Bill Text: CA AB2698 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: School accountability: school climate and restorative justice: assessments.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [AB2698 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB2698-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2698 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 11, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 18, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Weber
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
An act to add and repeal Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section
52080) of Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code,
relating to school accountability.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2698, as amended, Weber. School accountability: school climate
and restorative justice: assessments.
(1) Existing law establishes the Public Schools Accountability Act
of 1999 to, among other things, ensure that each child in California
receives a high-quality education consistent with all statewide
content and performance standards, as specified.
This bill would require high-need
low-achieving schools, as defined, on or before September 1,
2017, to begin and, on or before July 1, 2018, to complete a school
climate assessment, as specified. The bill would require every
assessed school to take steps to ensure that responses to school
climate assessments remain anonymous and that no individual is
identified. The bill would require these schools to publish the
results of the assessment on their Internet Web sites, provided that
personally identifiable information or information that can
reasonably lead a reader to identify an individual is not shared. The
bill would require the outcomes resulting from a school climate
assessment to be shared through meaningful engagement and
collaboration with pupils, parents, teachers, and school personnel
in order to develop corrective action recommendations
that address the assessment outcomes and would
require the recommendations to be incorporated and implemented by the
school district no later than one year after completion of the
assessment, except as provided. By imposing additional duties on
school officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local
program.
The bill would require the State Department of Education to
develop and post to an easily accessible page on the department's
Internet Web site a listing of available school climate assessment
instruments and organizations. The bill would require the department
to convene an advisory committee comprised of stakeholders and
professionals who have participated in the development and expansion
of alternative discipline programs, such as restorative justice and
positive behavioral interventions and supports, to make
recommendations to the department. The bill would require the
Legislative Analyst's Office, on or before January 1, 2023, to
compile data of the changes in pupil academic achievement at targeted
high-need low-achieving schools,
including a breakdown by pupil ethnicity, and chronic absenteeism,
suspension, expulsion, and dropout rates of the targeted schools and
provide a report to the department, the Governor, and the appropriate
legislative budget and policy committees, as specified.
The bill would repeal these provisions on July 1, 2023.
(2) 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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to improve
pupil academic outcomes at high-need,
low-achieving schools by improving school climates to provide a
strong foundation for academic improvement efforts.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following
relating to school climate:
(1) A school's climate is a social justice issue, as the state
loses generations of pupils from poor and underserved communities
with few options but to enroll in high-need, low-achieving schools.
(2) Over 20 years of research has confirmed that a positive school
climate is directly related to pupil academic achievement and that
school climate is the single most dominant predictor we now have of
pupil academic achievement levels.
(3) The United States Department of Education recommends school
climate reform as an evidence-based strategy to prevent school
violence.
(4) The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
recommends school climate reform as a scientifically sound strategy
that promotes healthy relationships, school connectedness, and pupil
retention.
(5) The federal Institute of Education Sciences includes school
climate as a strategy for dropout prevention.
(6) Perceptions about school climate impact teacher morale and
pupil achievement. A positive school climate benefits pupils,
teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and parents;
teachers are motivated to teach and pupils are motivated to learn.
(7) Without school climate assessments, teachers and education
leaders lack a comprehensive understanding of the tools and steps
needed to address low pupil achievement levels, pupil dropout rates,
pupil suspensions, and pupil chronic absenteeism.
(8) The use of school climate assessments is an effective
data-driven strategy that engages pupils, teachers, school
administrators, school personnel, and parents working together to
create safe, supportive, engaging, and successful schools.
(9) Positive school climates are stable over time absent any
systematic effort to change climate components.
(10) The meaningful input and perspectives of pupils, commonly
absent in school decisionmaking, are essential components of school
climate assessments to improve pupil emotional and social well-being.
(11) No instances of successful turnaround schools, which are
schools that transformed from high-need, low-achieving schools into
high-performing schools, have been found that did not address school
climate.
(12) Factors affecting a school's climate that recognize the
social, emotional, and academic aspects of K-12 pupil learning can be
accurately measured and assessed.
(c) The Legislature finds and declares that creating a
sustainable, positive school climate fosters youth development;
higher pupil achievement; lower dropout, suspension, and absenteeism
rates; decreased incidences of violence; and increased teacher
retention and results in the following outcomes that directly impact
K-12 pupils, teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and
parents:
(1) Pupils, teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and
parents are engaged and respected.
(2) Individuals feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe
and relationships with and among youth are prioritized.
(3) Pupils, teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and
parents work together to develop and contribute to a shared school
vision.
(4) Teachers and school administrators, incorporating the views of
pupils, model and nurture attitudes that emphasize the benefits and
satisfaction gained from learning based on high academic
expectations.
(5) Each individual contributes to the operations and climate of
the school.
(6) Disciplinary practices are assessed and an effort is made to
utilize practices that promote positive interventions.
(7) Collaboration and cooperation replace a school climate of
confrontation and mistrust, and inclusiveness becomes the norm.
(c)
(d) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following regarding alternative discipline programs, such as
restorative justice and positive behavioral interventions and
supports:
(1) California K-12 schools issued more than half a million
suspensions in the 2013-14 school year, with pupils of color
disproportionately subjected to out-of-school suspensions.
(2) African American pupils are three times more likely to be
suspended than all other pupils, and studies show that pupils of
color are disciplined more harshly than other pupils, resulting in
serious, negative educational consequences.
(3) A recent University of California, Los Angeles study concluded
that African American pupils who are expelled from school have a
90-percent likelihood of being placed in a state correctional
institution.
(4) Exclusionary school removals cause a number of correlated
negative educational, economic, and social problems, including school
avoidance, an increased likelihood of dropping out, and engagement
with the juvenile justice system. This civil rights crisis has come
to be known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
(5) The American Academy of Pediatrics has found that suspension
can increase stress and may predispose pupils to antisocial behavior
and suicidal ideation.
(6) Psychologists have found that disciplinary exclusion can
increase pupil shame, alienation, rejection, and the breaking of
healthy adult bonds, thereby exacerbating negative mental health
outcomes for young people.
(7) Alternative discipline programs, such as restorative justice
and positive behavioral interventions and supports, are healing
practices that focus on repairing harm and preventing its recurrence.
(8) Restorative practice, which builds upon restorative justice,
is used to build a sense of school community and restore positive
relationships through the use of restorative circles where pupils and
teachers work together to set academic goals, develop classroom core
values, and resolve conflicts.
(9) A 2011-14 study prepared for the United States Department for
Education's Office for Civil Rights on restorative justice in the
Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) concluded that (A) the
discipline gap between white and African American pupils decreased
significantly for OUSD pupils who participated in restorative justice
programs, but remained unchanged for pupils who did not participate
in these programs, (B) that there was a 128-percent increase in the
reading levels of 9th grade pupils at OUSD schools with restorative
justice programs, compared to an 11-percent increase in schools
without such programs, and (C) four-year graduation rates increased
by 60 percent at OUSD restorative justice schools compared to 7
percent for nonrestorative justice schools.
(e) The Legislature finds and declares that alternative discipline
programs and practices foster all of the following:
(1) Positive relationships among pupils, teachers, school
administrators, school personnel, and parents.
(2) A school community based on trust, respect, and inclusion.
(3) A reduction in pupil disciplinary actions, expulsions,
suspensions, and chronic absenteeism and the lowering of stress and
antisocial behavior.
(4) Improved mental health and pupil academic outcomes.
SEC. 2. Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 52080) is added to
Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, to read:
CHAPTER 6.5. SCHOOL CLIMATE AND STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENTACT ACHIEVEMENT ACT
52080. This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the
School Climate and Student Achievement Act.
52081. (a) The Legislature finds that creating a sustainable,
positive school climate fosters youth development; higher pupil
achievement; lower dropout, suspension, and absenteeism rates;
decreased incidences of violence; and increased teacher retention and
results in the following outcomes that directly impact K-12 pupils,
teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and parents:
(1) Pupils, teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and
parents are engaged and respected.
(2) Individuals feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe
and relationships with and among youth are prioritized.
(3) Pupils, teachers, school administrators, school personnel, and
parents work together to develop and contribute to a shared school
vision.
(4) Teachers and school administrators, incorporating the views of
pupils, model and nurture attitudes that emphasize the benefits and
satisfaction gained from learning based on high academic
expectations.
(5) Each individual contributes to the operations and climate of
the school.
(6) Disciplinary practices are assessed and an effort is made to
utilize practices that promote positive interventions.
(7) Collaboration and cooperation replace a school climate of
confrontation and mistrust, and inclusiveness becomes the norm.
(b) The Legislature finds that alternative discipline programs and
practices foster all of the following:
(1) Positive relationships among pupils, teachers, school
administrators, school personnel, and parents.
(2) A school community based on trust, respect, and inclusion.
(3) A reduction in pupil disciplinary actions, expulsions,
suspensions, and chronic absenteeism and the lowering of stress and
antisocial behavior.
(4) Improved mental health and pupil academic outcomes.
52082. 52081. For purposes of this
chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:
(a) (1) "High-need schools," as also defined by the federal Every
Student Succeeds Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.), means a public
elementary or secondary school that is located in an area in which
the percentage of pupils from families with incomes below the poverty
line is 30 percent or more.
(a) (1) "Low-achieving school" means a school that is identified
by the Superintendent or the state board as being in the lowest
performing 5 percent of all schools and that is identified for
comprehensive support and improvement pursuant to the accountability
system requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6311), as amended by the federal Every
Student Succeeds Act (Public Law 114-95).
(2) A high-need low-achieving school
could be a school operated by a school district, a school operated
by a county office of education, or a charter school.
(b) "School climate" means the quality, culture, and character of
school life, based on the patterns of pupils', teachers', school
personnel's, and parents' school life perceptions and experiences,
and reflects a school's norms, goals, values, expectations for
behavior, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning
practices, safety, and organizational structures. School climate is a
learning environment created through the interaction of personal
relationships, physical setting, and psychological conditions.
(c) "School climate assessment" means an evaluation of a school's
climate, as defined pursuant to subdivision (b), to assess existing
school culture and to provide information to influence pupil academic
outcome improvements, and that incorporates the use of
pupil, teacher, school administrator, school personnel, and parent
individual and group school climate surveys,
interviews, school data analysis, and direct observations.
(d) "Alternative discipline programs, such as restorative justice
and positive behavioral interventions and supports," means a set of
ethical principles and practices grounded in the values of showing
respect, taking responsibility, and strengthening pupil relationships
that prevent, respond to, and repair harmful pupil behaviors,
enabling school personnel to intervene more effectively by increasing
pupil support without compromising accountability.
52083. 52082. (a) On or before
September 1, 2017, high-need low-achieving
schools shall begin and, on or before July 1, 2018, complete a
school climate assessment, consistent with the provisions of this
chapter.
(b) (1) Every assessed
school shall take do all of the following:
(1) Take steps to ensure that
responses to school climate assessments remain anonymous and that no
individual is identified. These schools shall publish the results of
the assessment on their Internet Web sites, provided that personally
identifiable information or information that can reasonably lead a
reader to identify an individual shall not be shared.
(2) Outcomes Share the outcomes
resulting from a school climate assessment shall be
shared through meaningful engagement and collaboration with
pupils, teachers, school personnel, and parents in order
to develop corrective action recommendations through school
district local control and accountability plan committees that
address the assessment outcomes. recommendations.
(3) Share the outcomes and corrective action recommendations with
the school district local control and accountability plan committees.
(A)
(c) (1) The recommendations
shared pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) shall be
incorporated and implemented by the school district no later than one
year after completion of the assessment.
(B)
(2) If the recommendations are not implemented within
one year of the completion of the assessment, the governing board of
the school district shall, within 60 days, hold a public meeting
explaining its reasons for not executing corrective actions.
52084. 52083. (a) The department
shall develop and post to an easily accessible page on the department'
s Internet Web site a listing of available school climate assessment
instruments and organizations.
(b) The department shall convene an advisory committee comprised
of stakeholders and professionals who have participated in the
development and expansion of alternative discipline programs, such as
restorative justice and positive behavioral interventions and
supports, to make recommendations to the department that take into
account the following:
(1) Improving pupil social and emotional support and expanding
trauma-informed practices and cultural competency in regions of the
state with identified high-need low-achieving
schools.
(2) Collecting best practices of existing districtwide,
countywide, and charterwide alternative discipline programs and
ensuring these best practices are widely disseminated.
(3) Developing a network of teachers who have effectively
implemented these best practices and can provide training to other
schools and school districts, county offices of education, and
charter schools.
(4) Developing evaluation tools to measure the effectiveness of
research-based alternative discipline strategies.
(c) On or before January 1, 2023, the Legislative Analyst's Office
shall compile data of the changes in pupil academic achievement at
targeted high-need low-achieving
schools, including a breakdown by pupil ethnicity, and chronic
absenteeism, suspension, expulsion, and dropout rates of the targeted
schools and provide a report to the department, the Governor, and
the appropriate legislative budget and policy committees. The report
shall also compile a list of best practices
include profiles of schools that implemented a school climate
assessment and strategies used to accomplish improvements in
academic outcomes and a reduction in disciplinary actions.
52085. 52084. This chapter shall
remain in effect only until July 1, 2023, and as of that date is
repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before July
1, 2023, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.
