SECTIONS 60900-60901 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 60900-60901

60900. (a) The department shall contract for the development of
proposals which will provide for the retention and analysis of
longitudinal pupil achievement data on the tests administered
pursuant to Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 60600), Chapter 7
(commencing with Section 60810), and Chapter 9 (commencing with
Section 60850). The longitudinal data shall be known as the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System.
(b) The proposals developed pursuant to subdivision (a) shall
evaluate and determine whether it would be most effective, from both
a fiscal and a technological perspective, for the state to own the
system. The proposals shall additionally evaluate and determine the
most effective means of housing the system.
(c) The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
shall be developed and implemented in accordance with all state rules
and regulations governing information technology projects.
(d) The system or systems developed pursuant to this section shall
be used to accomplish all of the following goals:
(1) To provide school districts and the department access to data
necessary to comply with federal reporting requirements delineated in
the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et
seq.).
(2) To provide a better means of evaluating educational progress
and investments over time.
(3) To provide local educational agencies information that can be
used to improve pupil achievement.
(4) To provide an efficient, flexible, and secure means of
maintaining longitudinal statewide pupil level data.
(5) To facilitate the ability of the state to publicly report
data, as specified in Section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the federal America
COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 9871) and as required by the federal
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
(6) To ensure that any data access provided to researchers, as
required pursuant to the federal Race to the Top regulations and
guidelines is provided, only to the extent that the data access is in
compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g).
(e) In order to comply with federal law as delineated in the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.), the
local educational agency shall retain individual pupil records for
each test taker, including all of the following:
(1) All demographic data collected from the STAR Program test,
high school exit examination, and English language development tests.
(2) Pupil achievement data from assessments administered pursuant
to the STAR Program, high school exit examination, and English
language development testing programs. To the extent feasible, data
should include subscore data within each content area.
(3) A unique pupil identification number to be identical to the
pupil identifier developed pursuant to the California School
Information Services, which shall be retained by each local
educational agency and used to ensure the accuracy of information on
the header sheets of the STAR Program tests, high school exit
examination, and the English language development test.
(4) All data necessary to compile reports required by the federal
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.),
including, but not limited to, dropout and graduation rates.
(5) Other data elements deemed necessary by the Superintendent,
with approval of the state board, to comply with the federal
reporting requirements delineated in the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.), and the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), after review and comment
by the advisory board convened pursuant to subdivision (h). Prior to
the implementation of this paragraph with respect to adding data
elements to the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
for the purpose of complying with the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), the department and the
appropriate postsecondary education agencies shall submit an
expenditure plan to the Department of Finance detailing any
administrative costs to the department and costs to any local
educational agency, if applicable. The Department of Finance shall
provide to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee a copy of the
expenditure plan within 10 days of receipt of the expenditure plan
from the department.
(6) To enable the department, the University of California, the
California State University, and the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges, to meet the requirements prescribed by the
federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law
111-5), these entities shall be authorized to obtain quarterly wage
data, commencing July 1, 2010, on students who have attended their
respective systems, to assess the impact of education on the
employment and earnings of those students, to conduct the annual
analysis of district-level and individual district or postsecondary
education system performance in achieving priority educational
outcomes, and to submit the required reports to the Legislature and
the Governor. The information shall be provided to the extent
permitted by federal statutes and regulations.
(f) The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
shall have all of the following characteristics:
(1) The ability to sort by demographic element collected from the
STAR Program tests, high school exit examination, and English
language development test.
(2) The capability to be expanded to include pupil achievement
data from multiple years.
(3) The capability to monitor pupil achievement on the STAR
Program tests, high school exit examination, and English language
development test from year to year and school to school.
(4) The capacity to provide data to the state and local
educational agencies upon their request.
(g) Data elements and codes included in the system shall comply
with Sections 49061 to 49079, inclusive, and Sections 49602 and
56347, with Sections 430 to 438, inclusive, of Title 5 of the
California Code of Regulations, with the Information Practices Act of
1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part
4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code), and with the federal Family
Education Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g), Section
1242h of Title 20 of the United States Code, and related federal
regulations.
(h) The department shall convene an advisory board consisting of
representatives from the state board, the Secretary for Education,
the Department of Finance, the State Privacy Ombudsman, the
Legislative Analyst's Office, representatives of parent groups,
school districts, and local educational agencies, and education
researchers to establish privacy and access protocols, provide
general guidance, and make recommendations relative to data elements.
The department is encouraged to seek representation broadly
reflective of the general public of California.
(i) Subject to funding being provided in the annual Budget Act,
the department shall contract with a consultant for independent
project oversight. The Director of Finance shall review the request
for proposals for the contract. The consultant hired to conduct the
independent project oversight shall twice annually submit a written
report to the Superintendent, the state board, the advisory board,
the Director of Finance, the Legislative Analyst, and the appropriate
policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. The report shall
include an evaluation of the extent to which the California
Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System is meeting the goals
described in subdivision (d) and recommendations to improve the data
system in ensuring the privacy of individual pupil information and
providing the data needed by the state and school districts.
(j) This section shall be implemented using federal funds received
pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec.
6301 et seq.), which are appropriated for purposes of this section in
Item 6110-113-0890 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2002
(Chapter 379 of the Statutes of 2002). The release of these funds is
contingent on approval of an expenditure plan by the Department of
Finance.
(k) For purposes of this chapter, a local educational agency shall
include a county office of education, a school district, or charter
school.

60901. (a) Contingent upon the receipt of federal funds for this
purpose, the department, in consultation with the Department of
Finance and the Legislative Analyst's Office, shall prepare the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System established
pursuant to Section 60900 to include data on a quarterly rate of
pupil attendance. Preparation shall include all of the following:
(1) The addition of fields to facilitate the transfer of data.
(2) System development activities including any business rules and
definitions that would be needed to improve the quality and
consistency of the data.
(3) Processes for the transfer of data from local educational
agencies.
(4) Consultation with organizations representing school, district,
and county education administrators, classified and certified staff,
and parents in order to develop the criteria and frequency of
reports on pupil attendance data and other indicators as may be
submitted by local educational agencies.
(b) The system shall support local educational agencies in their
efforts to identify and support pupils at risk of dropping out and
shall be capable of issuing to local educational agencies periodic
reports that include, but may not be limited to, district, school,
class, and individual pupil reports on both of the following:
(1) Rates of absence.
(2) Chronic absentees.
(c) (1) For purposes of this section, "chronic absentee" means a
pupil who is absent on 10 percent or more of the schooldays in the
school year when the total number of days a pupil is absent is
divided by the total number of days the pupil is enrolled and school
was actually taught in the regular day schools of the district,
exclusive of Saturdays and Sundays.
(2) Once available, chronic absentee rates shall be incorporated
into the annual report on dropouts required pursuant to Section
48070.6.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature to support the development
of early warning systems to enable the identification and support of
individual pupils who are at risk of academic failure or dropping
out of school. The systems shall encompass the following
characteristics:
(1) The utilization of highly predictive indicators, including
attendance, course grades or completion, performance on assessments
of pupil achievement, suspensions, and expulsions.
(2) A thorough validation process to ensure the predictive
reliability of the systems.
(3) Periodic reports that inform principals, teachers, and parents
in a manner that enables timely identification and support of
individual pupils who are at risk of academic failure or dropping
out.
(e) When the system established pursuant to Section 60900 is
prepared to accept data on a quarterly rate of pupil attendance, a
local educational agency may submit data to the department on a
quarterly rate of pupil attendance and other indicators as identified
by the department. It is the intent of the Legislature that schools
identified on the list of persistently lowest-achieving schools will
fully utilize the early warning systems described in subdivision (d).
(f) A local educational agency that reports attendance data for
pupils to the system established pursuant to Section 60900 may
request, and the department shall provide, the early warning report
described in subdivision (d) up to four times each school year.
(g) The department shall notify local educational agencies that
reporting pupil attendance and chronic absentee data pursuant to this
section is voluntary. The notice shall include a description of the
benefits of reporting pupil attendance and chronic absentee data in
fostering the development of effective supports and interventions for
at-risk pupils.
(h) This section shall not be implemented unless federal funds are
appropriated specifically for the purposes of this section.