The State Board of Education has unanimously approved revised rules relating to the parent empowerment law.

The regulations are subject to a final 15-day comment period, and barring significant challenges, will be sent to the Office of Administrative Law for final approval.

The law allows parents of students in low-performing schools to petition to implement one of four intervention models laid out under Race to the Top. These include replacing the principal, replacing half the teachers, conversion to a charter or closing the school altogether.

ACSA has been involved in the development of the regulations from the onset, and many of ACSA’s recommendations were incorporated in the revised draft. These include requiring the use of “common universal verification documents” to verify parent signatures, requiring feeder districts that have parents who have signed the petition to cooperate with the district in which the school resides that parents have petitioned, requiring the CDE to post a “sample petition” in all languages and basic information on how parent empowerment works; and prohibiting “rolling petitions.”

“ACSA fully supports the draft proposal prepared by State Board of Education staff to implement parent empowerment regulations during the July State Board meeting,” said ACSA Legislative Advocate Sherry Skelly Griffith. “It is cogent and clear and will assist our members in implementing this complex law.”

“Today’s ... vote is a very satisfying conclusion to this long process,” said SBE President Michael Kirst. “I want to thank all of the parties who contributed their time and thoughtful comments. It’s hard to make policy decisions that please everyone, but by bringing people together and airing the issues thoroughly, we’ve been able to make well-informed decisions about these regulations.”

For more information, visit the SBE online at www.cde.ca.gov/be.