CALPADS Update Flash #285

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:      California Department of Education (CDE) –
                California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Team

Date:       August 8, 2024

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #285

Guidance Regarding Transitional Kindergarten and ELPAC, per the passage of AB 2268

This Flash serves to notify and provide guidance to local educational agencies (LEAs) regarding Assembly Bill (AB) 2268 (Chapter 15, Statutes of 2024), which amends California Education Code (EC) sections 60810 and 313. AB 2268 was signed into law on June 14, 2024.

The new law amends state requirements regarding the Initial English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) and Initial Alternate ELPAC, affecting the testing of transitional kindergarten (TK) students beginning with the 2024–25 school year. Specifically, the requirement to test students with the Initial ELPAC/Alternate ELPAC within 30 days of enrollment does not apply to students in grade TK.

For reference, the bill’s language can be found on the California Legislative Information website on the Assembly Bill Number 2268 Chapter 15 web page at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2268.

A letter was sent June 20, 2024, to County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators with interim guidance regarding TK students and English Language Proficiency Testing. This letter is posted on the CDE website on the Multilingual Learners web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/. Here is a direct link to the June 20 letter: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/tkguidanceletter.asp.

Per the guidance given in the June 20 letter, LEAs should continue to conduct the Home Language Survey (HLS) during TK enrollment. Thus, for LEAs wondering whether they are still supposed to administer the HLS: The answer is “YES.” This is key for the LEA in knowing the student's primary language.

Two key points in the June 20 letter are:

• LEAs should continue to conduct the HLS during TK enrollment to identify whether the primary or native language of a student is a language other than English.
• For TK students, LEAs should continue to submit the Student English Language Acquisition (SELA) file and populate the English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) field with “To Be Determined (TBD)” if the HLS indicates a primary language other than English or American Sign Language on any of the first three questions of the HLS. The student’s enrollment start date in grade TK can be used as the ELAS start date for the TBD status. The ELAS for TK students will remain “TBD” until they are assessed with the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC when enrolled in grade level KN - Kindergarten. Once TK students enroll in grade KN with an ELAS of TBD, they will be sent to TOMS and LEAs are required to assess those students in 30 days with the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternative ELPAC.

LEAs are again reminded that students in transitional kindergarten (TK) should be enrolled in grade level TK – Transitional Kindergarten and not grade level KN – Kindergarten. As mentioned in CALPADS Flash #280, enrolling TK students in grade level TK and not grade level KN is now critical due to the new law (AB 2268). As the June 20, 2024, letter states, “The CDE recommends that LEAs provide language support to all TK students as appropriate.” A TBD status for these students will also indicate that these students are potentially English learners, and thus the importance of language support.

CALPADS Flash #272 also contains guidance that is now even more relevant: Upon registering a student new to California public schools for grades TK–12, LEAs should consider collecting the student’s initial US school enrollment date for any student whose ELAS is TBD. LEAs are reminded that this date should be the date that the student first entered a U.S. school (in any state/Puerto Rico, including California) in grade kindergarten, which for California includes transitional kindergarten, or any other grade. This date should not be the date that a student first entered preschool. This guidance is now more relevant because it is likely easier to collect this data upon initial enrollment versus waiting to collect this data over a year later if the student is identified as an English learner.

CALPADS Updates Are Being Made

As of July 1, 2024, CALPADS is no longer sending TK enrollment records to the Test Operations Management System (TOMS). Therefore, TK students will not show up in TOMS as eligible for the Initial ELPAC testing or the Initial Alternate ELPAC. TK students who were in TOMS prior to this date, will continue to show as “active” in TOMS. ELPAC testing coordinators should be notified not to test those students, and CDE will provide guidance in a subsequent Flash on how to resolve the issue in TOMS.

A comprehensive impact analysis of this change has been conducted, and any other related validations in CALPADS will be updated during the 2024–25 academic year. In particular, students in grade TK with an ELAS of TBD that are over 30 days will not trigger an error in CALPADS.

Resources for Other Questions

Identifying students’ English language status when they enroll in kindergarten will impact programs and funding that are based on English learner counts. See below for more information on these impacts and other questions that are not directly related to CALPADS:

• If you have questions regarding the HLS and EL programs and services, please email the CDE Language Policy and Leadership Office at lplo@cde.ca.gov.
• If you have questions regarding the ELPAC, please email the CDE English Language Proficiency and Spanish Assessments Office at elpac@cde.ca.gov.