.
AB 746 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Lead testing – Support if Amended – AB 746 would require local educational agencies to test all school water supplies within their purview for lead at least once a year or once every three years, depending on the age. CSBA is working with the author on key amendments, including the definition of the testing “trigger.” As currently written, if a lead level of 5 parts per billion is found in a sample taken at a school site, then every potable water system at the school site must be tested. CSBA is seeking amendments to set this trigger to 15 parts per billion, a safety standard set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Click here for additional info on water testing legislation and available resources.
SB 31 (Lara, D-Bell Gardens) – California Religious Freedom Act – Support – This measure would prohibit a state or local agency from providing to the federal government personal information regarding a person's religious beliefs, practices, or affiliation, as specified, when the information is sought for compiling a database of individuals based on religious belief, practice, or affiliation, national origin or ethnicity for law enforcement or immigration purposes.
SB 54 (de León, D-Los Angeles) – Law enforcement: sharing data – Support – SB 54 contains a number of provisions related to state and local law enforcement agency involvement in immigration enforcement; the bill aims to ensure that eligible individuals are able to seek services from and engage with state agencies without regard to their immigration status.
SB 169 (Jackson, D-Santa Barbara) – Education: sex equity – Support – This bill address issues of sexual assault and sexual violence by codifying federal Title IX standards into California law, thereby increasing state-level enforcement if federal standards or the enforcement of sex equity laws pertaining to sexual assault are undermined, amended or repealed.
AB 189 (Low, D-Campbell) – Model curriculum: service learning – Support – AB 189 would direct the Instructional Quality Commission to develop, and the State Board of Education to adopt, model service learning curriculum. With amendments to the bill made in July, school boards may now adopt these policies if they choose, but will not be required to do so as the original version of the bill was written.
AB 1227 (Bonta, D-Oakland) – Human Trafficking Prevention Education and Training Act – Support – AB 1227 establishes the Human Trafficking Prevention Education and Training Act, which requires schools to include information on human trafficking in comprehensive sexual health education courses. The bill also expands the scope of the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Program to include human trafficking.
AB 699 (O’Donnell, D-Long Beach) – Educational equity: immigration and citizenship status – Support – AB 699 prohibits employees of LEAs from collecting information regarding the immigration status of pupils and their families or allowing an officer of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter a school site without meeting specified requirements.
Key bills held in Appropriations Committees:
AB 1528 (Acosta, R-Santa Clarita) – Virtual or online charter schools: ADA – Oppose – This bill would have extended a provision enacted in 2014 that allows an online charter school to claim independent study average daily attendance for a pupil who moves outside the school’s boundaries mid-year.
AB 410 (Cervantes, D-Corona) – Beginning teacher induction programs: fees – Oppose – This bill would have prohibited an LEA from charging a fee to a beginning teacher to participate in an induction program. Had this bill been enacted, many small and rural LEAs that share the cost of these programs with participants would not be able to continue offering them.
AB 254 (Thurmond, D-Richmond) – Local Educational Agency Behavioral Health Integration Pilot Program – Support – This bill would establish a Local Educational Agency Behavioral Health Integration Pilot Program to provide grants to schools for the provision of behavioral health services.
AB 1321 (Weber, D-San Diego) – Education finance: fiscal transparency – Support – This fiscal transparency bill relates to public reporting requirements for LCFF spending. Amendments made to the bill in the Senate Education Committee in July simplify the reporting requirements for school districts and will make data more easily accessible and understandable for the public by aligning with existing federal law, which requires disaggregated reporting of funds at the school site level, broken out by federal, state and local sources.