Annual Public Hearing and Resolution on IM
August 29, 2005
Dear County and District Superintendents:
ANNUAL PUBLIC HEARING AND RESOLUTION ON SUFFICIENCY OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND WILLIAMS SETTLEMENT INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS FUNDS
Assembly Bill 831, Chapter 118, Statutes of 2005, took effect July 25, 2005. AB 831 modified the annual public hearing requirement in Education Code (EC) Section 60119 and modified the expenditure requirements related to Williams instructional materials funds.
Under EC Section 60119, the governing board of every local educational agency (LEA) that receives state instructional materials funds must hold an annual public hearing before the end of the eighth week from the first day pupils attend school for that year. At the public hearing the governing board must make a determination as to whether each pupil in each school has sufficient textbooks or instructional materials, or both, that are aligned to the content standards and are consistent with the content and cycles of the curriculum framework adopted by the State Board of Education in reading/language arts, mathematics, science, and history-social science. The requirement that the materials be aligned to the content standards is new.
In addition, the definition of sufficiency now provides that each pupil, including each English learner, must have a standards-aligned textbook or instructional materials, or both, to use in class and to take home. The definition no longer refers to the completion of required homework.
LEAs with schools ranked in deciles one or two of the 2003 Academic Performance Index (API), based upon 2003 base API rankings, received instructional materials funds in 2004-05 as part of the Williams settlement. All expenditures of these funds from Resource Code 7158, Instructional Materials-Williams Case, made after July 25, 2005, must be for the purchase of standards-aligned instructional materials in reading/language arts, mathematics, science, and history-social science used exclusively by students enrolled in deciles one and two schools.
For more information regarding this subject, please contact Thomas Adams, Director, Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division, 916-319-0663 or by email at tadams@cde.ca.gov. For more information you can also visit the California Department of Education Williams Case Web site.
Sincerely,
Original signed by:
JACK O’CONNELL
JO:sm