Although much attention during the earlier part of the 2011-12 legislative session was given to the State Budget, there were more than 2,500 bills introduced during that time. Many of those bills have an impact on school employment. We addressed the significant pension reform proposals in previous issues of our Fiscal Report. What follows are other bills of potential significant impact on employment in school agencies.

Performance Evaluations

• Assembly Bill (AB) 5 (Fuentes, D-Los Angeles) would repeal existing requirements for the governing board of every school district to develop and adopt objective evaluation and assessment guidelines for evaluation of the performance of its certificated staff and replaces it with a requirement to adopt and implement a fair, transparent, and rigorous evaluation system based on a uniform standard. The system must be developed in consultation with the exclusive bargaining representative of the certificated employees. Evidence of effectiveness would include pupil progress toward English Language Arts and Math standards. Employees with an unsatisfactory performance would be required to participate in an instructional support program. Current status: Assembly Appropriations Committee-Suspense File
• AB 48 (J. Pérez, D-Los Angeles) would describe a best practices teacher evaluation system as one in which each teacher is evaluated on a continuing basis on the degree to which he or she accomplishes specific objectives and multiple observations of instructional and other professional practices are conducted by trained evaluators. The bill would provide that a school district that implements a best practices teacher evaluation program is not subject to the evaluation and assessment provisions in current law, and would authorize the school district to use Tier III categorical funding for any educational purpose (which includes beyond 2014-15) during the fiscal year in which a best practices teacher evaluation program is operative in that school district. The bill would also prohibit a school district that implements a best practices teacher evaluation program from initiating charges against an employee for unsatisfactory performance unless he or she is given the opportunity to participate in a peer assistance and review process. Current status: Assembly Education Committee
• SB 355 (Huff, R-Diamond Bar) would authorize the governing board of a school district to evaluate and assess the performance of certificated employees pursuant to a "multiple-measures evaluation system," defined in the bill as a teacher and principal evaluation system that uses multiple research-validated approaches to measuring effectiveness. Any system developed pursuant to these provisions would be required to meet specified criteria, including a quantitative pupil academic achievement growth component that constitutes at least 30% of the overall teacher and principal effectiveness measure. Current status: Senate Education Committee

Health Care

• AB 792 (Bonilla, D-Martinez) would further implement some of the provisions of federal health care reform by requiring that, starting January 1, 2014, health insurance providers notify the California Health Benefit Exchange of individuals who do not elect employer-sponsored group coverage or who lose their coverage so that coverage can be provided through the exchange. Current status: Assembly Appropriations Committee
• AB 854 (Garrick, R-Carlsbad) would bring state tax law into conformity with federal tax law with regard to health savings accounts. Similar bills have been introduced in previous legislative sessions without success. Current status: Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee-Suspense File
• SB 521 (Walters, R-Laguna Niguel) would require the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) to determine the actuarially required contributions necessary to fully fund health care benefits provided from the PERS postemployment health care benefits trust. The bill would further require new employees hired on or after January 1, 2012, to pay 50% of the actuarially required contributions and the employer to contribute the other 50%. Current status: Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee
• SB 810 (Leno, D-San Francisco) would establish a single-payer health care system in California to provide health insurance coverage to all California residents. The bill would become operative when the California Secretary of Health and Human Services determines that sufficient revenues are available for implementation, or when a federal waiver is obtained, whichever is later. The cost of this bill to the state is estimated to be $200 billion annually, and a single-payer system such as this has been attempted unsuccessfully in several previous legislative sessions. Current status: Senate Appropriations Committee

Other Employment-Related Bills

• AB 13 (Knight, R-Lancaster) would expand current law requiring noncertificated candidates to obtain an Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate by making it applicable to charter schools. The bill would also authorize a school district, county office of education, or charter school to request a local law enforcement agency to conduct an automated records check of a prospective nonteaching volunteer aide in order to ascertain whether that person has a felony controlled substance offense or a violent or serious felony, as specified. If so, then the person cannot serve as a nonteaching volunteer aide. Current status: Assembly Appropriations Committee
• AB 59 (Swanson, D-Oakland) would, under the Family Rights Act, expand its applicability by: (1) eliminating the age and dependency elements from the definition of "child," (2) expand the definition of "parent" to include parent-in-law, and (3) allow leave to care for a seriously ill grandparent, sibling, grandchild, or domestic partner, as defined. Current status: Assembly Appropriations Committee-Suspense File
• AB 451 (Hall, D-Los Angeles) specifies that the personnel commission determines compensation for, evaluates, and supervises the personnel director, and prescribes the process for an annual evaluation and for disciplinary action if necessary. Current status: Assembly Appropriations Committee
• AB 455 (Campos, D-San Jose) would require that the members of a personnel commission be appointed half by the employer and half by the recognized employee organization (if there is more than one classified bargaining unit, then the one representing the largest number of employees would appoint the designated commission members), and that the appointed members jointly elect one additional member to act as chairperson. Current status: Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee
• AB 782 (Brownley, D-Santa Monica) would require PERS to notify the school employer that is the subject of an audit, before initiating the audit, of the estimated time required to complete the audit. The bill would specify factors upon which the estimate would be based. The bill would authorize PERS to assess a reasonable charge upon the employer to recover additional costs incurred for the excess time to complete the audit if an audit requires an excess of the time estimated. Current status: Senate Rules Committee
• AB 1269 (Portantino, D-Pasadena) would delete the current provision of law requiring that reemployment of laid-off classified employees be in the reverse order of layoff, and instead require that reemployment be in order of seniority. Current status: Assembly Floor
• SB 266 (Dutton, R-Inland Empire) would temporarily suspend (through 2014-15) the substitute pay requirement contained in Education Code Section 44956(a)(5) which specifies that permanent teachers who have been laid off and come back to substitute must be paid their full daily rate instead of the regular district substitute pay rate, once the teacher has substituted 21 days in a 60-day period. This bill would prohibit local educational agencies from creating a vacant position and subsequently filling that position with a substitute employee. Current status: Senate Education Committee

Conclusion

We will be following all of these bills and many more as the legislative session progresses, and we will continue to report on any significant bills that are moving closer to becoming law. Please refer to the "Bills at a Glance" section of our publication to see all of the bills that we are following.

--Nancy LaCasse and Sheila G. Vickers