BILL NUMBER: AB 2727 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 903
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 28, 2004
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 27, 2004
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 27, 2004
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 20, 2004
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Daucher
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Bermudez)
FEBRUARY 20, 2004
An act to amend Section 35186 of the Education Code, relating to
schools, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2727, Daucher. Schools: uniform complaint process.
Existing regulations require each local educational agency to
adopt policies and procedures for the investigation and resolution of
complaints and require each local educational agency to include in
its policies and procedures the person, employee, or agency position
or unit responsible for receiving complaints, investigating
complaints, and ensuring local educational agency compliance.
Senate Bill 550, of the 2003-04 Regular Session, would require a
school district to use its uniform complaint process to help identify
and resolve any deficiencies related to instructional materials,
conditions of facilities that are not maintained in a clean and safe
manner or in good repair, and teacher vacancy or misassignment. SB
550 would require a notice to be posted in each classroom in each
school in the school district notifying parents and guardians that
there should be sufficient textbooks or instructional materials,
school facilities must be clean, safe, and in good repair, and the
location to obtain a form to file a complaint in case of a shortage.
This bill would require a school district to use its uniform
complaint process to help identify and resolve any emergency or
urgent facilities conditions that pose a threat to the health and
safety of pupils or staff instead of conditions of facilities that
are not maintained in a clean and safe manner or in good repair.
This bill would become operative only if Senate Bill 850 is also
enacted.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 35186 of the Education Code, as proposed to be
added by Senate Bill 550 of the 2003-04 Regular Session, is amended
to read:
35186. (a) A school district shall use the uniform complaint
process it has adopted as required by Chapter 5.1 (commencing with
Section 4600) of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, with
modifications, as necessary, to help identify and resolve any
deficiencies related to instructional materials, emergency or urgent
facilities conditions that pose a threat to the health and safety of
pupils or staff, and teacher vacancy or misassignment.
(1) A complaint may be filed anonymously. A complainant who
identifies himself or herself is entitled to a response if he or she
indicates that a response is requested. A complaint form shall
include a space to mark to indicate whether a response is requested.
All complaints and responses are public records.
(2) The complaint form shall specify the location for filing a
complaint. A complainant may add as much text to explain the
complaint as he or she wishes.
(3) A complaint shall be filed with the principal of the school or
his or her designee. A complaint about problems beyond the
authority of the school principal shall be forwarded in a timely
manner but not to exceed 10 working days to the appropriate school
district official for resolution.
(b) The principal or the designee of the district superintendent,
as applicable, shall make all reasonable efforts to investigate any
problem within his or her authority. The principal or designee of
the district superintendent shall remedy a valid complaint within a
reasonable time period but not to exceed 30 working days from the
date the complaint was received. The principal or designee of the
district superintendent shall report to the complainant the
resolution of the complaint within 45 working days of the initial
filing. If the principal makes this report, the principal shall also
report the same information in the same timeframe to the designee of
the district superintendent.
(c) A complainant not satisfied with the resolution of the
principal or the designee of the district superintendent has the
right to describe the complaint to the governing board of the school
district at a regularly scheduled hearing of the governing board. As
to complaints involving a condition of a facility that poses an
emergency or urgent threat, as defined in paragraph (1) of
subdivision (c) of Section 17592.72, a complainant who is not
satisfied with the resolution proffered by the principal or the
designee of the district superintendent has the right to file an
appeal to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall provide
a written report to the State Board of Education describing the
basis for the complaint and, as appropriate, a proposed remedy for
the issue described in the complaint.
(d) A school district shall report summarized data on the nature
and resolution of all complaints on a quarterly basis to the county
superintendent of schools and the governing board of the school
district. The summaries shall be publicly reported on a quarterly
basis at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the
school district. The report shall include the number of complaints
by general subject area with the number of resolved and unresolved
complaints. The complaints and written responses shall be available
as public records.
(e) The procedure required pursuant to this section is intended to
address all of the following:
(1) A complaint related to instructional materials as follows:
(A) A pupil, including an English learner, does not have
standards-aligned textbooks or instructional materials or state
adopted or district adopted textbooks or other required instructional
material to use in class.
(B) A pupil does not have access to instructional materials to use
at home or after school in order to complete required homework
assignments.
(C) Textbooks or instructional materials are in poor or unusable
condition, have missing pages, or are unreadable due to damage.
(2) A complaint related to teacher vacancy or misassignment as
follows:
(A) A semester begins and a certificated teacher is not assigned
to teach the class.
(B) A teacher who lacks credentials or training to teach English
learners is assigned to teach a class with more than 20 percent
English learner pupils in the class. This subparagraph does not
relieve a school district from complying with state or federal law
regarding teachers of English learners.
(C) A teacher is assigned to teach a class for which the teacher
lacks subject matter competency.
(3) A complaint related to the condition of facilities that pose
an emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils or
staff as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section
17592.72 and any other emergency conditions the school district
determines appropriate.
(f) In order to identify appropriate subjects of complaint, a
notice shall be posted in each classroom in each school in the school
district notifying parents and guardians of the following:
(1) There should be sufficient textbooks and instructional
materials. For there to be sufficient textbooks and instructional
materials each pupil, including English learners, must have a
textbook or instructional materials, or both, to use in class and to
take home to complete required homework assignments.
(2) School facilities must be clean, safe, and maintained in good
repair.
(3) The location at which to obtain a form to file a complaint in
case of a shortage. Posting a notice downloadable from the Web site
of the department shall satisfy this requirement.
(g) A local educational agency shall establish local policies and
procedures, post notices, and implement this section on or before
January 1, 2005.
(h) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Good repair" has the same meaning as specified in subdivision
(d) of Section 17002.
(2) "Misassignment" means the placement of a certificated employee
in a teaching or services position for which the employee does not
hold a legally recognized certificate or credential or the placement
of a certificated employee in a teaching or services position that
the employee is not otherwise authorized by statute to hold.
(3) "Teacher vacancy" means a vacant teacher position as defined
in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (5) of subdivision (b) of Section
33126.
SEC. 2. This act shall become operative only if Senate Bill 550 of
the 2003-04 Regular Session is enacted.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to ensure that all pupils in the public schools are
housed in adequately maintained school facilities and to implement
the settlement agreement in the case of Williams v. State of
California (Super. Ct., San Francisco, No. CGC-00-312236) as soon as
possible, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.