Asm. Tom Torlakson

Existing law establishes the California Child Welfare Council, which serves as an advisory body responsible for improving the collaboration and processes of the multiple agencies and the courts that serve the children and youth in the child welfare and foster care systems. In this regard, the council has specified monitoring and reporting duties. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes the establishment of community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at community college campuses throughout the state. Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to determine which pupils would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work. In addition, existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to authorize these pupils, with parental permission, to attend community college as special part-time students to undertake one or more courses of instruction at the community college level, in order to provide these eligible pupils with educational enrichment opportunities. This bill instead would authorize school districts to enter into partnerships with community college districts to provide secondary school pupils who have exhausted all opportunities to enroll in an equivalent course at the high school of attendance, adult education program, continuation school, regional occupational center or program, or any other program offered by the local governing board with the opportunity to benefit from advanced scholastic, career-technical, or other coursework at a campus of the California Community Colleges. The bill would, on or before January 1, 2011, and each year thereafter, require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to report to the Department of Finance and the Legislature the number of pupils who enroll in community college pursuant to these provisions, the courses these pupils enroll in, and the number of these pupils who receive a passing grade. Existing law requires the principal of a school to determine whether a pupil meets various criteria before recommending the pupil for community college summer session, and prohibits the principal from recommending for community college summer session attendance more than 5% of the total number of pupils from any particular grade level who completed that grade immediately prior to the time of recommendation, except as specified. This bill would delete those provisions. The bill would prohibit a community college district from receiving an allowance or apportionment for an instructional activity for which a school district has been, or will be, paid. The bill would also make conforming changes.

(1) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, on or before September 1, 1992, to develop, and the State Board of Education to adopt, regulations, as specified, governing the use of behavioral interventions for individuals with exceptional needs receiving special education and related services. Existing law prescribes the calculations to be made to determine the amount of General Fund moneys to allocate to each special education local plan area. This bill would require the Superintendent to perform various calculations to increase the amount of funding per unit of average daily attendance for each special education local plan area, as specified. The bill would appropriate $65,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent in augmentation of a specified item of the Budget Act of 2009 for purposes of providing that increased funding. The bill also would appropriate $10,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation on a one-time basis to county offices of education and special education local plan areas, as specified. The bill would direct that $85,000,000 be appropriated from the General Fund on a one-time basis in each of the 2011–12 to 2016–17 fiscal years, inclusive, except as provided, to the Superintendent for allocation to school districts on a per-pupil basis. The Superintendent would be required to use specified calculations to compute the allocation for each school district. The bill would deem the funding described in this paragraph as payments in full satisfaction of, and in lieu of, any reimbursable mandate claims resulting from the statement of decision of the Commission on State Mandates regarding the Behavioral Intervention Plans Mandated Cost Test Claim. (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, the Brady-Jared Teen Driver Safety Act of 1997, allows for the issuance of a driver's license to a person at least 16 years of age but under 18 years of age pursuant to the provisional licensing program. Under the act, licensees are required to meet specified requirements, driver education, and training, and are prohibited during the first 12 months after issuance of a license from driving between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. or from transporting passengers who are under 20 years of age, except as provided. The act further prohibits a law enforcement officer from stopping a vehicle for the sole purpose of determining whether the driver is in violation of those restrictions. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to collect an additional fee of $10 for each provisional license application. The bill would create in the State Treasury the Young Driver Education and Safety Fund and would require the additional fee to be deposited into that fund to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, support the Young Driver Education and Safety Fund Advisory Group and to fund automobile driver's education and training in the public schools, including providing grants to local educational agencies to provide driver education and training programs in the public schools, under the direction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in consultation with the Director of Motor Vehicles. The bill would require the State Department of Education to establish a program to provide the grants to local educational agencies, as specified, and would provide that the department may recover its actual costs from the moneys that would be allocated for the program. The bill would require the Director of Motor Vehicles and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the Young Driver Education and Safety Fund Advisory Group, composed of members representing specified organizations, for purposes of assessing and recommending strategies to improve access to driver education and training, evaluating the effectiveness of current driver education and training standards and curriculum, and reviewing and making recommendations regarding the regulation of private, Internet-based driver education schools. The bill would require the advisory group to meet and hold public hearings and to submit a specified report to the director, the Superintendent, and relevant policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the director and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide to the advisory group necessary facilities and administrative support and would provide that members of the advisory group are subject to the conflict-of-interest provisions of the Political Reform Act of 1974. The bill would repeal the provisions relating to the advisory group on January 1, 2014.

Existing law requires the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs to perform various functions and duties with respect to the development and implementation of state and local substance abuse treatment programs. This bill would, in addition, establish the Alcohol-Related Services Program and the Alcohol-Related Services Program Fund and would authorize the State Board of Equalization to assess and collect specified fees from every person who is engaged in business in this state and sells alcoholic beverages for resale, as prescribed. The bill would require the fees to be deposited into the fund and would continuously appropriate those moneys exclusively for the alcohol-related services programs established pursuant to this bill. The bill would authorize the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs to establish, or contract or provide grants for the establishment of, component services under the program.

Existing law prohibits any person from giving, offering, promising, or attempting to give any money or any other thing of value to any particular student athlete or member of the immediate family of the student athlete for purposes of inducing or encouraging the student athlete's application, enrollment, or attendance at a public or private institution of postsecondary education in order to have the athlete participate in intercollegiate sporting events, contests, exhibitions, or programs at that institution, except in accordance with the bylaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, as specified. This bill would require a collegiate athletic recruiter representing a postsecondary educational institution in the State of California or outside the State of California to provide California student athletes in elementary, junior high, high school, or college with certain information relating to the college athletic program within one week of initiating personal contact with the student athlete for purposes of athletic recruiting. The bill, commencing January 1, 2011, would require any scholarship offer to be made in writing within one week of a verbal offer and prior to a student athlete signing an athletic scholarship agreement with a postsecondary educational institution. The written agreement would be required to include specified information relating to the institution's athletic program.

(1) Existing law establishes the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program, a part of the Public Schools Performance Accountability Program, for schools that have not met adequate yearly progress and Academic Performance Index (API) growth targets, as established by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to take certain actions when a school does not meet those targets, and also authorizes the Superintendent to require a school district to enter into a contract with a school assistance and intervention team. This bill would require that the members of a school assistance and intervention team, that contracts with a school district in which one or more numerically significant pupil subgroups, as defined, did not meet those targets, possess specified certification and experience in meeting the needs of those pupil subgroups, and to use procedures and tools developed specifically for those pupil subgroups. (2) Existing law requires the school assistance and intervention team to complete a report that includes recommendations for corrective actions, as specified. This bill would require the school assistance and intervention team, in developing recommendations for corrective actions, to ensure that pupils have access to all core subjects, to ensure parental involvement and community involvement, and to include additional recommendations if alternative programs are the reason for program improvement status. (3) Existing law requires a local educational agency identified as a program improvement local educational agency under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to take a self-assessment provided by the department. This bill would require, if a local educational agency is identified as a program improvement local educational agency because of the failure of one or more pupil subgroups to meet adequate yearly progress and API growth targets, that the State Department of Education provide self-assessment materials and criteria specifically for language and content instruction. This bill would require the district assistance and intervention team, in developing recommendations for corrective actions, to ensure that pupils have access to all core subjects, to ensure parental involvement and community involvement, and to include additional recommendations if alternative programs are the reason for program improvement status. The bill would require that the members of a district assistance and intervention team, contracting with a local educational agency identified as a program improvement local educational agency in which one or more pupil subgroups did not meet adequate yearly progress and API growth targets, possess specified certification and experience in meeting the curriculum and instructional needs of the pupil subgroups, as specified. This bill would provide that the additional requirements imposed by its provisions would only apply to school assistance and intervention teams, as specified, that were established on or after January 1, 2010.

Existing law imposes various duties on the county welfare department at any hearing to terminate jurisdiction over a dependent child who has reached the age of majority. Among other duties, the county must submit a report verifying that certain information, documents, and services have been provided to the child including written information concerning the child's dependency case that includes any known information regarding the child's Indian heritage or tribal connections, if applicable, his or her family history and placement history, and any photographs of the child or his or her family in the possession of the department, except as specified. The documents provided must also include a letter prepared by the county welfare department that includes specified information regarding the child, including the dates the child was within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, and, if applicable, a social security card, a certified birth certificate, a health and education summary, an identification card, a death certificate of parent or parents, and proof of citizenship or residence. The court is authorized to continue jurisdiction if it finds that the county welfare department has not met these requirements and that termination of jurisdiction would be harmful to the best interests of the child. This bill would require the county welfare department to fulfill these duties at the court hearing closest to and before a dependent child's 18th birthday, or at the hearing to terminate jurisdiction over a dependent child who has reached the age of majority, whichever is earlier. The bill would additionally require that the report verifying the information, documents, and services provided to the child include the date when the child entered the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and the date when that jurisdiction is expected to terminate, all addresses of residency while under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, a voter registration form, and, if applicable, a United States Selective Service registration form. The bill would require the county welfare department to screen the child and file for the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, if the child is likely to be eligible for benefits, and to ensure that the child has received a consumer credit report, as specified. The bill would require the court to continue jurisdiction if it finds that the county welfare department has not provided to the child the information, documents, and services described above, unless the child no longer wishes to be a dependent of the court. By imposing additional duties on local employees, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 these statutory provisions.

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 would provide that school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that offer online education courses may claim one day of attendance toward average daily attendance on the basis of the attendance at a class or classes in a classroom-based setting of a pupil taking at least one high-quality online course, that satisfies prescribed criteria.

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 would require that a pupil take at least 2 courses from the subject areas of visual or performing arts, foreign language, or career technical education, as defined, provided that at least one of these courses is a course in either visual or performing arts or foreign language. The bill would require schools, to the extent practicable, to offer courses within their existing school calendars. Because the bill would require schools to provide a higher level of service, it would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 these statutory provisions.