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Bills on the Move
Last Friday was the fiscal deadline for the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees to approve bills introduced in their respective chambers. Below is a list of some of the bills that made it through the committees.
Curriculum & Instruction AB 2027 (Blumenfield D) Online education: school attendance. Summary: Existing law establishes the public elementary and secondary school system in this state, and further establishes a funding system pursuant to which the state apportions funds to local educational agencies based on the average daily attendance of pupils at the schools operated by those agencies. Numerous statutes and regulations govern the calculation and reporting of average daily attendance. This bill, commencing with the 2012-13 fiscal year, would provide that school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that offer online education courses may claim attendance toward average daily attendance on the basis of a pupil's attendance in an online class or classes that satisfy prescribed criteria. This bill contains other related provisions.
AB 2446 (Furutani D) Graduation requirements. Summary: Existing law prohibits a pupil from receiving a diploma of graduation from high school unless he or she completes specified requirements, including, but not limited to, completing one course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. This bill, commencing with the 2011-12 school year and until July 1, 2016, would add completion of a course in career technical education, as defined, as an alternative to the requirement that a pupil complete a course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. The bill would require the California Department of Education to report to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2015, the number of pupils who took a career technical education course in order to fulfill this graduation requirement.
SB 1440 (Padilla D) California Community Colleges: student transfer. Summary: Existing law establishes the three segments of public postsecondary education in this state. These segments include the California State University, the campuses of which are administered by the Trustees of the California State University, the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, and the California Community Colleges, which are administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. This bill would enact the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which would require a community college district, commencing with the fall term of the 2011-12 academic year, to grant an associate degree to a student in his or her field of study that would deem the student eligible for transfer into a California State University baccalaureate program when the student meets prescribed requirements. This bill would prohibit a community college district from imposing any requirements, in addition to these requirements, for a student to be eligible for the associate degree, and would prohibit remedial non-collegiate level coursework from being counted towards the units required for the associate degree. This bill would require the California State University to guarantee admission with junior status to any community college student who meets the requirements for the associate degree. This bill would not guarantee a student admission for specified majors or campuses, but would require the California State University to grant a student priority admission to a program or major that is similar to his or her community college major or area of emphasis. This bill would authorize the California State University to require a transferring student to take additional coursework in specified circumstances, and would prohibit the California State University from requiring a transferring student to repeat courses that are similar to those taken at the community college that counted towards the units required for the associate degree. This bill would also require the Legislative Analyst's Office to review and report to the Legislature, within a prescribed time period, on specified outcomes and recommendations related to this act.
SB 1451 (Yee D) Education: instructional materials. Summary: Existing law provides that the State Board of Education (SBE) must adopt regulations to govern the social content reviews, as specified, conducted at the request of a publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials outside the primary and followup instructional material adoption processes. This bill would require the SBE, upon completion of the social content review, to inform the Chair of the Assembly Committee on Education, the Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, and the Secretary of Education of content that it interprets to be as a result of a specified action by the Texas Board of Education. The bill would also require the state board, upon the next adoption of the History-Social Science Curriculum Framework, to ensure that the framework is constituent with specified standards governing instructional materials. Miscellaneous SB 930 (Ducheny D) Pupil assessments. Summary: Existing law, the Public School Performance Accountability Program, provides a state assessment program for schools, an intervention program for low-performing schools, and a reward system for high-achieving schools, as specified. This bill would require that any primary language assessment developed by the department and administered to limited English proficient students, as defined, on or after July 1, 2013, to be included in any successor measure to the state's assessment system and in any successor measure to the state's federal and state accountability system. The bill would require the results of the primary language assessment to be used in any successor measure to the state's assessment systems and in any other successor measure, as specified.
SB 1200 (Leno D) Health care coverage: timeliness of care. Summary: Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of those provisions by a health care service plan a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law requires the department and the commissioner to develop and adopt regulations to ensure that enrollees or insureds of health care service plans and certain health insurers have access to needed health care services in a timely manner pursuant to specified indicators of timeliness. This bill would add timeliness of care for schoolage children who must receive medically necessary services during school hours as one of the indicators of timeliness. Editor's Note: Andrew Keller is the Legislative Assistant for Governmental Solutions Group, LLC, a policy consulting and legislative advocacy firm. |
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