At its April 1 meeting, CSBA’s Legislative Committee reviewed and adopted positions on the 2016 legislation listed below. The Legislative Committee will continue to review legislation affecting education throughout 2016.
For a full list of bills CSBA is tracking from the 2015-16 legislative session, please click here.
There are several different positions CSBA may take on a bill. They are:
Cosponsor/Sponsor: CSBA drafts the bill language, secures a Legislator to serve as the bill’s author and strongly pursues passage
Support: Actively monitor, pursue and lobby in support
Support if Amended: Support only if specific amendments are made
Approve: Approve in concept or “principle” but do not actively lobby in support
Oppose: Actively monitor, pursue and lobby in opposition
Oppose Unless Amended: Seek defeat unless specific amendments are made
Disapprove: Disapprove in concept or “principle” but do not actively lobby in opposition
Neutral: No action is taken
Tracking: Closely monitor the progress and potential impact but do not take an active position
AB 1557 (Mathis) - School facilities: use by nonprofit youth organizations
Existing law, known as the Civic Center Act, authorizes the governing board of a school district to grant the use of school facilities or grounds as a civic center, for specified purposes, upon terms and conditions deemed proper by the governing board of the school district. The act requires the governing board of a school district to authorize the use of school facilities or grounds by a nonprofit organization, or by a club or an association organized to promote youth and school activities, including, but not necessarily limited to, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, Camp Fire USA, the YMCA, a parent-teacher association, or a school-community advisory council. The act authorizes and requires the governing board of a school district to charge certain fees for use of its school facilities or grounds. This bill would provide that a governing board of a school district may only charge a nonprofit organization, club, or association primarily organized to promote youth and school activities, including, but not necessarily limited to, the organizations listed above, an amount not to exceed the school district’s actual costs for janitorial services and utilities, and public safety services when deemed necessary, for the specific school facilities or grounds used.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Oppose
AB 1572 (Campos) - School Transportation: Title I schools
This bill would entitle a pupil who attends a school that is eligible for Title 1 federal funding to free transportation to and from school provided by the local educational agency, if certain conditions are met. The bill would require the local educational agency to designate a liaison to implement a plan developed, in consultation with specified stakeholders, to ensure that all entitled pupils receive free transportation in a timely manner. By requiring new duties on a local educational agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding and Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Oppose
AB 1639 (Maienschein) - Pupil health: Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act
Would create the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act and would require the California Department of Education (CDE) to post information on sudden cardiac arrest symptoms and warning signs, and other relevant materials relating to sudden cardiac arrest on its website.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children and Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 1652 (Waldron) - Charter schools: renewal period
Existing law authorizes a school district governing board, a county board of education, or the State Board of Education to grant a charter to a charter school for an initial period not to exceed 5 years followed by renewals every 5 years. This bill would provide that each of the first 2 renewals shall be for a period of 5 years and subsequent renewals shall be for a period requested by the charter school not to exceed 15 years. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on school districts or county offices of education, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Oppose
AB 1748 (Mayes) - Pupils: pupil health: opioid antagonist
Would authorize a pharmacy to furnish naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist to a school district, county office of education, or charter school if certain conditions are met.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Approve
AB 1784 (Dababneh) - State banks
Would provide, in the definitions that apply to regulating bank offices, for the authorization of a bank to participate in a financial education program that involves receiving deposits or paying withdrawals on the premises of a school or school facility. Further, this bill would provide that the school premises or facility will not be considered a branch office of the bank if certain conditions are met.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 1789 (Santiago) - Personal Income Tax: voluntary contributions; School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund
Would extend the time period for the School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund to appear on the tax return to January 1, 2022, or when the amount of contributions by taxpayers does not meet the minimum contribution amount, whichever occurs first.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Approve
AB 1846 (Lopez) - Adult Education Consortium Program
Would appropriate $250,000,000 every fiscal year from the General Fund to the California Community Colleges and the State Department of Education for ongoing support of the adult education consortium program. The funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support if Amended
AB 1891 (Dababneh) - School districts: special taxes: exemptions
Would, if a school district imposes a qualified special tax that provides for an exemption for persons who are 65 years of age or older and requires that those persons opt out of the qualified special tax, require the school district to require those taxpayers to opt out of the qualified special tax only once and to grant the exemption to those taxpayers for each subsequent taxable period. In the case of a qualified special tax on real property, the bill would provide that the exemption would be valid until a change in ownership occurs.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Approve
AB 2016 (Alejo) - Pupil instruction: ethnic studies
Would require the Superintendent to oversee the development of, and the state board to adopt, a model curriculum to ensure quality courses in ethnic studies. The bill would require the Instructional Quality Commission to advise, assist, and make recommendations to the Superintendent regarding the development of the model curriculum. Further, the bill would, beginning the school year following the adoption of the model curriculum, require each school district maintaining any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, that does not otherwise offer a standards-based ethnic studies curriculum, to offer, as an elective in the social sciences, a course of study in ethnic studies based on the model curriculum.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support if Amended
AB 2056 (Garcia) - Cal Grant Program: graduation verification
Would require the California Student Aid Commission, if it requires the verification of high school graduation or its equivalent to be electronically submitted, as specified, to allow a school district to submit the verification as many times as necessary to ensure each pupil's graduation information is transmitted and received.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2072 (Chang) - High school diplomas: State Seal of STEM
Would create the State STEM Seal to be affixed to the diploma and/or transcript of high school students who achieve proficiency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related courses and curriculum.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2120 (Weber) - Public Utilities Commission: proceedings: intervenor fees: customers
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has broad regulatory authority pursuant to the California Constitution and the Public Utilities Act over public utilities, as defined. Existing law provides compensation for reasonable advocate's fees, reasonable expert witness fees, and other reasonable costs to public utility customers and representatives of customers for participation or intervention in formal proceedings of the commission involving electrical, gas, water, telegraph, and telephone public utilities, but does not provide that compensation for local government agencies. This bill would authorize compensation for participation or intervention in the proceedings described above for a county office of education, on behalf of any of the local educational agencies in whole or part within the county or on behalf of itself, or for a community college district.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2182 (Mullin) - School athletics: neurocognitive testing
Expresses legislative findings and declarations relating to concussions or traumatic injuries sustained by pupils participating in high school interscholastic athletics and the value of neurocognitive testing. This bill would require school districts, charter schools and private schools who offer an athletic program to provide neurocognitive testing for pupils who participate in interscholastic sports.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support if Amended
AB 2212 (Harper) - Pupils: suspension and expulsions: electronic acts
Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the superintendent of the school district or the principal of the school determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts, including, but not limited to, engaging in an act of bullying by means of an electronic act. AB 2212 would expressly include a video, including, but not limited to, a video of two or more pupils fighting that is posted to the Internet, within the definition of what constitutes an electronic act.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support if Amended
AB 2246 (O’Donnell) - Pupil suicide prevention policies
Would require a governing board or body of a local educational agency, as defined, that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to, before the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, adopt a policy on pupil suicide prevention, as specified, that specifically addresses the needs of high-risk groups. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Further, the bill would require the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop and maintain a model policy to serve as a guide for local educational agencies.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2259 (Medina) - School accountability: dropout recovery high schools
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with approval of the State Board of Education, to develop an Academic Performance Index (API) to measure the performance of schools and school districts, especially the academic performance of pupils. Existing law requires the Superintendent, with approval of the state board, to develop an alternative accountability system for specified types of schools, including, among others, community day schools and continuation schools. Existing law allows these schools to receive an API score, but prohibits them from being included in the API rankings of schools. AB 2259 would extend the repeal date of that provision to January 1, 2020, and would update cross-references.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2306 (Frazier) - High school graduation requirements: pupils transferring from juvenile court schools
AB 2306 would require a school district to exempt a pupil who, any time after the pupil completes 10th grade, transfers to the school district from a juvenile court school from all coursework and other requirements adopted by the governing board of the school district for high school graduation that are in addition to the statewide coursework requirements, unless the school district makes a finding that the pupil is reasonably able to complete the additional requirements in time to graduate from high school. Further, AB 2306 would also require a school district of residence to issue a diploma of graduation to a pupil who completes statewide coursework requirements for graduation while attending a juvenile court school, as specified. To the extent the bill would impose additional requirements on school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2360 (Alejo) - School buses: passing violations: automated video enforcement.
Would authorize a school district to install and operate an automated schoolbus video enforcement system, as defined, for the purpose of enforcing the violation described above. The bill would require the county to transfer to the school district, on a monthly basis, the base fines paid for violations of the provisions described above when the violation was captured by the automated schoolbus video enforcement system and the image or video was used to convict the offender.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding and Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Approve
AB 2401 (O’Donnell) - Teachers: California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment System
Would appropriate an unspecified amount from the General Fund to the Superintendent and the commission for the 2016–17 fiscal year to fund the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment System. Included in the bill is Legislative intent that future funding for the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment System be provided each year in the annual Budget Act.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All and Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2410 (Bonta) - Local Control School Readiness Act of 2016
Would enact the Local Control School Readiness Act of 2016. The bill would require the State Department of Education to develop prekindergarten learning development guidelines, focused on preparing 4- and 5-year-old children for kindergarten, based on current science that reflects how publicly funded programs can close the school readiness gap.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Oppose Unless Amended
AB 2443 (Baker) - Local control and accountability plans: state priorities: school climate: school psychologists
Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to adopt a local control and accountability plan and requires the governing board of a school district to update its local control and accountability plan before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires a local control and accountability plan to include, among other things, a description of the annual goals to be achieved for each of the state's delineated priorities, as specified, for all pupils and certain subgroups of pupils. Existing law includes school climate, as measured by certain factors, among the state priorities. AB 2443 would add to those factors the number of practicing school psychologists working on school climate issues.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children and Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Oppose
AB 2517 (Thurmond) - Voting age: school district governing board elections
Would authorize a city or city and county to propose an amendment to its charter that would allow a person who is at least 16 years of age at the time of the next election to vote in a school district governing board election, as specified, in which he or she would be qualified to vote based on residence.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Oppose
AB 2523 (Mullin) - Local elective offices: contribution limitations
Existing law authorizes a county, city, or district to limit campaign contributions in local elections. The act specifies that it does not prevent the Legislature or any other state or local agency from imposing additional requirements on a person if the requirements do not prevent the person from complying with the act, and that the act does not nullify contribution limitations or prohibitions by any local jurisdiction that apply to elections for local elective office, as specified.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Oppose
AB 2527 (Weber) - School accountability: model surveys
Would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to convene an advisory committee consisting of representatives from the state board, public schools, governing boards of school districts, local educational agencies, parent groups, parent and youth-serving community-based organizations, and advocacy organizations to provide general guidance on, and to make recommendations relating to, the creation of model survey questions. The bill would require the Superintendent, on or before July 1, 2017, to recommend model surveys to the state board for consideration and adoption, and, if the state board adopts the model surveys, would require the model surveys to be made available to local educational agencies and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence as a resource to assist local educational agencies, including in assisting them in meeting the local survey requirement on safety and school connectedness. The bill also would express the Legislature’s intent to, among other things, provide funding to support local educational agencies with the implementation of the surveys.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Approve
AB 2587 (Wilk) - School funding: average daily attendance calculation
Would provide that, for the purposes of funding, the average daily attendance for a school district or charter school that has an average daily attendance calculated to be 94 percent or higher shall be considered 100 percent.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2660 (McCarty) - The Quality Early Education and Development Act of 2016
Would require the Department of Education, in consultation with the State Board of Education and the State Advisory Council on Early Learning and Care, to prepare and submit a 3-year plan to the Legislature by July 2017 to provide access to a minimum of one year of a high quality early childhood education program for all low-income children with a focus on improving the quality of all prekindergarten programs serving four-year-old children.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2663 (Cooper) - After school programs: grant amounts
For the 2016–17 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, this bill would continuously appropriate $73,260,000 more to the State Department of Education for purposes of the After School Education and Safety Program. The bill would, commencing with the 2017–18 fiscal year, require the Department of Finance to annually adjust that amount using a specified calculation, provided that adjustment does not result in a reduction. The bill would, also commencing with the 2017–18 fiscal year, require the State Department of Education to annually adjust the maximum grant amounts and those related amounts to reflect the percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index, provided that adjustment does not result in a reduction.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Disapprove
AB 2719 (Garcia) - Workforce development: out of school youth
The California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (which established the California Workforce Development Board) defines an individual with employment barriers to include youths who are individuals with disabilities, homeless youths, and youth who are in, or who have aged out of, the foster care system. AB 2719 bill would include within the definition of an individual with employment barriers an “out of school youth,” as defined. This bill would also revise the duties of the board regarding out of school youth and would define local workforce development system stakeholders, as specified.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
AB 2799 (Chau) - Privacy: personal information: preschool and prekindergarten purposes
Would, commencing on July 1, 2017, prohibit the operator of an Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application that is used primarily for preschool or prekindergarten purposes, as defined, and was designed and marketed for preschool and prekindergarten purposes, to knowingly engage in specified activities with respect to their site, service, or application, including, among other things, engaging in targeted advertising, using specified information to amass a profile about a child except in furtherance of preschool or prekindergarten purposes, and selling or disclosing a child’s information, as specified.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
ACA 7 (Gonzalez) - Voting age: school and community college district governing board elections
This constitutional amendment would allow 16 and 17 year olds who live within the boundaries of a school or community college district to vote in school board and community college district governing board elections.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Support if Amended
SB 885 (Wolk) - Construction contracts: indemnity
Would specify, for construction contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2017, that a design professional, as defined, only has the duty to defend claims that arise out of, or pertain or relate to, negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct of the design professional. Under the bill, a design professional would not have a duty to defend claims against any other person or entity arising from a construction project, except that person or entity's reasonable defense costs arising out of the design professional's degree of fault, as specified.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Oppose
SB 946 (Leyva) - Pupil attendance: service on precinct board
Would specify that, for the purpose of computing average daily attendance for pupils in independent study, a pupil serving as a member of a precinct board for an election shall not be required to participate in that activity for 5 or more consecutive days if specified requirements are met, and would specify that an absence for those reasons shall not be considered an absence for purposes of generating state apportionment payments. The bill also would delete an obsolete reference and make other nonsubstantive changes.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1014 (Liu) - Pupil rights: pregnant and parenting pupils
Would include, as another type of excused absence, four absences per school year to care for a sick child, for which the school is prohibited from requiring a note from a doctor. The bill would authorize a school to allow a parenting pupil who gives birth up to six weeks of parental leave for births without complications or eight weeks of parental leave for Caesarian section births and to allow a parenting pupil not giving birth up to four weeks of parental leave. The bill would specify that parental leave absences shall not be deemed absences in computing average daily attendance if the governing board of the school district of attendance files with the State Department of Education an expectant and parenting pupil policy that includes procedures for ensuring pupils are provided with schoolwork while on parental leave.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1042 (Hancock) - California State Preschool: age eligibility
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer all California state preschool programs, including, but not limited to, part-day age and developmentally appropriate programs for 3- and 4-year-old children. Existing law defines “3-year-old children” for these purposes as children who will have their 3rd birthday on or before September 1 of the fiscal year in which they are enrolled in a California state preschool program. This bill would instead define “3-year-old children” as children who will have their 3rd birthday on or before December 1 of the fiscal year in which they are enrolled in a California state preschool program.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1068 (Leyva) - Homeless children and youth: local educational agency liaisons: training materials
Existing law requires a local educational agency liaison for homeless children and youths to ensure that public notice of the educational rights of homeless children and youths is disseminated in schools, as specified. This bill would require the State Department of Education to provide training materials to local educational agency liaisons for homeless children and youths regarding the educational rights of homeless children and youths and the resources available to schools to assist homeless children and youths.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1072 (Mendoza) - Schoolbus safety: child safety alarm system
SB 1072 would require that procedures to ensure that a pupil is not left unattended on a schoolbus, school pupil activity bus, or youth bus be included in the transportation safety plan, as developed by the county superintendent of schools, the superintendent of a school district, or the owner or operator of a private school that provides transportation to or from a school or school activity.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1123 (Leyva) - Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements
Would extend the sunset date for allowing students to take a CTE course and have it count as a graduation requirement until July 1, 2022, as specified.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1173 (Hertzberg) - Water-conserving plumbing fixtures: CalConserve Water Use Efficiency Revolving Fund
Existing law includes specified requirements to replace plumbing fixtures that are not water conserving, defined as “noncompliant plumbing fixtures,” to residential and commercial real property built and available for use on or before January 1, 1994, as specified. Existing law defines “commercial real property,” “multifamily residential real property,” and “water-conserving plumbing fixture” for purposes of these provisions. This bill would apply these requirements, as specified, to commercial real property regardless of when it was built. Existing law requires on and after January 1, 2014, replacement of noncompliant plumbing fixtures in specified multifamily residential real property and commercial real property. Existing law requires on or before January 1, 2019, replacement of noncompliant fixtures in all multifamily residential real property and commercial real property.
Existing law establishes the CalConserve Water Use Efficiency Revolving Fund and provides that the moneys in the fund are available to the Department of Water Resources, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of water use efficiency projects. Existing law requires moneys in the fund to be used for specified purposes including for local agencies, as defined, to provide low-interest loans to customers to finance the installation of onsite improvements to repair or replace, as necessary, cracked or leaking water pipes to conserve water. This bill would authorize county offices of education and governing boards of school districts to receive moneys from the fund by including those entities in the definition of a local agency.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1178 (Vidak) - Superintendent of Public Instruction: child abuse and neglect: poster
Would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to create a poster that notifies children of the appropriate telephone number to call to report child abuse or neglect. The bill would authorize the superintendent to partner with various entities for purposes of design and content of the poster. The bill would require the poster to incorporate specified elements, including that it be produced in 5 different languages. Further, the SPI would be required to post the downloadable versions of the poster on the department's website. The bill encourages school districts, charter schools, and private schools to post the appropriate version or versions of the poster in an area of the school where pupils frequently congregate.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1207 (Hueso) - Energy: conservation: financial assistance
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to administer the State Energy Conservation Assistance Account, a continuously appropriated account in the General Fund, to provide grants and loans, until January 1, 2018, to schools, hospitals, public care institutions, and local governments to maximize energy use savings. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions to January 1, 2028, and would thereby make an appropriation by extending the time during which the funds deposited in a continuously appropriated account are made available for expenditure.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1210 (Gaines) - Sales and use tax exemption: school supplies
Existing sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. Existing law provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill would provide an exemption from those taxes for the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, clothing, footwear, school supplies, books, computers, and education computer software, during a specified 2-day period in August of each year, commencing in 2017.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding and Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Neutral
SB 1249 (Bates) School finance: annual budgets: reserve balance
In a fiscal year immediately after a fiscal year in which a transfer is made into the Public School System Stabilization Account, existing law prohibits a school district’s adopted or revised budget from containing a combined assigned or unassigned ending fund balance that is in excess of either 2 or 3 times the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the State Board of Education, depending on the school district’s units of average daily attendance. Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to waive the prohibition, pursuant to specified conditions, for up to 2 consecutive fiscal years within a 3-year period if the school district provides documentation indicating that extraordinary fiscal circumstances substantiate the need for the balance. This bill would repeal those provisions.
Issue Area(s): Secure Fair Funding
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1375 (Jackson) - Educational equity: sex equity in education: federal Title IX notifications
Would require, on or before July 1, 2017, all public schools, private schools that receive federal funds and are subject to the requirements of Title IX, school districts, and charter schools to post in a prominent and conspicuous location on their Internet Web sites specified information relating to Title IX. The bill would also require that same information to be included in the yearly notification sent by the governing board of a school district to parents and guardians of minor pupils. Because the bill would impose additional duties on public schools, school districts, charter schools, and governing boards of school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Support
SB 1411 (Runner) - Pupil discipline: suspensions and expulsions: bullying: investigations: notifications
Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the superintendent of the school district or the principal of the school determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts, including, but not limited to, engaging in an act of bullying or willfully using force or violence upon the person of another unless in self-defense. As currently in print, SB 1411 would authorize the SPI to investigate complaints of bullying or other cases of pupil victimization at his or her discretion, and would authorize the SPI to share that information with state or local law enforcement agencies. The bill also would, by no later than January 1, 2018, require the principal of each public school to ensure that a conspicuous notice, as specified and relating to pupil victimization reporting, that is accessible to all pupils is posted in a common area of the school.
Issue Area(s): Improve Conditions of Children
CSBA Position: Approve
SB 1432 (Huff) - School attendance: pupil transfer options: school districts of choice
Would require, instead of authorize, the governing board of the school district of choice to ensure, by resolution, that pupils accepted for transfer are selected through a random, unbiased process that prohibits an evaluation of whether or not the pupil should be enrolled based upon his or her academic or athletic performance. The bill would also authorize the parent of a pupil who is denied a transfer to appeal that decision to the county superintendent of schools of the county in which the school district issuing the denial is located, as provided. The bill would also authorize a school district of choice to bring a complaint against a school district of residence and a school district of residence to bring a complaint against a school district of choice to a county superintendent of schools, as provided. The bill would require the county superintendent of schools to rely only on certain provisions of existing law and determine only whether they were applied accurately. This bill would delete those provisions, thereby extending the school district of choice program indefinitely.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Oppose Unless Amended
SB 1435 (Jackson) - School curriculum: health education: healthy relationships
Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission, during the next revision after January 1, 2016, of the publication ""Health Framework for California Public Schools,"" to consider including comprehensive information for grades 9 to 12, inclusive, on sexual harassment and violence, as specified. SB 1435 would instead require the commission to include that comprehensive information during the next revision after January 1, 2017, and also to include comprehensive information, for grades 1 to 8, inclusive, on the development of healthy relationships, as specified.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Approve
SB 1436 (Bates) - Local agency meetings: local agency executive compensation: oral report of final action recommendation
Would require the legislative body to orally report a summary of a recommendation for a final action on the salaries, salary schedules, or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits of a local agency executive during the open meeting in which the final action is to be taken. By imposing new requirements on cities, counties, cities and counties, and special districts, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Issue Area(s): Strengthen Local Governance
CSBA Position: Oppose
SB 1457 (Morrell) - Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements; credit for released time instruction
Existing law allows pupils, with the written consent of their parents or guardians, to be excused from school in order to participate in religious exercises or to receive moral and religious instruction, as specified. SB 1457 would authorize the governing board of a school district to adopt a policy to allow a pupil in high school to earn up to two elective credits toward that pupil's high school graduation requirements for the completion of released time instruction, as defined.
Issue Area(s): Achievement for All
CSBA Position: Neutral