Report 2012-108 Recommendation 19 Responses
Report 2012-108: School Safety and Nondiscrimination Laws: Most Local Educational Agencies Do Not Evaluate the Effectiveness of Their Programs, and the State Should Exercise Stronger Leadership (Release Date: August 2013)
Recommendation #19 To: Education, Department of
To provide stronger leadership with respect to school safety and nondiscrimination laws, Education, with direction from the superintendent of public instruction, should use data from the kids survey and reported suspensions and expulsions to evaluate the levels of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying students encounter and to determine the effectiveness of its own and the LEAs' efforts, and report the results to the Legislature by August 1, 2014.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2017
Education continues to not concur with this recommendation and no further updates will be provided.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement
We stand by our recommendation that Education should use data from the kids survey and reported suspensions and expulsions to evaluate the levels of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying students encounter and to determine the effectiveness of its own and the LEAs' efforts, and report the results to the Legislature. As we noted on page 40 of our report, by evaluating this data and sharing it with LEAs, Education could provide them with ways to better address the challenges they face in preventing and responding to incidents of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2016
Will not implement. Education did not report to the Legislature by August 1, 2014, as recommended by the CSA. The Healthy Kids Survey referenced in this recommendation is not required by law to be completed, and is not funded in the state budget act. Moreover, the Healthy Kids Survey and data collected regarding suspensions and expulsions was not intended to measure the effectiveness of Education's and LEAs' efforts to address the issues raised by the CSA.
However, notwithstanding the fact that Education cannot implement this recommendation, the Local Control Funding Formula, as enacted in 2013, requires all districts and charter schools to complete a Local Control and Accountability Plan which addresses state identified priorities, actions and goals, including pupil engagement, which by defintion, includes school climate as measured by suspension rates, expulsion rates, and other local measures.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2015
The suspension and expulsion information collected through CALPADS is collected annually. The CALPADS data is located on Education's DataQuest Web site: http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/.
Education and WestEd have expanded the reports available to districts that elect to participate in the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) — referred to as the "kids' survey" in the State Auditor's report. A participating district can now obtain information on the reason a student felt bullied; e.g. bias, disability, race/national origin, sexual orientation, et cetera. Reports aggregated by these subcategories are available on the CHKS Web site: https://chks.wested.org/indicators.
- Completion Date: February 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement
Education's response does not adequately address the recommendation. Education has informed us a report would not be provided to the Legislature as we recommended. Further, Education has stated it only conducts informal evaluations of the data available because of funding issues and that it encourages LEAs to review the data available themselves. Because Education is not making any effort to implement our recommendation, we have assessed this recommendation as will not implement.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2014
The bullying-related data for the 2013-14 school year is collected through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). The window for submitting this data closes September 30, 2014. The 2012-13 bullying-related data was posted on Education's DataQuest Web site in February 2014, and was analyzed by Education staff.
- Estimated Completion Date: December 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented
1-Year Agency Response
The bullying-related data for the 2013-14 school year is collected through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). The window for submitting this data closes September 30, 2014. The 2012-13 bullying-related data was posted on Education's DataQuest Web site in February 2014, and was analyzed by Education staff.
- Estimated Completion Date: December 2014
- Response Date: September 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
Education has yet to report the results of the data gathered and analyzed to the Legislature.
6-Month Agency Response
Education is in the process of analyzing 2012-13 suspension and expulsion data as reported from LEAs. To ensure data accuracy, Education contacted LEAs to confirm that any significant current year data variations from the prior year were correctly reported.
- Estimated Completion Date: August 2014
- Response Date: March 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
1. Staff from WestEd, co-founder of the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), or "kids survey" as referenced in the CSA's report, presented a professional development workshop to Education staff on October 3, 2013. The workshop featured discussions on how to utilize data from the CHKS, in addition to the data derived from the California School Climate Survey and the California School Parent Survey.
2. The Safe and Supportive Schools Grant program, a grant that supports statewide measurement of conditions for learning (school climate) and targeted programmatic interventions to improve those conditions, is hosting a conference on November 21-22, 2013. Education will present a breakout session on bullying prevention, resources, and how to use data to plan an effective bullying prevention program.
3. The 2012-13 suspension and expulsion data submission window closed September 30th; the data was recently posted and will be reviewed to assist in determining the effectiveness of ongoing efforts.
- Estimated Completion Date: 2013-14
- Response Date: November 2013
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2012-108
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.