BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 967 (Williams) - Postsecondary education: sexual assault
cases.
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|Version: July 14, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 17, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires, as a condition of receiving state
funds for student financial assistance that the governing boards
of each community college district, the California State
University (CSU) Trustees, the University of California (UC)
Regents, and the governing board of each independent
postsecondary institution adopt and carry out a uniform process
for disciplinary proceedings related to claims of sexual
assault, and report specified information regarding sexual
assault, dating violence, and stalking complaints.
Fiscal
Impact:
The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
anticipates a cost of $3,000 per community college district
($216,000 statewide costs) to establish new policies and
report required data. These costs may be determined by the
Commission on State Mandates to be reimbursable. If
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determined to be a mandate, this could create pressure to
increase the community college mandate block grant. See staff
comments. (Proposition 98)
The CSU anticipates costs of around $100,000 attributable to
the reporting requirements. (General Fund)
The UC indicates costs to be minor and absorbable.
Background: Existing federal law:
1)Establishes the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security
Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) which
requires public and private postsecondary educational
institutions that receive federal financial aid to disclose
information about crimes on and around campuses as well as
establish certain rights for victims of sexual assault.
2)Requires institutions, under the Clery Act to collect,
classify and count crime statistics, publish an Annual
Security Report with crime statistics and security policies,
and report crime statistics to the United States Department of
Education.
3)With the 2013 reauthorization of the federal Violence Against
Women Act, which includes the Campus Sexual Violence
Elimination Act, amended the Clery Act to, among other things,
require institutions to compile statistics of incidents of
sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and
stalking. This Act also requires the Annual Security Report
to contain additional information such as prevention programs,
procedures once incidents are reported, and possible sanctions
following an institutional disciplinary procedure. The final
rule implementing changes to the Clery Act was issued in
October 2014, and is effective July 1, 2015.
Existing state law requires:
1)The governing board of each community college district, the
Trustees of the California State University (CSU), the Regents
of the University of California (UC), and the governing board
of independent postsecondary institutions to adopt a policy
concerning campus sexual violence, domestic violence, dating
violence and stalking that includes specified components,
including the affirmative consent standard. (Education Code §
AB 967 (Williams) Page 2 of
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67386)
2)The governing board of each community college district, the
Trustees of the CSU, the Board of Directors of the Hastings
College of the Law, and the Regents of the UC to each adopt
and implement at each campus or other facilities, a written
procedure or protocol to ensure, to the fullest extent
possible, that students, faculty and staff who are victims of
sexual assault committed on grounds maintained by the
institution or affiliated student organizations receive
treatment and information.
(EC § 67385)
3)Each campus of the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the
CSU, and requests each campus of the UC, to post sexual
violence prevention and education information on its campus
website. The information must include specific components
including dating violence, rape, sexual assault, domestic
violence and stalking crimes, how to file a complaint, and the
availability and contact information for resources for
victims. (EC § 67385.7)
4)Each campus of the CCC and the CSU, and requests each campus
of the UC, to develop policies to encourage students to report
any campus crimes involving sexual violence. (EC § 67385.7)
Proposed Law:
This bill requires, as a condition of receiving state funds
for student financial assistance, the governing board of each
community college district, the CSU Trustees, the UC Regents,
and the governing board of each independent postsecondary
institution to:
1)Adopt and carry out a uniform process, applicable to each
campus of the institution for disciplinary proceedings
relating to any claims of sexual assault. The policies
included in the uniform process must prohibit carrying out a
different disciplinary process on the same campus, or altering
the uniform process based on the status or characteristics of
a student, including a student's membership on an athletic
team, or a student's academic major. The institution is
required to develop and implement consistent standards of
discipline and must provide for specific forms of punishment.
It is the Legislature's intent that the standards be fair,
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objective, consistent, and for the most egregious violations,
provide at least two years of suspension and up to, and
including expulsion.
2)Report by April 1, 2017, and annually thereafter until
December 31, 2021 information including the number of sexual
assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking
complaints received, investigated by, and not investigated by
the institution. The report must also include the number of
investigations in which the respondents were found
responsible, and not found responsible, at institutional
disciplinary proceedings and the number of disciplinary
sanctions imposed on respondents who were found responsible.
Finally the report must include the number of cases that were
closed for other reasons. Reports are required to be posted
on the institution's website.
Staff
Comments: This bill makes it a condition of receiving state
financial aid funding that governing boards of each community
college district, the CSU, the UC, and each independent
postsecondary institution adopt and carry out a uniform process
for disciplinary proceedings related to claims of sexual assault
and report specified information regarding sexual assault,
dating violence, and stalking complaints. Typically the
Commission on State Mandates does not determine activities
imposed by the state to be a reimbursable mandate if the
decision to participate in the activity is discretionary. This
bill gives each community college district the choice to
implement the requirements of this bill or forgo state funds for
student financial assistance.
If a community college district submits a claim for
reimbursement, the Commission on State Mandates could possibly
determine activities related this requirement to be a
reimbursable based on practical compulsion - that there is no
reasonable alternative but to comply with adopting required
policies or that the failure to comply with this activity will
result in certain and severe penalties. The determination of
whether these activities would be reimbursable by the state
could depend on whether the Commission on State Mandates
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believes the loss of state funding for financial aid is a
certain and severe penalty.
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