Early Childhood Education
AB 1973 (McCarty) - Kindergarten: minimum schoolday.
As introduced, this bill would have required, via phase-in beginning in the 2027-28 school year, school districts and charter schools offering a kindergarten program to offer at least one full-day kindergarten class at each schoolsite to receive their full Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) K-3 grade span adjustment (GSA). Heard just last week in the Senate Education Committee, the bill was amended amidst concerns that the K-3 GSA is targeted at class-size reduction, unrelated to whether or not a district offers full-day kindergarten, and the conditioning of apportionment piece was removed from the bill.
Status: Pending before the Senate Appropriations Committee
SB 70 (Rubio) - Elementary education: kindergarten.
This bill would require, beginning with the 2024-25 school year, all children to have completed one year of kindergarten prior to being admitted to the first grade. There have been many legislative efforts over the past several years to make kindergarten compulsory, but they have all stalled, typically due to cost implications for the state. This bill has similarly been tagged with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in cost to the state, so it remains to be seen if this iteration will stumble in the Appropriations Committee.
Status: Pending before the Assembly Appropriations Committee
Human Resources
AB 2573 (McCarty) - Certificated school employees: probationary employees.
This bill would change which credentialed employees can attain permanent employee status and would remove differences of employment practices for school districts with less than 250 average daily attendance (ADA) and employees who were in their probationary period prior to the 1983-84 fiscal year. Specifically, this bill would:
- Delete the prohibition on counting service as an instructor conducted at regional occupational centers or programs toward the service required to attain permanent employee status.
- Require an employee of a school district with an ADA of 250 or less, who is reelected to a third year of employment in a position requiring certification, to be classified as a permanent employee of the school district.
- Requires a county office of education (COE) with an ADA of 250 or less to award permanent status to employees in a teaching position requiring certification if they are re-elected for a third year of employment.
Status: Pending before the Senate Appropriations Committee
Pupil Health/COVID-19
SB 866 (Wiener) – Minors: vaccine consent.
This bill would permit minors 15 yeas of age or older to consent to receiving certain vaccines – specifically those vaccines that are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and meet the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This bill was part of a package of bills introduced by the “Vaccine Caucus” early this legislative session. While it is one of the few bills in that space that remains active this late in the process, it currently sits on the Assembly Floor, where it has been idling for over a month. It is unclear whether the political will exists to move it forward or even bring it up for a vote of the full Assembly. Remember – all 80 Assembly Members are up for reelection every two years, and with November midterms looming ever closer, it simply may be too much to ask of Assembly Democrats to vote one way or another on arguably one of the most controversial bills of the year.
Status: Pending on the Assembly Floor
SB 1479 (Pan) - COVID-19 testing in schools: COVID-19 testing plans.
SB 1479 would require each LEA to create a COVID-19 testing plan that is consistent with guidance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and further would have required each LEA and each schoolsite to designate a staff member to report information on its COVID-19 testing program to CDPH. The bill was heard a week ago in the Assembly Education Committee and, while they are not yet in print, was amended to address concerns around the provisions requiring LEAs to designate staff to report on the testing plans.
Status: Pending before the Assembly Appropriations Committee
School Finance
You may recall efforts the past few years to add “lowest performing pupil subgroup” to the group of unduplicated pupils for purposes of the LCFF. In particular, AB 2685, authored by Dr. Shirley Weber (now Secretary of State and mother of this bill’s author, Akilah Weber) was a vehicle for this discussion in the 2019-20 Legislative Session. This year’s version, AB 2774, would specifically expand the definition of "unduplicated pupil" for LCFF purposes by adding a pupil who is classified as a member of the lowest performing subgroup or subgroups commencing with the 2023-24 fiscal year. The bill has been sailing through the process with unanimous, bipartisan support at each of its stops so far.
Status: Pending before the Senate Appropriations Committee
Transportation
AB 2731 (Ting) - Schoolbuses: zero-emission vehicles.
This bill would require, commencing January 1, 2035, all newly purchased or contracted schoolbuses of an LEA be zero-emission vehicles. Responding to concerns, particularly for those LEAs that need buses to traverse a diverse array of terrains and routes, the author amended the bill coming out of the Senate Education Committee to allow for LEAs to:
- Allow for a one-time extension period of five years (until 2040)
- Specify that LEAs must reasonably demonstrate that daily student transportation cannot be serviced through available zero-emission technology in 2035 to apply for the extension.
- Require that extension requests be reviewed by the Air Resources Board in consultation with CDE.
One thing to note is that this bill has been tagged with massive fiscal implications for the state – to the tune of billions of dollars. It’s next stop, the Senate Appropriations Committee, will almost certainly have something to say about that.
Status: Pending before the Senate Appropriations Committee
What’s Next?
The Legislature returns from Summer Recess on Monday, August 1. At that point, Appropriations Committees in both houses will have two weeks to consider the hundreds of bills pending before them. Then, the remaining bills will move to votes of the full bodies on the floors of both houses as the Legislature looks to close out the 2021-22 session by midnight on August 31. As you can imagine, activity in the final 30 days of session will be fast and furious. We will keep you up to date as these and other education bills have their fates ultimately decided. In the meantime, please reach out with questions or if you would like more information.
Cheers,
Nick
Nick Romley | Legislative Analyst
Capitol Advisors Group