School accountability: Open Enrollment Act: low-achieving schools.

(1) Commencing with the 2017–18 school year, the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, requires the state to identify schools for comprehensive support and improvement pursuant to specified accountability system requirements. Existing state law, the Open Enrollment Act (the act) , authorizes the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district other than the school district in which the parent resides, as specified. The act defines "low-achieving school" to mean a school on a list created annually by the Superintendent of Public Instruction of 1,000 schools ranked by increasing Academic Performance Index score with the same ratio of elementary, middle, and high schools as existed in decile 1 in the 2008–09 school year. Commencing July 1, 2019, this bill would instead define a "low-achieving school" for purposes of the act to include, among others, a school identified by the Superintendent or the State Board of Education for comprehensive support and improvement pursuant to federal specified accountability system requirements, including, among others, a school identified as being in the lowest performing 5% of all Title I schools, or a high school failing to graduate 13 or more of its pupils. The bill would provide that a "low-achieving school" shall not include a court, community, or community day school, limit the total number of low-achieving schools to no more than 1,000, and prohibit more than 10% of a local educational agency's schools from being low-performing. Commencing July 1, 2019, the bill would prohibit a school district of enrollment from not accepting transfers due to the costs associated with those transfers or because the pupil is special needs, including an individual with exceptional needs, or the pupil is an English learner, and would authorize a school district of residence to prohibit or limit transfers pursuant to the act only in specified circumstances relating to desegregation. The bill would also make conforming changes. To the extent the bill would expand the duties of school districts under the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The act encourages each school district to keep an accounting of all requests made for alternative attendance pursuant to the act and records of all disposition of those requests, as provided. Commencing July 1, 2019, this bill would instead require each school district of enrollment to keep that information and would require the Superintendent to collect that information, as provided. On or before July 1, 2018, the bill would require the Superintendent to report to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, the Governor, and the Legislative Analyst's Office, the plan for collecting the information. Commencing July 1, 2019, the bill would require the school district of enrollment, on or before May 15 of each year, to report the information to each school district that is geographically adjacent, to its county office of education, and to the Superintendent, as specified, and would also require the Superintendent to annually make certain information available to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, the Governor, and the Legislative Analyst's Office, as provided. To the extent the bill would expand the duties of school districts under the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) The act requires the Superintendent to contract for an independent evaluation of the open enrollment program, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to provide a final evaluation report to the Legislature, Governor, and State Board of Education on or before October 1, 2014. This bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to complete an evaluation of, and to make recommendations on, the open enrollment program, as provided. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to submit the final evaluation report to the Legislature, Governor, and state board on or before December 1, 2022. The bill would require the Superintendent to provide the data necessary to complete the report to the Legislative Analyst's Office by December 1, 2021. (4) This bill would make the act inoperative on July 1, 2023, and would repeal the act on January 1, 2024. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.