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HISTORY OF THE STATE SARC LAWS

Proposition 98 was passed by the voters in 1988, and among other things, it required that school districts issue school accountability report cards for each school in their district. Education Code Sections 33126 and 33256 were added, setting forth 13 items to be included in the school accountability report card (SARC).

In 1989, SB 280 (Hart) was signed into law, which added additional reporting requirements for SARCs. This was incorporated into the Ed Code as Sections 35256.1, 41408, 41409 and 41409.3, all of them concerning district salary information for teachers, principals and the superintendent. School expenditure data was also included.

In 1992, AB 1248 (Alpert) was signed into law, which made minor changes to Ed Code Section 41409 and 41409.3.

In 1993, AB 198 (W. Brown) was signed into law which amended Ed Code Section 33126 to add coverage of the workforce readiness of high school students.

In 1994, SB 1665 (Hart) became law, which amended Ed Code Section 33126 to add two more requirements: total minimum days and instructional minutes by grade level.

In 1997, two more bills became law: AB 572 (Caldera). Caldera amended Ed Code 33126, adding required disclosures of three years of students' test scores, dropout rates for three years, class size reduction information, data on teachers' credentials and out-of-field teaching, staff development days, and suspension/expulsion rates for three years.

AB 568 (Lempert), passed in 1997, added the requirement that districts post their SARC's on their district's web sites, making them available on the Internet.

SB 1632, passed in September 2000, called for standardizing the definitions used in school accountability report cards, and also called for the creation of a state template. This template would be created by a committee of the state Department of Education.