School attendance: early and middle college high schools.

(1) Under existing law, the Legislature finds and declares that middle college high schools have proven to be a highly effective collaborative effort between local school districts and community colleges. This bill would provide that the Legislature finds and declares that early college high schools are innovative partnerships between charter or noncharter public secondary schools and a local community college, the California State University, or the University of California that allow pupils to earn a high school diploma and up to 2 years of college credit in 4 years or less. (2) Existing law provides that a day of attendance for a pupil enrolled in grades 11 and 12 at an early college high school or middle college high school is 180 minutes of attendance if the pupil is also enrolled in a community college, classes of the California State University, or classes of the University of California, as specified. Existing law, the Charter Schools Act of 1992, requires, as a condition of apportionment, among other things, a charter school to offer 64,800 minutes of instruction in a fiscal year for pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, and, for classroom-based instruction, as defined, to have at least 80% of the instructional time offered to be at the schoolsite. This bill would require a charter school that operates as an early college high school or middle college high school, for purposes of calculating classroom-based average daily attendance for classroom-based instruction apportionments, to offer at least 80% of the instructional time at the charter school schoolsite, and to require a pupil enrolled in grade 11 or 12 who is also enrolled in courses of the California State University, or courses of the University of California, as specified, or a pupil enrolled who is also enrolled as a special part-time student in a community college, as specified, to attend the charter school for a minimum of 50% of the minimum number of minutes of instruction the charter school is required to offer in a fiscal year. The bill would require a pupil enrolled in a charter school that operates as an early college high school or middle college high school who is not enrolled in courses of the California State University or the University of California, or who is not a special part-time student in a community college, to attend the charter school for a minimum of 67% of the minimum number of minutes of instruction the charter school is required to offer in a fiscal year. The bill would subject these requirements to annual audits, as specified.