BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 491| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 491 Author: Gonzalez (D) Amended: 8/19/16 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16 AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan, Vidak SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16 AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/15 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: English learners: identification: notice SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This bill expands parental notification requirements relative to long-term English learners (EL), requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop a sample notification letter disclosing the use of the results of the home language survey used to determine the primary language of a student upon enrollment, and requires districts to provide the letter to parents at the time the home language survey is provided. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 delete reference to an outdated Education Code section. ANALYSIS: AB 491 Page 2 Existing federal law requires that a school district that receives federal funds for providing a language instruction education program for limited English proficient students to provide notice to a parent within 30 days of the start of the school year of specified information if their child has been identified for participation in the program. In addition, state law requires that, in conformance with these provisions, that the notice include specified information. (Title 20, § 7012, USC) Existing state law: 1)Defines a long-term EL and a student at risk of becoming a long-term English learner. (Education Code § 313.1) 2)Requires that the CDE annually ascertain and report the number of students who are, or are at risk of becoming, long-term English learners and to provide this information to districts and schools. (EC § 313.2) 3)Requires the determination of a student's primary language upon enrollment and assessment of the language skills of all students whose primary language is other than English. (EC § 52164.1) 4)Requires, under federal and state law, that each school district with English language learners annually assess these students' English language development until they are redesignated as English proficient. (EC § 313) This bill: 1)Expands parental notification requirements regarding the assessment of a student's English language proficiency to additionally contain the following information: AB 491 Page 3 a) Whether the child is a long-term EL or at risk of becoming a long-term EL. b) The manner in which the English language development instruction will: i) Meet the long-term EL or at risk of becoming a long-term EL educational strengths and needs. ii) Help the EL or at risk of becoming a long-term EL develop English proficiency and meet age-appropriate academic standards. 2)Requires the CDE to develop and make available a sample notification letter explaining the purposes of the home language survey letter and the procedures for identification and reclassification of ELs. Additionally, it: a) Requires that the notification letter include specified statements advising parents how they can dispute the school's determination. b) Requires that districts provide the notification letter to the parent/guardian at the same time the home language survey is provided. Comments 1)Need for the bill. According to the author, while federal law requires parental notification of a student's English proficiency within 30 days of the start of school, no information is currently provided regarding students who are long term ELs or who are at risk of becoming long-term ELs. Additionally, the author is concerned that the home language survey required under sunset California law does not provide parents with an understanding of the purpose of the survey and the procedures for identification and reclassification of ELs. This bill is intended to prevent students from being misclassified upon initial enrollment at a school. 2)Long-term English Learners. A 2010 report by Californians AB 491 Page 4 Together, Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity for California's Long-Term English Learners, presented survey data collected from 40 school districts. Major findings of the survey included the following: a) The majority (59%) of secondary school ELs are "Long-Term English Learners (defined as being in US schools for more than six years without sufficient English proficiency to be reclassified). b) California school districts that do not have a shared definition of Long-term ELs. c) Several contributing factors include; no receipt of language development programs, being given elementary school curricula and materials that were not designed to meet EL needs, weak language development program models, inconsistent programs, social and linguistic isolation and other things. d) Few districts have designated programs or formal approaches designed for Long-Term ELs. As a result of this report, legislation was enacted (AB 2193, Lara, Chapter 427, Statutes of 2012) to statutorily define "long-term English learner" and "at risk of becoming a long-term English learner" and to require that the CDE ascertain and provide the number of students who meet these definitions to districts and schools. This bill requires that existing notification requirements regarding the assessment of a student's English language proficiency include specific information for students identified as a long-term EL or at risk of becoming a long-term EL. 3)Home Language Survey. Existing law requires schools to determine the language(s) spoken in the home of each student. This determination begins with a home language survey (HLS), which is completed by the parents or guardians at the time the student is first enrolled. The CDE provides a sample form, AB 491 Page 5 available in various languages to assist with this identification process. According to the CDE, a redetermination of a primary language is only required if the results are disputed by a parent or guardian. If a language other than English was inaccurately included on the HLS, a parent/guardian may request to update the HLS to accurately reflect the language(s) spoken in the home. However, if a pupil has already completed a California English Language Development Test (CELDT) and has been designated an English learner, the pupil must take the assessment annually until they are reclassified fluent English proficient. This bill is intended to respond to concerns that the current home language survey process "misidentifies" students as ELs and makes it difficult to correct any "misidentifications". The bill requires that the home language survey information include disclosures regarding the purpose of the home language survey, the ability of a parent to dispute the determination, and the inability to make any changes once the child has been tested and identified as an EL. 4)Are there issues? In March 2013, in response to concerns regarding inaccurate identification of ELs, CDE gathered suggestions for possible HLS revisions from the statewide Bilingual Coordinators' Network of district and county professionals. In September 2013, the CDE participated in a national working session with several states, stakeholders, and researchers convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers aimed at strengthening the reliability, accuracy, and usefulness of HLS questions and processes. In February and May of 2014, the CDE met with representatives from five local educational agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders to review the current HLS and make recommendations for revising the tool. From these meetings, the workgroup developed survey questions to be used in an HLS Pilot Study conducted by the West Ed Regional Education Laboratory-West and California Comprehensive Center in collaboration with the University of California Los Angeles Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. AB 491 Page 6 The HLS Pilot Study examined the clarity of the HLS (questions and the extent to which these may better predict which students are potential ELs and need to be assessed. Approximately 20 schools participated in the study from five participating districts including ABC Unified School District, Coachella Valley Unified School District, Inglewood Unified School District, Robla Elementary School District, and Torrance Unified School District. According to the CDE, because the sample size was limited to 150 students, the results of the pilot study do not yield sufficient information to recommend policy decisions. The CDE recommended a more extensive and systematic study be conducted at a later date when the English Learner Proficiency Assessment is operational. 5)English learners. The CDE provides the following information on English learners in California's public schools: a) In the 2014-15 school year there were approximately 1.4 million ELs in California public schools, constituting 22.3 percent of the total enrollment. b) Over 2.6 million students (42.9 percent of public school enrollment) spoke a language other than English in their home. c) 73 percent of ELs are enrolled in the elementary grades (K-6) with the remaining 27 percent enrolled in grades 7-12. d) Although EL data is collected for 60 language groups, 94 percent speak one of the top ten languages in the state, which include Spanish (83.7 percent), Vietnamese, Pilipino (Filipino or Tagalog), Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic, Hmong, Korean, Punjabi, and Russian. e) During 2013-14 the CDE administered the CELDT) to 1.4 million students, 1.1 million of whom were tested under the annual assessment window. f) In 2012-13 and 2013-14, approximately 12 percent of ELs AB 491 Page 7 were reclassified as English proficient. Prior to that approximately 11 percent of English learners were annually reclassified, with the notable exception that in 2011-12, 16.3 percent were reclassified. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes According to the Senate Committee on Appropriation, this bill would impose the following costs: The CDE estimates one-time costs of $32,000 General Fund to develop a sample notification letter. State reimbursable mandate costs potentially in the hundreds of thousands for school districts to provide the notification letter to parents or guardians of a student when the home language survey is provided, and to expand the information to be included in the parent notice of assessment of his or her child's English language proficiency. (Proposition 98) SUPPORT: (Verified8/22/16) Association of California School Administrators Los Angeles Unified School District San Diego Unified School District OPPOSITION: (Verified8/22/16) None received ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 6/1/15 AB 491 Page 8 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins Prepared by:Olgalilia Ramirez / ED. / (916) 651-4105 8/22/16 20:38:05 **** END ****