The advocates with ACSA’s Governmental Relations team have been working steadily on several key issues throughout the summer. The following bills in particular represent some of their successes and ongoing work. SB 419 – Willful defiance suspensions SB 419 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on July 10. The bill would expand the permanent elimination of suspensions for “willful defiance” to grades 4 and 5, and prohibit willful defiance suspensions for grades 6-8 through July 1, 2024. ACSA’s support of SB 419 is rooted in our members’ commitment to equity and our belief that kids are safest and best served when at school. In 2017-18, African American students were 5.6 percent of the student population but made up 15.4 percent of those who were suspended for willful defiance. ACSA has embedded alternative strategies into our professional development offerings and grassroots equity work. We remain committed to equipping our members with the tools they need to minimize the use of suspensions, while enforcing behavioral expectations and maintaining positive learning environments for all kids.  AB 1505 – Charter schools petitions On July 10, the Senate Education Committee held a hearing on AB 1505. This bill would substantially affect charter school authorization and renewal. The committee passed this bill on a 4-3 vote and re-referred it to the Committee on Appropriations. AB 1507 – Charter schools location Also heard by the Senate Education Committee on July 10, AB 1507 was recently significantly amended and is a work in progress that makes various changes relating to charter school authorizations, appeals, and renewals, clarifies the teacher credentialing requirements of charter school teachers, and places a two-year moratorium on non-classroom-based charter schools. The governor’s office is negotiating this bill and all interested parties, including ACSA, agree that there is much work to be done this summer on the details of these important policy changes.  SB 328 – School start time SB 328 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on July 10. The bill would prohibit middle schools, including those operated as a charter school, from beginning their school day before 8 a.m., and high schools, including those operated s charter schools, from beginning their school day before 8:30 a.m. ACSA strongly opposed SB 328 as it is too prescriptive, unnecessarily erodes local control, and fails to recognize the potentially negative and disproportionate safety, fiscal, family and community impacts of imposing a one-size-fits all statewide mandate. AB 1303 – Civic Center Act AB 1303 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on July 3, extending the sunset on the Civic Center Act, which allows school districts to provide other public entities the use of their facilities and play fields at little or no charge. Districts are authorized under the Act to recoup their direct costs which include supplies, , utilities, janitorial services, and any administrative costs. AB 48 – Facilities bond AB 48, the Kindergarten-Community Colleges Public Education Facilities Bond Acts of 2020 and 2022 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on July 3. AB 48 will place a $13 billion bond on the March 2020 ballot to provide preschool through community college students and our employee’s access to high quality and safe school facilities. In addition, AB 48 places a school facilities bond on the ballot in 2022. Since 1986, the state has shared the responsibility for building new schools and modernizing existing facilities with local school districts and the building community. Through this partnership, communities have supported school districts by matching state funds and helped to level the playing field for school districts.

SB 614 – Teacher credentialing: reading instruction SB 614 was introduced to address changes to California’s teacher preparation programs and assessments by eliminating an outdated reading assessment for multiple subject and special education teacher candidates known as the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment. A coalition of teacher preparation professors, unions, management, and civil rights groups have been meeting for years to address the impact RICA has had on the teaching profession.  Based on legislation written in 1966, the RICA no longer aligns with the current English Language Arts/English Language Development frameworks or teaching standards and does not reflect current research and instructional best practices in reading and literacy. Additionally, the pass rate suggest bias against individuals within certain subgroups including examinees who speak one or more languages other than English, African American candidates, and males.   “At a time when we need more teachers who are representative of our diverse student population, this single outdated test has operated as one of the greatest barriers to teacher candidates,” said ACSA governmental relations advocate Laura Preston. Additional amendments were needed to improve SB 614. The coalition in support of SB 614 ran out of time due to the legislative calendar and decided to make the bill a two-year bill in order for discussions to continue during the fall legislative break. ACSA will continue to work with coalition partners and the legislature to implement changes that best serve students.