On Friday, February 21, 2020, the legislative statutory deadline to submit new policy proposals was greeted with legislators introducing a total of 2,297 proposals, of which about 400 impact public education. Policy bills have a thirty-day review period before they can be heard in its first policy committee.
This article addresses the second round of bills reviewed by the CASBO legislative committee. Positions are reassessed each month to reflect the feedback submitted by CASBO members. For a list of the definitions of the positions the committee may adopt on legislative proposals, visit our website.
Child Nutrition
AB 1995 (L.Rivas): Pupil nutrition: reduced-price meals. This bill would require a school district or county superintendent of schools maintaining a kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide a pupil, eligible to receive a reduced-priced meal, that meal free of charge.
CASBO Comment: It is the intent of the author to provide reimbursement funding using non-Proposition 98 General Fund.
Position: Support if Amended to provide reimbursement funds using General Fund.
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 2095 (Cooper): Child nutrition: state funding. This bill would decrease the maximum percentage that the Superintendent may expend for state administrative expenses to 15% and would increase the corresponding maximum percentage that the Superintendent may expend for distribution to child nutrition entities and for expenditure by the department to 85%. The bill would increase the maximum percentage that the department may expend under these provisions to 8% of that 85%.
Position: Watch
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 2211 (Rubio): School breakfast: instructional minutes. This bill would require time spent by a pupil in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, consuming breakfast provided through a school breakfast program at an LEA to be considered instructional minutes that generate ADA for purposes of computing any apportionments of state funding if the pupil consumes the breakfast in the pupil’s classroom and educational activities are provided to the pupil while the pupil is consuming the breakfast. The bill would authorize the department to adopt guidelines and regulations prescribing standards for implementing that requirement.
Position: Watch
Staff: Elizabeth
Career Technical Education
AB 2052 (O’Donnell): California CTE Incentive Grant Program: local matching funds. This bill would require for the 2021-22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, a grant application to provide $1 in local funding for every $1 received from the program.
Position: Support
Staff: Elizabeth
Facilities
AB 2088 (O’Donnell): School facilities. Existing law requires the board to determine the total funding eligibility of a school district for modernization funding by multiplying certain per-pupil amounts by the number of pupils housed in a permanent school building that is more than 25 years old or a portable classroom that is at least 20 years old. Existing law requires the board to adopt regulations to adjust those per-pupil amounts for modernization projects for school buildings that are 50 years old or older. This bill would repeal the requirement for the board to adopt those regulations.
Position: Legislative Committee to take position on March 19, 2020.
Staff: Sara
AB 2127 (O’Donnell): School property: location and facility details. This bill, commencing with the 2022–2023 school year, would require an LEA to provide, and to update annually as needed, certain information to CDE for each school facility, schoolsite, or school property owned or leased by the local educational agency.
Position: Legislative Committee to take position on March 19, 2020.
Staff: Sara
AB 2162 (O’Donnell): School facilities: indoor air quality. This bill would require a school district to ensure that school facilities meet the minimum requirements of regulations enacted by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board that govern the quality of air provided to employees in places of employment. The bill would require school districts to use contractors who have been certified by a nationally recognized organization for the inspection, maintenance, and repair of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
Position: Legislative Committee to take position on March 19, 2020.
Staff: Sara
AB 2184 (O’Donnell): School facilities: design-build contracts. This bill would authorize a school district, as an alternative to price of the project, to instead weigh as a factor the proposing design-build entity’s design cost, general conditions, overhead, and profit as a component of the project price. The bill would require a contract that is awarded based on the proposing design-build entity’s design cost, general conditions, overhead, and profit as a component of the project price, to be subject to further negotiation and amendment up to the sum of the costs of construction subcontracts awarded, and would require construction subcontracts for the design-build contract to be subject to an open book evaluation by the school district. If the school district determines the sum of the costs of the construction subcontracts exceeds the anticipated value of the project to the school district, or if any individual subcontract is unreasonable, the bill would authorize the school district to require the design-build entity to repeat a certain process in the awarding of construction subcontracts or to cancel the design-build contract with the school district.
This bill would explicitly apply those provisions to contracts awarded for design-build contracts for public works projects in excess of $1,000,000.
Position: Legislative Committee to take position on March 19, 2020.
Staff: Sara
Governance
AB 2093 (Gloria): Public records: writing transmitted. This bill would require a public agency for purposes of the California Public Records Act, to retain and preserve for at least 2 years every public record, that is transmitted by email.
CASBO Comment: Reintroduction of AB 1184 (Gloria, 2019) and CASBO opposed.
Position: Oppose
Staff: Sara
AB 2221 (C. Garcia): Pupil Support Training Program. This bill would require a school district that maintains any of grades 9 to 12, to establish at each school of the school district a pupil peer support training program to provide training to volunteer pupils on how to act as a peer support. The bill would require the training under the program to be administered by school psychologists, counselors, or other qualified peer support trainers holding a pupil personnel services credential.
Position: Watch
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 2126 (O’Donnell): Temporary school closures: notification. This bill would require CDE to develop and implement an internet website and a web-based application for the purpose of collecting information from an LEA about temporary school closures and have the internet website and web-based application operative no later than July 1, 2022. The bill would require a county superintendent of schools, superintendent of a school district, or charter school administrator to notify the department through the internet website or web-based application of all temporary school closures each day the school is closed.
Position: Legislative Committee to take position on March 19, 2020.
Staff: Sara
SB 884 (Dodd): Education finance: emergencies: public safety power shutoffs. If the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of a specified emergency, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school approximately the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to the school district, county office of education, or charter school had the emergency not occurred. This bill adds public safety power shutoffs to the list of emergencies for which the above-described provisions apply. The bill also establishes the Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program for the purpose of allocating funding to eligible local educational agencies to make up instructional days lost due to emergency or other extraordinary conditions. The bill would require a participating local educational agency to be reimbursed at a specified rate for instructional days offered as part of the program.
The bill would prohibit the total amount of funding received by a local educational agency pursuant to the program from exceeding the amount of funding that is attributable to the instructional time the local educational agency lost due to emergency or other extraordinary conditions. Operative only to the extent a state budget appropriation is made for this purpose.
Position: Support
Staff: Sara
SB 931 (Wieckowski): Local government meetings: agenda and documents. This bill would require a legislative body to email a copy of the agenda or a copy of all the documents constituting the agenda packet if so requested. By requiring local agencies to comply with these provisions, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Position: Oppose
Staff: Sara
Human Resource
AB 1844 (Chu): Paid sick leave: behavioral health conditions. This bill would expand the prescribed purposes to also include diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing behavioral health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee or an employee’s family member.
Position: Watch
Staff: Sara
Teacher Credentialing
AB 1982 (Cunningham): Teacher credentialing: basic skills proficiency test: exemption. This bill would require This bill would exempt from the basic skills proficiency test requirement an applicant who earns at least a letter grade of B in qualifying coursework, as defined, determined by a credential preparation program to sufficiently serve as an alternative indicator of the basic skills proficiency test requirement. The bill would also exempt an applicant who a credential preparation program determines has demonstrated proficiency in the basic skills through a combination of qualifying coursework and other existing exemptions from the basic skills proficiency test requirement.
Position: Watch
Staff: Sara
AB 2171 (Rubio): Teachers credentialing. This bill would, commencing with hiring for the 2021–22 school year, and each school year thereafter, prohibit an LEA from charging a fee to a beginning teacher to participate in a beginning teacher induction program and would define a beginning teacher for purposes of that provision to include a teacher with a preliminary multiple or single subject teaching credential, or a preliminary education specialist credential. The bill also would prohibit an LEA from charging a fee to a beginning teacher to participate in an alternative program of beginning teacher induction program that it provides, and would prohibit a school district from charging a fee to a beginning teacher to participate in an alternative program of beginning teacher induction that is sponsored by a regionally accredited college or university, in cooperation with one or more local school districts.
Position: Concern
Staff: Elizabeth
Special Education
AB 2056 (Garcia): Special education programs: Family Empowerment Centers on Disability. This bill would revise and recast the provisions related to Family Empowerment Centers on Disability, including requiring the department to give priority to grant applicants in those of the 32 regions in the state that do not have a center, increasing the minimum base rate for each center awarded a grant from $150,000 to $237,000 commencing with the start of the fiscal year after a center has been established in each of the 32 regions, and, commencing with the 2023-24 fiscal year, providing for an annual cost-of living adjustment of the grant amount.
Position: Watch
Staff: Elizabeth
AB 2291 (Medina): Special education funding. This bill would add preschoolers to the AB 602 funding formula, bring AB 602 rates to where 95% of the state’s ADA would receive the same funding level and those that currently receive funding above this rate would be held harmless. The bill would also provide a supplemental grant to support students with greater needs, including students with autism, and students who are blind, deaf or hard of hearing, and intellectually disabled.
Position: Co-Sponsor
Staff: Elizabeth
To review the master list of legislative proposals that have been introduced, visit our website. To provide feedback on the proposals listed on this email, please email Sara Bachez at sbachez@casbo.org.