Senate Bill 328, which would prohibit all non-rural middle and high schools in the state from starting the regular school day before 8 a.m. (middle schools) or 8:30 a.m. (high schools), passed the Assembly Education Committee on July 10 with a 4-1 vote (two members declined to vote) and was sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where it awaits a hearing. If approved by that committee, the bill would be sent to the Assembly Floor.

CSBA remains opposed to SB 328, as the decision regarding school start times should be made locally, based on the needs of students and families in their own communities.

Assembly Bill 1505, which remains a work in progress leading into the final weeks of the legislative year, would make substantial changes to processes governing charter school petitions and renewals. Amendments made on July 5 reflect several recommendations made by CSBA’s Charter Schools Task Force in its 2018 Uncharted Waters report, as well as priorities of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.

“We feel that the bill is headed in the right direction with the recent set of amendments as we continue to work with the author and key stakeholders,” said Carlos Machado, CSBA legislative advocate. “We appreciate the consideration that the recent amendments give to impacts of charters on existing district services and the needs and interests of local communities.”

As originally proposed, AB 1505 would have eliminated the authority of county office of education boards to authorize a charter school and to hear an appeal of a denied petition. After extensive input from CSBA and other groups, the bill was amended to restore county board authority in these areas.

California County Boards of Education President, CSBA Director and Solano COE trustee Dana Dean testified in support of AB 1505 during its hearing in the Senate Education Committee, where it passed with a 4-3 vote. The legislation was then sent to Senate Appropriations. Dean praised the recent amendments that “move the bill in a positive direction” and also expressed concern over key provisions that still require attention, such as a short 15-day timeline for governing boards to respond to appeals and a lack of parity for authorizers during the authorization and appeals processes.

CSBA maintains a “Support if Amended” position on the bill as discussions on key details continue.

Among other amendments, the most recent version of the bill includes a two-year moratorium on non-classroom-based charters, allows the denial of a petition if the authorizing board finds the charter would not serve community interests or based on fiscal impact, and outlines differentiated renewal tracks based on the charter’s performance.

AB 1507 (Smith, D-Santa Clarita), a CSBA-supported bill that would prohibit a charter school from locating outside the geographic boundaries of the authorizing school district, also passed the Senate Education Committee on July 10 and is in Appropriations. The bill is also consistent with recommendations made in the Uncharted Waters report, available at www.csba.org/unchartedwaters.

Three CSBA co-sponsored bills now reside in the Senate Appropriations Committee awaiting hearing in August: AB 39 (Muratsuchi, D–Torrance), which would express legislative intent to increase the Local Control Funding Formula base grant targets equivalent to the national average in per-pupil funding; AB 428 (Medina, O’Donnell et al), which, among other things, would equalize base special education funding rates (pursuant to AB 602) to the 95th percentile; and AB 751 (O’Donnell), which would authorize local educational agencies to administer an alternate assessment (i.e. SAT or ACT) during the school day in place of the Smarter Balanced Test.

Barring rule waivers, legislative policy committees (i.e. education, health and local government committees) may no longer meet to hear bills in 2019. Appropriations Committees in both houses have until Aug. 30 to meet and hear their respective suspense files, determining which fiscal bills will advance and which will not progress in 2019. The Legislature has until Sept. 13 to pass bills and send them to Gov. Newsom, who will then have 30 days to sign or veto bills. Bills not passed by the Legislature in 2019 have the option to be reheard and can be passed in 2020, the second year of the current two-year session.