by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

The Claremont Unified School District Board of Education handled business in seven minutes last week with the only item of note being the first reading of updated policies regarding transitional kindergarten and high school graduation requirements.

“These were existing Board Policies, but due to legislation and things that come down from the California Department of Education, a few changes needed to be made,” CUSD Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services Julie Olesniewicz wrote in an email. “We get our suggestions from the California School Boards Association.”

Proposed changes to policy 6170.1 follow the passing of Assembly Bill 2268, English Language Proficiency Assessments for TK (Transitional Kindergarten) and Senate Bill 153, an education omnibus trailer bill.

“Policy updated to reflect NEW LAW (AB 2268, 2024) which exempts students in transitional kindergarten (TK) from the requirement to be assessed in English listening and speaking for purposes of initial identification as an English learner,” wrote Olesniewicz, “and NEW LAW (SB 153, 2024) which requires districts that commingle TK students and California State Preschool Program children in the same classroom to complete an observation using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool and CLASS environment tool.”

Proposed alterations to policy 6146.1 due to the passage of Assembly Bill 714 include changing language from “students participating in a newcomer program” to “newcomer students” for purposes of exemptions from district-adopted graduation requirements,” Olesniewicz wrote.

Proposed changes due to Senate Bills 114 and 141 include that it, “(1) specifies that the exemption for a student with a disability from all coursework and other requirements adopted by the Board that are in addition to statewide course requirements applies to a student with a disability who entered 9th grade in the 2022-23 school year, (2) revises the eligibility criteria for the exemption, and (3) provides that participation in graduation activities by a student with a disability who is exempted from district-adopted graduation requirements that are in addition to the statewide course requirements may not be construed as a termination of the district’s responsibility to provide a free appropriate public education unless the student’s individualized education program team has determined that the student has completed the high school experience.”

The changes also pave the way to adopt language indicating there are two types of former students eligible to receive permissible retroactive diplomas, “a former member of the military who is a resident of California and received an honorable discharge, or a current member of the military who is a resident of California and was a resident of California when they entered the military.”

The items were presented for information only and will be voted on at a subsequent board meeting.

The next CUSD Board of Education meeting is 6 p.m. Thursday, September 18 at the Kirkendall Education Center, 170 W. San Jose Ave.