BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 302
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|Author: |Cristina Garcia |
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|Version: |June 1, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: July 8, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lynn Lorber |
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Subject: Pupil services: lactation accommodations
SUMMARY
This bill requires local educational agencies to provide
reasonable accommodations to a lactating pupil on a school
campus to express breast milk, breast-feed an infant child, or
address other needs related to breast-feeding, and expands the
Uniform Complaint Procedures to include complaints of
noncompliance with this requirement.
BACKGROUND
Existing federal law:
1)The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, amended the
Fair Labor Standards Act to require employers to provide a
reasonable break time and a place which is not a bathroom to
express breast milk. (United States Code, Title 42, 18001, §
4207, et seq.)
2)Prohibits discrimination against any student, or exclusion of
any student from its education program or activity, including
any class or extracurricular activity, on the basis of such
student's pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination
of pregnancy or recovery therefrom. Federal law also requires
pregnant students and those recovering from childbirth-related
conditions to be provided with the same accommodations and
support services available to other students with temporary
medical conditions. (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34,
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§106.40)
Existing state law:
1)Requires every employer, including the state and any political
subdivision, to provide a reasonable amount of break time to
accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for
the employee's infant child. The break time must, if
possible, run concurrently with any break time already
provided to the employee. Break time for an employee that
does not run concurrently with the rest time authorized for
the employee is to be unpaid. (Labor Code § 1030)
2)Requires employers to make reasonable efforts to provide the
employee with the use of a room or other location, other than
a toilet stall, in close proximity to the employee's work
area, for the employee to express milk in private. The room
or location may include the place where the employee normally
works if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section.
(Labor Code § 1031)
3)Prohibits discriminatory practices in employment or housing
accommodations on the basis of sex, and defines "sex" to
include breast-feeding or medical conditions related to
breast-feeding. (Government Code §12926)
4)Defines "harassment and other discrimination on the basis of
sex" to include specified practices such as the exclusion of
any person from any program or activity or employment because
of pregnancy or related conditions. (Education Code § 230)
5)Through regulation, requires local educational agencies to
adopt uniform complaint procedures through which the public
can register complaints regarding educational programs and
rights. (California Code of Regulations, Title 5, § 4600, et
seq.)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires local educational agencies to provide
reasonable accommodations to a lactating student on a school
campus. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires schools operated by school districts, county offices
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of education, the California School for the Deaf and the
California School for the Blind, and charter schools to
provide reasonable accommodations to lactating students to
express breast milk, breast-feed, or address other needs
related to breast-feeding.
2)Provides that reasonable accommodations include, but are not
limited to:
a) Access to a private and secure room, other than a
restroom, to express breast milk or breast-feed a child.
b) Permission to bring a breast pump and any other
equipment used to express breast milk onto a high school
campus.
c) Access to a power source for a breast pump or any other
equipment used to express breast milk.
d) Access to a place to store breast milk safely.
3)Requires a lactating student to be provided a reasonable
amount of time to accommodate her need to express breast milk
or breast-feed.
4)Requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to provide the
reasonable accommodations only if there is at least one
lactating student on the school campus.
5)Authorizes LEAs to use existing facilities to meet the
requirements for providing reasonable accommodations.
6)Provides that a student is not to incur an academic penalty as
a result of her use, during the schoolday, of the reasonable
accommodations, and requires that the student be provided the
opportunity to make up any work missed due to such use.
7)Authorizes a complaint of non-compliance with the requirement
to provide reasonable accommodations to be filed with a LEA
under the existing Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP).
8)Requires a local educational agency (LEA) to respond to a
complaint in accordance with the existing Uniform Complaint
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Procedures (UCP) process.
9)Authorizes a complainant who is not satisfied with the
decisions of a LEA to appeal the decision to the California
Department of Education (CDE) through the existing UCP appeal
process, and requires that the complainant receive a written
decision regarding the appeal within 30 days of CDE's receipt
of the appeal.
10)Requires the LEA to provide a remedy to the affected student
if the LEA or the Superintendent of Public Instruction finds
merit in a complaint.
STAFF COMMENTS
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, "A 2015 report
published by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of
California, Breaking Down Educational Barriers for
California's Pregnant and Parenting Students, found that some
lactating students were discouraged by school administrators
from expressing milk at school. The report also found that,
even when a student's request to pump milk at school was
granted, a student may not have access to a private, secure
room or refrigerator to safely store the breast milk. Not
providing a private, secure room and a consistent pumping
schedule for lactating students could cause significant pain
and discomfort to these students and potentially lead to
breast infections, as well as causing embarrassing leakage
issues and general distress."
2)Existing rights for employees but not for students. Both
state and federal law require employers to provide reasonable
accommodations to lactating employees, including break time
and the provision of private space (other than a restroom
stall) in which to express breast milk or breast-feed.
Existing law prohibits discriminatory practices in employment
or housing accommodations on the basis of sex, and defines
"sex" to include breast-feeding or medical conditions related
to breast-feeding. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the
basis of sex in all aspects of education, but does not
explicitly reference breast-feeding.
This bill generally mirrors state and federal requirements that
employees be provided reasonable accommodation to express
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breast milk or breast-feed. This bill authorizes LEAs to use
an existing facility to meet the requirements of this bill.
Therefore, schools should not have to designate a space for
students beyond what they have already established for
employees.
3)Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP). Required by federal law,
the UCP was established in 1991 as a means of creating a
"uniform system of complaint processing" for educational
programs. The authority for this process is located in
regulations, not state statute. These regulations require the
adoption of the UCP by school districts, county offices of
education, charter schools receiving federal funds,
and local public or private agencies which receive direct or
indirect state funding to provide school programs or special
education or related services. The Uniform Complaint
Procedures (UCP) process generally involves the following
steps:
a) The filing of a complaint by an individual, agency, or
organization.
b) The investigation and written response by the local
educational agency (LEA) within 60 days.
c) An appeal by the complainant to the California Department
of Education (CDE) within 15 days of receiving the LEA
response.
d) The response by the CDE to the appeal, with the
investigation completed within 60 days.
e) A request for reconsideration by the complainant or LEA
within 35 days of receiving CDE's response to the appeal.
f) A response by the CDE within 35 days.
Complaints regarding pupil fees, harassment, discrimination,
bullying, intimidation, local control accountability plans and
some charter school requirements generally follow the UCP, but
differ slightly in terms of timelines, anonymity of
complainants, confidentiality, and with whom a complaint can
be filed.
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There are several bills that expand the UCP to authorize
complaints in other areas of education; all use the existing
UCP process. However, this bill requires the California
Department of Education (CDE) to respond to an appeal within
30 days of the CDE's receipt of the appeal, while existing law
provides a 60-day timeline. To ensure consistency and that the
existing UCP process is used, staff recommends an amendment to
delete the accelerated appeal timeline of 30 days and specify
the existing 60-day timeline is to be utilized.
4)Fiscal impact. According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill would impose:
a) Unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98/General Fund state
mandated costs for schools to provide reasonable
accommodations to breastfeeding students using existing
facilities.
b) Unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98/General Fund state
mandated costs related to the expansion of the UCP. The
existing UCP mandate is currently included in the K-12
Mandate Block Grant. If the Commission on State Mandates
determines the requirements of this bill impose a higher
level of service, this could place pressure on the
Legislature to increase funding under the K-12 Mandate
Block Grant.
5)Related legislation.
AB 379 (Gordon, 2015) expands the Uniform Complaint Procedures
(UCP) to include complaints of non-compliance with certain
rights and responsibilities regarding the education of
students who are in foster care or who are homeless, including
school placement decisions, responsibilities of foster youth
liaisons,
provisions regarding school transfers, exemption from
locally-imposed graduation requirements, and the awarding of
partial credit for completed coursework. AB 379 is pending in
the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 1391 (Gomez, 2015) an urgency measure, expands the Uniform
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Complaint Procedures (UCP) to include complaints of
non-compliance with the required minimum instructional minutes
for physical education. AB 1391 is pending in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
AB 412 (Chavez, 2015) authorizes complaints of non-compliance
with the required minimum instructional minutes for physical
education to be filed with a local complaint process or
through the UCP. AB 412 was never heard.
AB 1012 (Jones-Sawyer, 2015) prohibits a school district from
assigning any students in grades 7-12 to any "course period
without educational content" for more than one week in any
semester, or to a course that the student has previously
completed with a grade sufficient to meet the A-G requirements
and graduation requirements, unless specifically authorized.
AB 1012 also expands the UCP to include complaints of
noncompliance with these requirements. AB 1012 is scheduled
to be heard by this Committee on July 8.
SB 81 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Ch. 22, 2015)
among other things, expands the UCP to include complaints
regarding an alleged violation by a local agency of federal or
state law or regulations governing adult education programs or
regional occupational centers and programs.
SB 425 (Hernandez, 2015) among other things, expands the UCP
to include complaints regarding an alleged violation by a
local agency of federal or state law or regulations governing
adult education programs or regional occupational centers and
programs, including allegations of unlawful discrimination,
harassment, intimidation, or bullying. SB 425 is pending in
the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
AB 907 (Burke, 2015) is nearly identical to SB 425. AB 907 is
pending in this Committee.
SUPPORT
ACCESS Women's Health Justice
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Association of California School Administrators
California Association for Health, Physical Education,
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Recreation and Dance
California Black Health Network
California Immigrant Policy Center
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
California Teachers Association
Citizens for Choice
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations
Forward Together
Guam Communications Network
Latino Coalition for a Health California
Latino Health Alliance
NARAL Pro-Choice California
National Center for Youth Law
National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles
National Council of La Raza
Our Family Coalition
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
San Francisco Democratic Women in Action
URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity
OPPOSITION
None received.
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