SB 840, as amended, Lara. Educational equity: local educational agency policies against bullying.
Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education to assess whether local educational agencies have taken certain actions related to educational equity, including adopting a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on specified characteristics such as disability, gender, gender identity, race, or sexual orientation, or association with a person or group with one or more of the specified characteristics and adopting a process for receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on the specified characteristics.
Existing law, the Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985 (the act), requires certain schoolsite councils to develop a comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of that particular school. The act requires the comprehensive school safety plan to identify appropriate strategies and programs that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety, including the development of a discrimination and harassment policy consistent with the Safe Place to Learn Act. The act also requires each school to forward its comprehensive school safety plan to the school district or county office of education for approval.
This bill would require each local educational agency to develop and implement a policy against bullying, as specified, which includes, at a minimum, a procedure for referring victims of bullying to counseling, mental health, or other health services asbegin delete appropriate,end deletebegin insert appropriate;end insert mandatory training
for certificated employees on the prevention, and addressing, ofbegin delete bullying,end deletebegin insert bullying;end insert and a procedure for the documentation of all incidents of bullying that take place within the local educational agency as well as the responsive actions taken, if any. The bill would require the local educational agency tobegin delete forwardend deletebegin insert reportend insert the documentation of the bullying incidents to the departmentbegin insert, as providedend insert.
By requiring local educational agencies to develop and implement a
bullying policy and to report certain information to thebegin delete departmentsend deletebegin insert departmentend insert, this bill would increase the duties of local school officials and thereby 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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 234 of the Education Code is amended
2to read:
(a) This article shall be known, and may be cited, as the
4Safe Place to Learn Act.
5(b) It is the policy of the State of California to ensure that all
6local educational agencies continue to work to reduce
7discrimination, harassment, violence, intimidation, and bullying.
8It is further the policy of the state to improve pupil safety at schools
9and the connections between pupils and supportive adults, schools,
10and communities.
P3 1(c) The Legislature finds and declares that any form, type, or
2level of bullying is unacceptable and every incident needs to be
3taken seriously by local educational agency administrators and
4staff, and
by pupils and their families.
Section 234.6 is added to the Education Code, to read:
begin insert(a)end insertbegin insert end insert Notwithstanding any other law, each local
7educational agency shall develop, in collaboration with interested
8stakeholders, and implement a policy against bullying.
9Collaborating stakeholders shall include, butbegin delete be notend deletebegin insert not beend insert limited
10to, school administrators and staff, pupils and their families, and
11the community. The policy shall include, at a minimum, all of the
12following:
13(a)
end delete
14begin insert(1)end insert A procedure for referring victims of bullying to counseling,
15mental health, or other health services, as appropriate.
16(b)
end delete
17begin insert(2)end insert Mandatory training for certificated employees on the
18prevention of, and how to address, bullying.
19(c)
end delete
20begin insert(3)end insert A procedure for the documentation of all incidents of
21bullying that take place within the local educational agency and
22the responsive actions taken, if any. Incidents documented shall
23not be limited to incidents that resulted in suspension or expulsion.
24begin delete Theend delete
25begin insert(b)end insertbegin insert end insertbegin insertTheend insert local educational agency shall reportbegin delete this informationend delete
26begin insert
the documentation of all incidents of bullying pursuant to
27paragraph (3) of subdivision (a)end insert to the department in a manner to
28be determined by the department.begin insert This documentation to the
29department shall not include personally identifiable, individual
30pupil information but shall be aggregated at the school district
31level.end insert
If the Commission on State Mandates determines that
33this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to
34local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made
35pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division
364 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
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