BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 9 (Ammiano)
Hearing Date: 08/25/2011 Amended: 08/18/2011
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-2
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 9 expands the provisions of the Safe Place to
Learn Act (Levine, Chapter 566, Statutes of 2007). This bill
requires a school district to include specific information in
its policies and procedures regarding discrimination,
harassment, intimidation, and bullying. This bill also requires
the policies to include complaint procedures and alternative
discipline policies for pupils who engage in this behavior, as
specified. This bill codifies legislative findings and
declarations.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13
2013-14 Fund
Mandate: anti-bullying policies Potentially significant
reimbursable mandate General
Mandate: complaint process Potentially substantial
reimbursable mandate General
Mandate: publicize policy Potentially substantial
reimbursable mandate General
Professional development ------Substantial cost
pressure------ Local/General
CDE monitoring and reporting $87-100 $175-200
$175-200 General
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
This bill expands substantive requirements on local education
agencies (LEAs) including school districts, as well as the
Department of Education (CDE), originally established by the
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Safe Place to Learn Act (SPLA). By requiring more extensive
processes and activities than are currently in statute, this
bill creates new reimbursable state mandates on local school
districts.
Existing law, under the SPLA, requires LEAs to adopt
antidiscrimination and harassment policies. This bill adds
further description to that requirement (to include bullying and
intimidation based on a variety of characteristics of the
victim), but does not appear to uniquely expand the requirement;
bullying and intimidation should reasonably be included in the
required policies. To the extent, however, that school districts
revise their policies to specifically address new language
required in this bill, they could file mandate reimbursement
claims for related activities.
The SLPA also requires that LEAs adopt processes for receiving
and investigating complaints of discrimination and harassment.
This bill expands that mandate to provide that the complaint
process must include: 1) a requirement that, if school personnel
witness an act of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or
bullying, he or she shall take immediate steps to intervene when
safe to do so; 2) a timeline to investigate and resolve
complaints that shall be followed by all schools under the
jurisdiction of the school district; 3) an appeal process
afforded to the complainant; and, 4) that all forms developed
pursuant to this process shall be translated, as specified. In
order to comply, school districts would need specific
intervention, resolution, and appeals processes consistent
across the district, which would likely require school site
level training. LEAs could request mandate reimbursement for
creating and implementing processes to comply with these
provisions.
The SPLA requires schools to "publicize" their
antidiscrimination and antiharassment policies, and include
information about the manner in which to file a complaint, to
pupils, parents, employees, agents of the governing board, and
the general public. Existing law does not specify the exact
manner by which schools must convey, or "publicize", that
information. This bill specifically states that in order to meet
this requirement, an LEA must, at a minimum: 1) publish the
policy in all parent-student handbooks issued in the school
district and include a statement about where pupils and parents
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can obtain a complaint form; and 2) publish the policy and
information about where a complaint form can be obtained on the
school district website and all individual school websites, as
applicable. By requiring these new, specific activities to
publicize the district's policy, this bill imposes a substantial
state mandate on local school districts and local schools. Staff
notes that school districts can file mandate claims that
aggregate the costs for each of a district's schools, if an
individual school's costs do not meet the $1,000 minimum
threshold. If this provision results in every school district
filing a mandate claim for the minimum $1,000, the total cost
would exceed $1 million.
Under the SPLA, the CDE is required, as part of its Categorical
Program Monitoring (CPM) process, to assess whether LEAs have
completed or implemented specified activities related
antidiscrimination and antiharassment protections in the Act.
This bill expands those monitoring and assessment activities to
encompass the additional requirements. This bill makes the CPM
process more intensive, and would require the CDE to revise that
process and monitor compliance with additional requirements. The
CDE believes it would need additional staff for this purpose.
This bill codifies legislative intent that "school districts
provide grade-level appropriate, professional development
training to school personnel to implement the school district
policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation,
and bullying" as adopted through this bill's provisions. This
stated intent creates cost pressure for LEAs and/or the state to
provide funding for training all school personnel statewide in
implementing specified policies in a grade-level appropriate
manner. This would primarily be professional development for
teachers, the requirements of which are typically subject to
collective bargaining. The CDE has indicated that it would
require a six-month limited-term, dedicated position if the
Department is tasked with creating this professional development
training.
This bill also requires that the CDE post on its website and
provide to each school district a list of statewide resources,
including community-based organizations, that provide support to
youth who have been subjected to school-based discrimination,
harassment, intimidation, or bullying, and their families. This
requirement would likely result in minor workload and
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administrative costs to compile a list of resources, post it on
the CDE website, and transmit the list to districts.