Hello everyone,
This is our third and final installment of the changes in California legislation for 2020 as it pertains to education and school counseling. If you have not yet read our first and second installment, we encourage you to read those posts as they cover changes in law regarding pupil health, child nutrition, homeless/foster youth, and immigration services. This post has been adapted from the Capital Advisors Group article "Changes in Law 2019."
Student Services
AB 209, Limon. Parks: Outdoor Environmental Education: Grant Program: The Director of Parks and Recreation is required to establish the Outdoor Equity Grants Program which will provide more opportunities for underserved students, especially students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, English Language Learner students, and foster youth, to participate in outdoor environmental educational experiences, hosted by state parks and other public lands.
AB 413, Jones-Sawyer. Education: at-promise youth. The term "at-risk" has now been replaced with "at-promise" in certain codes, while keeping the same meaning. This follows ACR 197, which encourages the shift away from focusing on deficits and towards the recognition of students' strengths, potential, and possibilities.
AB 982, Holden. Pupils: homework assignments for suspended pupils: Upon request, teachers are required to provide students from grades 1-12 who are suspended for 2 or more days the homework that would have been assigned.
AB 1354, Gipson. Juvenile court school pupils: The county office of education (COE) is required to work with the county probation department and relevant local educational agencies to ensure that educational records and individualized education plans are transferred and that specified transition activities are completed for students entering juvenile court school.
AB 1595 - Family and Consumer Sciences: "Homemaking" has been revised in Education Code to "family and consumer sciences."
ACR 8 - Restorative Practices in School: As of September 2019 in CA, September is declared as Restorative Practices in School Awareness Month.
ACR 14 - Dual Enrollment Week: March 17, 2019 to March 23, 2019 was declared as Dual Enrollment Week, in order to encourage post-secondary educational institutions to visit high schools and promote dual enrollment.
HR 13 - California Girls and Women in Sports Day: The 1st Wednesday in February is marked as the California Girls and Women in Sports Day, in order to recognize the contributions of girls and women in sports.
HR 29 - College Bound Day: April 22nd, 2019 was declared as College Bound Day, encouraging the importance of prioritizing education in every home.
SCR 17 - Read Across America Day: March 1st, 2019 was declared as Read Across America Day.
Additional Laws (as mentioned in the LA Times Article on California's new laws)
SB 126 - Charter schools: Charter schools are required to follow the same policies as school districts, including holding open meetings, making records available for public inspection, and adopting a conflict of interest code.
SB 328 - Pupil attendance: By July 1, 2022, CA high schools must start the schoolday no earlier than 8:30am and middle schools must start no earlier than 8:00am.
AB 272 - Pupils: Use of smartphones: A school district, county office of education, or charter school is authorized to adopt a policy to limit or prohibit students' use of smartphones at school, but the bill includes circumstances when students' smartphone use cannot be prohibited (emergencies, etc.).
AB 419 - Pupil discipline: Starting July 1, 2020, school districts and charter schools are prohibited from suspending students grades 4-5 for willful defiance or disrupting school activities. Between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2015, the same protection is granted to students in grades 6-8.
AB 711 - Pupil records: name and gender changes: A school district, county office of education, or charter school is required to update former students' names or gender on educational records (such as diplomas, transcripts, etc), if those changes have been made on their government identification.
While we may not have covered every change to California educational law for 2020, we hope that these three posts have summarized the main updates that are relevant to your role at your school site.
As our team becomes more aware of other updates, we will be sure to make those updates available on our blog.
- Counselor's Circle
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