Could extending substitute teaching permits help alleviate the shortage in California’s schools?
That’s the plan nearly every member of California’s Assembly backed in a vote last week.
The Assembly, in a bipartisan vote with zero no votes, agreed to advance a bill from Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, that bumps up the time substitute teachers can spend in a single classroom to 60 days, up from 30. The same increase had been implemented during the pandemic, but it expired last year.
The idea, according to information from Valencia’s office, is to bolster the education workforce while also giving substitute teachers more time to bond and serve students in a classroom.
The bill covers general, special and career technical education classrooms.
“While this legislation does not solve the teacher shortage, it is an interim step to support our schools until longer-term solutions can be implemented and take effect,” Valencia said during a committee hearing on the bill. “In addition, it will provide stability for students in the classroom, which leads to educational success.”
Still, Valencia acknowledged the bill is an “interim solution to provide continuity to students,” noting that “increasing the pipeline of credentialed teachers” should still be addressed.
“While in recent years, the legislature has made efforts to strengthen the teacher workforce, the persistent shortages exacerbate the demand for substitute teachers,” Valencia said in a bill analysis. “In the face of an unprecedented educational workforce shortage, every tool should be utilized to help provide the best educational outcomes for California’s students.”
The bill has support from various districts and education associations, including the Orange County Department of Education and the Orange County District Superintendents Organization.
It’s opposed by Public Advocates, a nonprofit that addresses the causes of poverty and racial discrimination. The group, in the bill analysis, argued that expanding the amount of time subs can spend in the classroom “exacerbates ongoing concerns for student learning and state teacher quality.”
“This expansion of substitute teaching time will likely be used as a loophole allowing districts to fill positions with less-qualified, lower-paid substitutes, rather than investing in and ensuring permanent, fully credentialed staff are prioritized for assignment,” the group said.
The bill is now in the Senate.
In other news
• A bipartisan coalition of legislators signed on to a letter urging California’s congressional delegation to support federal Head Start programs, which provide education, health, nutrition and other services to low-income families.
The Trump administration — which has barreled ahead with proposed funding cuts for a wide range of departments, programs and initiatives — had considered telling Congress to cut funding for the decades-old Head Start. However, a more recent draft of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal appears to have left Head Start intact, for now.
The group of legislators, in their letter to Congress last week, noted Head Start serves more than 85,000 children and families in California, and the state receives almost $1.5 billion in federal Head Start funding every year for local communities.
“The loss of Head Start would be devastating for California — displacing tens of thousands of children, eliminating thousands of jobs and disrupting services that are often unavailable elsewhere, such as developmental screenings, mental health care and family case management,” they said.
The letter was signed by multiple Orange County legislators, including Assemblymembers Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach; Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton; Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita; Tri Ta, R-Westminster; and Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana.
It was led by Assemblymembers Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters; Patrick Ahrens, D-Silicon Valley; Heather Hadwick, R-Alturas; and Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara.
• What a difference a week makes. The effort to impose felony penalties on those who seek to buy 16- and 17-year-olds for sex is back on the table.
Assembly Democrats last week announced an agreement that gives prosecutors additional tools to levy felony charges on adults at least three years older than the minors from whom they are attempting to buy sex. However, for those who are within three years of those minors, solicitation is illegal but a misdemeanor, according to a news release from Assemblymember Nick Schultz, D-Burbank, who chairs the Public Safety Committee.
The updated bill will also create a support fund for victim services and create a state grant program to help district attorneys prosecute human and sex trafficking crimes, according to Schultz’s office.
“I’m looking at this from a prosecutor’s standpoint — this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” said Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, the bill’s original author. “I appreciate everyone’s work on this bill, especially the survivors who won’t give up.”
The bill had been rejected — despite support from Republicans and some moderate Democrats — a couple of weeks ago on the Assembly floor. Instead, Democrats added an amendment that said they plan to “adopt the strongest laws to protect 16- and 17-year-old victims.”
Republicans heralded the reverse in course as a victory.
Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, said legislators “took action to put the teeth back in this bill and stand up for vulnerable minors” after public outcry.
But Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, said “there is still more to be done.”
“This new language does not protect all victims with the same tough penalty of a felony,” Dixon said, pointing to the three-year age gap provision. “If the prosecutor cannot prove that the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the person solicited was a minor, it is a standard misdemeanor. Protections must be stronger. It is still wrong and illegal to have sex with a minor. Minors cannot consent to sex.”