Existing law, the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012, defines "matriculation" as a process that brings a college and a student into an agreement for the purpose of achieving the student's educational goals and completing the student's course of study. The act specifies the responsibilities of students and institutions entering into the agreement, including, among others, a student's responsibility to identify an academic and career goal, to declare a specific course of study, and to be diligent in class attendance and the completion of assigned coursework. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that any student who receives priority registration for enrollment at an educational institution, to the extent that the institution provides specified matriculation services pursuant to the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012, shall participate in those services. Existing law requires the California State University and each community college district, with respect to each campus in their respective jurisdictions that administers a priority enrollment system, to grant priority in that system for registration for enrollment to any member or former member of the Armed Forces of the United States and to a foster youth or former foster youth, as provided. This bill would require a community college district to grant priority registration for enrollment to students in the Community College Extended Opportunity Programs and Services program and to disabled students who are determined to be eligible for disabled student programs and services, as provided. The bill would make this provision inoperative on January 1, 2017. By imposing the above requirement on a community college district, the bill would create 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.
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Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. As part of the CalWORKs program, participants, unless specifically exempted, are required to participate in welfare-to-work activities. Existing law exempts from the welfare-to-work requirements a woman who is pregnant and for whom it has been medically verified that the pregnancy impairs her ability to be regularly employed or participate in welfare-to-work activities. Existing law also requires that a recipient be excused for good cause when the county has determined there is a condition or circumstance that temporarily prevents or significantly impairs the recipient's ability to be regularly employed or participate in welfare-to-work activities. This bill would specify that a pregnant woman who is unable to obtain that medical verification but is otherwise eligible for the good cause exemption shall be exempt from participation in welfare-to-work activities. The bill would authorize a pregnant woman to satisfy welfare-to-work participation requirements, as specified, by participating in a voluntary maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting program or another home visiting program for low-income Californians that is approved by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, subject to the receipt of a federal waiver, as provided. Under existing law, a mother may breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, except the private home or residence of another, where the mother and the child are otherwise authorized to be present. This bill would state that, pursuant to the above-described provision, an applicant or recipient of CalWORKs is entitled to breastfeed her child in any public area, or area where the mother and the child are authorized to be present, in a county welfare department or other county office. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.
(1) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to review existing tests that assess the English language development of pupils whose primary language is a language other than English, and requires that the tests include, but not be limited to, an assessment of the achievement of these pupils in English reading, speaking, and written skills, in accordance with specified criteria. Existing law requires each school district that has one or more pupils who are English learners, and, to the extent required by federal law, a county office of education and a charter school, to assess the English language development of each of those pupils in order to determine their level of proficiency. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to establish procedures for conducting the assessment and for the reclassification of a pupil from English learner to English proficient. Existing law requires a school district to annually conduct the assessment during a period that commences on the day upon which 55% of the instructional year is completed through July 1 of that calendar year. This bill would apply the above requirements to initial and summative assessments and make conforming changes. The bill would require the Superintendent to determine which assessments, if any, meet specified requirements, and would require the assessments to be used for certain purposes. The bill would require the state board to approve assessment blueprints, assessment performance descriptors, and performance-level cut scores based on standard settings. The bill would require the Superintendent to report to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature when the assessments are ready for their initial administration. The bill would make the above-described provisions of existing law inoperative when the Superintendent makes this report, and would repeal those provisions the following January 1. The bill, after the Superintendent reports to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, would require the summative assessment to be conducted annually during a 4-month period after January 1 determined by the Superintendent with the approval of the state board and the assessment for initial identification to be conducted upon the initial enrollment of a pupil. (2) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt basic instructional materials for use in kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, for governing boards, as specified. Existing law also requires the state board to adopt and approve academic content standards for language arts and for English language development for pupils whose primary language is a language other than English. This bill would authorize the state board to adopt basic instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, that are aligned to those standards for language arts and English language development by no later than November 30, 2015. The bill would, among other things, require the State Department of Education, before conducting an adoption of basic instructional materials for language arts and English language development, to provide notice, as specified, to all publishers or manufacturers that each publisher or manufacturer is required to pay a fee, as specified, to offset the cost of conducting the adoption process.
Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to ensure that all pupils in foster care and those who are homeless, as defined, have a meaningful opportunity to meet state pupil academic achievement standards, and requires educators, juvenile courts, and certain other persons to work together to, among other things, ensure that each pupil has access to the academic resources, services, and extracurricular and enrichment activities that are available to all pupils. Existing law requires a foster child who changes residences pursuant to a court order or decision of a child welfare worker to be immediately deemed to meet all residency requirements for participation in interscholastic sports or other extracurricular activities. This bill would require a homeless child or youth, as defined, to also be immediately deemed to meet those residency requirements. The bill would require public schools and county offices of education to immediately enroll a homeless child or youth seeking enrollment, except as provided, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the State Department of Education and the State Department of Social Services to identify representatives from their respective agencies and from other state agencies that have experience in homeless youth issues to develop policies and practices relating to homeless children and youths, as defined. The bill would require the selected representatives to present the policies and practices to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Department of Social Services to be considered for implementation or dissemination, as appropriate. The bill would require a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths designated pursuant to federal law to ensure that public notice of the educational rights of homeless children and youths, as defined, is disseminated in schools within the liaison's local educational agency that provide services pursuant to specified federal law. 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, the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to design and implement a statewide pupil assessment program that includes numerous elements, including, among other things, a plan for producing valid, reliable, and comparable individual pupil scores in grades 2 to 11, inclusive. The act also requires school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to administer to each of its pupils in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, certain achievement tests, including a standards-based achievement test pursuant to the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. Existing law makes all provisions of the act inoperative on July 1, 2014. Assembly Bill 484 of the 2013–14 Regular Session, if enacted, would, among other things, suspend the STAR Program achievement test for pupils in grade 2 commencing with the 2013–14 school year. This bill would require the State Department of Education, by November 1, 2014, to identify and make available to school districts information regarding existing assessments in language arts and mathematics aligned to the adopted common core academic content standards for pupils in grade 2 for diagnostic use by classroom teachers. The bill would require the savings realized from the elimination of the grade 2 standards-based achievement testing to be used by local educational agencies to administer the identified assessments. The bill would require the department to ensure that the selected grade 2 diagnostic assessments are valid for purposes of identifying particular knowledge or skills a pupil has or has not acquired, but the assessments would not be valid measures for purposes of pupil, personnel, or local educational agency accountability. This bill would become operative only if AB 484 of the 2013–14 Regular Session is also enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2014.
Existing law declares the intent of the Legislature to preserve, upgrade, and expand the supply of housing to persons and families of low or moderate income, through the sale of specified surplus residential property owned by public agencies. Existing law establishes priorities and procedures that any state agency disposing of that surplus residential property is required to follow, and defines relevant terms for these purposes, including "fair market value." This bill would revise the definition of "fair market value" for purposes of the sale of this surplus residential property, to reflect the existing "as is" condition of the property, taking into account any needed repairs. Existing law requires specified single-family residences to be first offered to their present occupants, at an affordable price, as defined. Under existing law, the selling agency has the option of making repairs to the property required by lenders or government assistance programs, or providing the occupants with a replacement dwelling, pursuant to a specified provision of law. This bill would revise the procedures applicable to the sale of these surplus residential properties not otherwise sold pursuant to existing procedures, to be offered to current and former tenants in good standing, respectively, and to purchasers who will be owner occupants. The bill additionally would require the selling agency to offer tenants in good standing of nonresidential properties to be given priority to purchase the property they occupy. The bill would authorize the Department of Transportation to offer a residence or property in an "as is" condition, at the request of a person with priority to purchase the residence or property in accordance with existing law. This bill would require proceeds from sales of surplus residential property to be placed in the SR-710 Rehabilitation Account, created by the bill, and would continuously appropriate these funds for the purpose of providing specified repairs to the properties until the last of the properties is repaired, at which time the funds, less any reimbursements due to the federal government, would be transferred to the State Highway Account, for allocation by the California Transportation Commission, as specified. This bill would provide that the preliminary project alternative referred to as Alternative F-6 in the December 2012 Alternative Analysis Report of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority shall no longer be deemed a feasible alternative for consideration in any state environmental review process for the Interstate 710 North Gap Closure project, as specified.
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes taxpayers to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of specified funds. This bill would authorize taxpayers to designate on their tax returns that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the Keep Arts in Schools Fund, which is created by this bill. This bill would require that all moneys contributed to the fund pursuant to these provisions, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the Franchise Tax Board and the Controller for reimbursement and to the Arts Council for grants, as prescribed. This bill would provide that these voluntary contribution provisions are inoperative on January 1 of the 5th taxable year following the taxable year the fund first appears on the tax return and repealed on December 1 of that year. The bill would further provide that these provisions are inoperative for taxable years beginning on or after January 1 of the calendar year in which the Franchise Tax Board estimates by September 1 that the contributions made on returns filed in that calendar year will be less than $250,000, or an adjusted amount for subsequent taxable years, and are repealed on December 1 of that calendar year.
This measure would recognize the month of October 2013 as Filipino American History Month and the 426th anniversary of the first presence of Filipinos in the continental United States.
Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and independent institutions of higher education as the 4 segments of postsecondary education in this state. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to urge the continued development and implementation of assessment processes whereby institutions of higher education establish mechanisms, through program review and improvement, for the assessment of their performance in attempting to improve student learning and comprehension and achieving the expressed state policy goals for higher education of quality, educational equity, employee diversity, student transfer, and student retention. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that budget and policy decisions regarding postsecondary education generally adhere to 3 specified goals and that appropriate metrics be identified, defined, and formally adopted to monitor progress toward the achievement of the goals, as specified.
There is in state government, pursuant to the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 2, operative July 1, 2013, the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law requires the office to develop and distribute an educational pamphlet for use by kindergarten, any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and community college personnel to identify and mitigate the risks posed by nonstructural earthquake hazards. This bill would require the office, in collaboration with various entities, including the United States Geological Survey, to develop a comprehensive statewide earthquake early warning system in California through a public-private partnership and would require the system to include certain features, including the installation of field sensors. The bill would require the office to develop an approval mechanism, as provided, to review compliance with earthquake early warning standards as they are developed. The bill would require the office to identify funding sources for the system. The bill would prohibit the office from identifying the General Fund as a funding source to establish the system, beyond those components or programs that are currently funded. The bill would make these provisions contingent upon the office identifying funding sources for the system, as provided. If no funding sources are identified by January 1, 2016, the bill would repeal these provisions.