California Action Alert

AN ACTION ALERT FROM A PARENT REGARDING ASSEMBLY BILL (AB) 1490.

The introduced version of this bill would have corrected a problem in
existing state law, which currently endangers many nonpublic
nonsectarian schools that deliver special education
services. "Nonpublic nonsectarian schools" are the nonpublic
placements where disabled students receive much needed interventions,
such as ABA ! Unfortunately, due to amendments, AB 1490 has morphed
into a bill about portable classrooms! None of the beneficial changes
proposed in the introduced version remain.

Why this issue is important to parents of children with autism:

Last year, the Department of Education notified many nonpublic
schools the Department would withdraw their certification to deliver
special education if their staff did not meet the federal "highly
qualified" requirement (No Child Left Behind). The explanation
behind this action was that the state disburses federal funds to
school districts to provide special education services and the school
districts then pay the federal funds to nonpublic schools to deliver
special education services; so therefore, the nonpublic schools
receive federal funds and must comply with the same federal
provisions as the public schools.

This narrow interpretation of law requires nonpublic schools to spend
valuable resources to comply with laws when it is unlikely it was the
intention of the federal law to have it apply to nonpublic schools.
At a time when there is a shortage in special education teachers,
nonpublic schools have to compete with public schools for
credentialed teachers when the nonpublic schools are not able to
provide the same health or retirement benefits as the public
schools. Consequently, nonpublic schools must spend resources to
develop and train staff to meet state credentialing requirements.
Public schools are able to request "emergency permits" from the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing when their staff are not able to
meet credentialing requirements, whereas nonpublic schools may not as
state law only allows public schools to request emergency permits
from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

Last year, our world fell apart when we opened a letter from our
son's school district essentially informing us his placement would
change as of the deadline the Department of Education had imposed
upon his nonpublic school to meet the "highly qualified" requirements
in federal law. We freaked out. Our son is on the severe end of the
spectrum and the only way his public school was able to meet his
unique needs was placing him in a nonpublic placement. Fortunately,
his placement did not change because his nonpublic school was able to
work things out with the Department of Education. However, without
changes to law, we continue to fear disruption in his education if
staff levels at the school should dip.

The introduction of AB 1490 appeared to resolve this issue. Among
other things, it
Removed the requirement that special education teachers in nonpublic
nonsectarian schools have the state teaching credentials equivalent
to "highly qualified" as specified in federal law for public school
teachers;
Required the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to develop
alternative credential requirements for special education teachers in
nonpublic schools; and
Prevented the state from withdrawing certification from a nonpublic
nonsectarian school (that meets all state requirements for
certification) if one or more of the school's employees lacks a
teaching credential.

If the gutting of AB 1490 was due to costs associated with the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing having to develop alternative
special education teacher credentials for nonpublic schoolteachers,
then Assembly Member Mendoza needs to amend the bill to address
legislative appropriation for the costs.

In every public school, there are students with disabilities that
have unique needs not met in that setting. It is not right for the
state to allow existing law to force closure, or severely limit
enrollment, of highly specialized private sector schools for not
meeting public sector school requirements.

Please contact Assembly Member Mendoza's office and ask him to amend
AB 1490 to include provisions similar to what were in the introduced
version.

Assembly Member Mendoza's contact information at his Capitol Office
is:

State Capitol District Office:
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0056
Tel: (916) 319-2056
Fax: (916) 319-2156 12501 E. Imperial Highway
Suite 210
Norwalk , CA 90650
Tel: (562) 864-5600
Fax: (562) 863-7466

Also, please contact the Assembly Members that serve on the Committee
on Education and ask them how they could approve the gutting of such
important provisions from a bill effecting the education of our
students.

The Members of the Committee on Education are:
Committee Members District Phone E-mail
Gene Mullin - Chair Dem-19 (916) 319-2019
Assemblymember.mullin@assembly.ca.gov
Martin Garrick - Vice Chair Rep-74 (916) 319-2074
Assemblymember.Garrick@assembly.ca.gov
Julia Brownley Dem-41 (916) 319-2041
Assemblymember.Brownley@assembly.ca.gov
Joe Coto Dem-23 (916) 319-2023 Assemblymember.coto@assembly.ca.gov
Mike Eng Dem-49 (916) 319-2049 Assemblymember.Eng@asm.ca.gov
Loni Hancock Dem-14 (916) 319-2014
Assemblymember.hancock@assembly.ca.gov
Bob Huff Rep-60 (916) 319-2060 Assemblymember.huff@assembly.ca.gov
Betty Karnette Dem-54 (916) 319-2054
Assemblymember.Karnette@assembly.ca.gov
Alan Nakanishi Rep-10 (916) 319-2010
Assemblymember.nakanishi@assembly.ca.gov
Jose Solorio Dem-69 (916) 319-2069
Assemblymember.solorio@assembly.ca.gov

ADVOCATE!