SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed the following bills to improve the quality of education in California.
• SB 1070 Senator Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) – Career Technical Education Pathways Program. Extends an existing technical education program at middle schools, high schools and community colleges until 2015.
• SB 1292 by Senator Carol Liu (D-Pasadena) – School employees: principals: evaluation. Authorizes school districts to assess the performance of school principals and establishes provision to guide that evaluation process.
• AB 1663 by Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) – Pupil instruction: California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science. Requests the Regents of the University of California to set a tuition fee for the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science program.
• AB 2367 by Assemblymember Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) – School gardens: sale of produce. Allows schools to sell produce from their school gardens as long as existing health and safety requirements are met.
• AB 2279 by Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland) – School districts: emergency apportionments: trustees. Authorizes the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to remove a state-appointed trustee from a school district that received an emergency loan after three years, provided the district has adequate fiscal systems in place and the Superintendent determines the district’s future compliance with its fiscal plan is probable.
• AB 1521 by Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) – Standardized Testing and Reporting Program: academic achievement: assessment instrument. Allows English speaking pupils enrolled in a dual immersion program to take the primary language assessment.
• AB 2193 by Assemblymember Ricardo Lara (D-South Gate) – Long-term English learners. Creates standard definitions of “long-term English learner” and “English learners at risk of becoming long-term English learners,” to properly identify these students so they receive appropriate assistance.
• SB 1108 by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) – English learners: reclassification. Requires the California Department of Education to analyze the way school districts reclassify English learners and recommend to the Legislature and state board any changes necessary to improve education in California.
• AB 2616 by Assemblymember Wilmer Carter (D-Rialto) – School districts: truancy. Provides school administrators with more discretion when determining if students are truant and in imposing consequences for truant students to focus truancy reduction efforts away from law enforcement and courts.
• AB 1668 by Assemblymember Wilmer Carter (D-Rialto) – School accountability: academic performance: dropout recovery high schools. Expands the current definition of a “dropout recovery high school” to help better identify the schools that enroll pupils who have not been enrolled for at least 180 days.
• AB 2171 by Assemblymember Paul Fong (D-Mountain View) – Public postsecondary education: community college: expulsion hearing. Allows California Community College districts to require student applicants to disclose any prior expulsion from another community college and allows denial of admission for specified serious or violent offenses.
• AB 1729 by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) – Pupil rights: suspension or expulsion: alternatives and other means of correction. Clarifies existing law to only allow suspension or expulsion of a student only after other means of correction fail to bring about proper conduct.
• AB 2537 by Assemblymember V. Manuel Perez (D-Coachella) – Pupil discipline: suspensions and expulsions. Clarifies that possessing an imitation firearm, over-the-counter medicine or student’s prescription medicines are not “zero tolerance” offences that automatically require expulsion. Eliminates an existing $500 fine imposed on a principal who fail to notify law enforcement of certain crimes allegedly committed by students.
• AB 2497 by Assemblymember Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana) – California State University: Early Start Program. Requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office to report information measuring the effect of the California State University’s Early Start Program on mathematics and English proficiency.
The Governor also announced that he has vetoed the following bills:
• AB 1853 by Assemblymember Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) – Teacher credentialing: recognition of study in transitional kindergarten. A veto message can be found here.
• AB 2242 by Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) – Pupils: grounds for suspension and expulsion. A veto message can be found here.
For full text of the bills, visit: http://leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.