BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 379
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
379 (Gordon) - As Amended April 7, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY: This bill makes complaints alleging violations of
certain educational rights afforded to homeless and foster care
students subject to the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP), and
establishes an expedited process for complaints regarding
certain rights and on behalf of certain students. This bill
also places limits on the time students can be educated in
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emergency shelters. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes an expedited complaint process for certain rights
granted to students in foster care. Under this procedure,
local education agencies (LEAs) would be required, within five
school days (instead of 60 days) of receiving a complaint
alleging a violation of the rights below, to conduct a
complete investigation and prepare a written decision. If
these decisions were to be appealed to the California
Department of Education (CDE), the Department would have 30
days to issue a written decision (instead of 60 days to
investigate and 60 days to send a written opinion). The
rights subject to this expedited complaint process include:
a) The right of a student to remain in his/her school of
origin pending the resolution of a dispute regarding
educational placement.
b) The requirement of immediate enrollment in a new school
of a student in foster care, even if the student has
outstanding fees, fines, textbooks, or money due to the
prior school, or is unable to produce clothing or records
(such as academic, medical, immunization, and residency
records) required for enrollment.
c) The requirement that the educational liaison transfer
all academic and other records within two business days of
a foster child's request for enrollment. The educational
liaison from the prior school is required to provide all
requested records within two business days of receipt of
the request.
2)Requires the expedited form of the UCP described above for
complaints regarding certain rights of students in foster
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care, who are homeless and in the final grading period of
their fourth year of high school. These rights include:
a) The exemption of students in foster care (including
those whose court jurisdiction has been terminated) and
students who are homeless from any locally adopted
graduation requirements which are in excess of state
graduation requirements, unless the school district finds
that students are reasonably able to meet these
requirements in time to graduate in four years.
b) The requirement that LEAs allow students who can meet
these graduation requirements in five years to stay
enrolled for a fifth year.
c) The prohibitions on the transfer of students to other
schools in order to qualify them for exemption from local
graduation requirements.
3)Limits the amount of time a student can be educated in an
emergency shelter to five days, and specifies that the
determination of the "best interests" of the student in
educational placement is to be made by the parent, guardian,
or other person holding educational rights for the student.
Makes complaints regarding these requirements subject to the
UCP.
4)Requires that, if after an investigation either a local or
state agency decision finds that an LEA has violated a
student's right to remain in his or her school of origin
pending a dispute regarding school placement, and that
violation has resulted in an interruption in the student's
school attendance, the student shall be awarded "compensatory
educational services."
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5)Requires that information regarding the above requirements be
included in the annual notification required by the UCP.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Unknown, potentially significant, Proposition 98/GF state
mandated costs to expand the existing UCP mandate to require
LEAs to investigate and respond to complaints of
non-compliance within five days.
According to the Commission on State Mandates (CSM) statewide
cost estimate for the existing UCP mandate, claims ranged from
$52 per hour to $175 per hour for anywhere from 9 hours to 105
hours of work. There are 1044 school districts in California.
For illustration, if 5% to 10% of districts submit similar
claims, costs could range from $70,000 to $1 million.
2)Unknown administrative costs to the California Department of
Education (CDE) to process appeals. For illustration, when
complaints related to charging pupil fees was added to the UCP
process in 2013, 121 new claims were submitted in the first
nine months. Annual claims have since leveled to around 40
claims per year. CDE may need additional limited-term staff
should this bill result in a similar increase.
COMMENTS:
1)Uniform Complaint Procedures Process. 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
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regulations, not state statute. Complaints permitted under
this process include violations of state law regarding certain
educational programs, discrimination, harassment and civil
rights. Parents, students, employees, and community members
can file complaints on behalf of themselves or on behalf of
another individual. Most procedural activities required under
the state's UCP have been found to be reimbursable mandates.
Reimbursement is not required when the complaint involves
discretionary programs or when discrimination occurs on the
basis of sex, age, or disability, as federal law already
requires districts to adopt policies to resolve these
complaints.
The UCP process generally involves the following steps:
1) The filing of a complaint by an individual, agency, or
organization.
2) The investigation and written response by the LEA within
60 days.
3) If elected, an appeal by the complainant to the CDE
within 15 days of receiving the LEA response.
4) The response by the CDE to the appeal, with the
investigation completed with 60 days.
5) If eligible and elected, a request for reconsideration
by the complainant or LEA within 35 days of receiving CDE's
response to the appeal.
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6) A response by the CDE within 35 days.
1)K-12 mandate block grant. In 2013, the CSM determined the UCP
to be a reimbursable state mandate with an estimated annual
cost of $34,751. The following year the Legislature added the
UCP to the K-14 Education Mandate Block Grant. Under the
block grant, a school district, charter school, or county
office of education may choose to receive a per-pupil
allocation to conduct existing K-12 mandated activities rather
than wait to receive full payment under the existing claims
process, which the state has deferred paying for a number of
years.
Although the existing mandate costs are low, this bill
significantly expands the UCP by requiring LEAs to investigate
and provide a written response within five days of the
complaint. This could result in significant workload for
LEAs. As a result, LEAs could file a claim with the CSM to
re-determine the existing mandate or file a new mandate claim
to consider the new activities required under this bill. If
the CSM determines these requirements impose a higher level of
service, this could place pressure on the Legislature to
increase funding under the K-12 Mandate Block Grant.
Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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