BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 969
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Williams |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------|
|Version: |April 23, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: June 17, 2015 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant:|Kathleen Chavira |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Community college districts: removal, suspension, or
expulsion
SUMMARY
This bill makes an exception to the prohibition against removal,
suspension or expulsion of a student unless the conduct
resulting in the disciplinary action is related to college
activity or attendance if the conduct threatens the safety of
students or the public and authorizes a community college
district to require a student seeking admission to disclose
his/her expulsion or current suspension from a community college
for prescribed offenses including violation of a district's
policies concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, dating
violence and stalking.
BACKGROUND
Existing law provides for the suspension or expulsion of
community college students with "good cause." (Education Code §
76030-76038)
Existing law prohibits the removal suspension or expulsion of a
community college student unless the conduct resulting in the
disciplinary action is related to college activity or college
attendance. (EC § 76034)
Existing law authorizes a community college district to require
a student seeking admission to disclose his/her prior expulsion
from another community college district and authorizes the
AB 969 (Williams) Page 2
of ?
governing board of a community college district to deny
enrollment, permit enrollment, or permit conditional enrollment
to a student who has been expelled, or is being considered for
expulsion, from another district for specified offenses within
the preceding 5 years. (Education Code § 76038)
Existing law requires that, in order to receive state funds for
student financial assistance, the governing board of each
community college district, the Trustees of the California State
University, the Regents of the University of California, and the
governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions must
adopt a policy concerning sexual assault, domestic violence,
dating violence, and stalking, as defined in the federal Higher
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1092(f)) involving a
student, both on and off campus. (Education Code § 67386)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1)Makes an exception to the prohibition against removal, suspension
or expulsion of a student unless the conduct resulting in the
disciplinary action is related to college activity or
attendance if the conduct threatens the safety of students or
the public.
2)Expands the authority of a district to determine whether an
individual poses a continuing danger to the physical safety of
the students and employees of the district and to deny,
permit, or permit conditionally, the enrollment of a student
seeking admission. Specifically it:
a) Authorizes the community college district to
consider and to require the student to disclose whether
he/she was expelled by another district within the last
five years, or is undergoing expulsion review, for
violation of a district's policies, adopted pursuant to
specified state law, on sexual assault, domestic violence,
dating violence, and stalking.
AB 969 (Williams) Page 3
of ?
b) Authorizes a community college district to
require a student seeking admission to disclose to the
district if he/she is currently suspended from a community
college for any of the following offenses:
i) Committed or attempted to commit
murder.
ii) Caused, attempted to cause serious, or
threatened to cause physical injury to another person,
including assault or battery as defined in Section 240
or 242 of the Penal Code, except in self-defense.
iii) Committed or attempted to commit a
sexual assault as defined in Section 261, 266c, 286,
288, 288a, or 289 of the Penal Code or committed sexual
battery as defined in Section 243.4 of the Penal Code.
iv) Committed or attempted to commit
kidnapping, or seized, confined, inveigled, enticed,
decoyed, abducted, concealed, kidnapped, or carried
away another person by any means with the intent to
hold or detain that person for ransom or reward.
v) Committed or attempted to commit
robbery or extortion.
vi) Committed stalking as defined in
Section 646.9 of the Penal Code.
vii) Unlawfully possessed, sold, or
otherwise furnished a firearm, knife, explosive, or
other dangerous object.
viii) Violation of a district's policies on sexual
assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and
stalking, adopted pursuant to specified state law.
3)Authorizes a district to consider failure to disclose previous
expulsion or current suspension for a violation of district
policies on sexual assault, domestic violence, and dating
violence in determining whether to grant admission, and
authorizes a written record of the fact to be maintained by
AB 969 (Williams) Page 4
of ?
the district with the applicant's file.
STAFF COMMENTS
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, at a roundtable
discussion at UC Santa Barbara in November 2014, local
community college representatives raised concerns about their
inability to discipline students for sexual assault violations
occurring off campus as current law prohibits community
colleges from taking disciplinary action against a student
unless the conduct occurs on campus or at campus related
events. This is particularly challenging at the community
colleges since, for the most part, these campuses are
non-residential. In addition, concerns were raised that
students dismissed from a college for a sexual assault offense
simply transferred to a different campus. The representatives
expressed the need to have clear legal authority in place to
ensure their students' and communities' safety and well-being.
This bill proposes to clarify a community college district's
jurisdiction for student code of conduct violations that occur
off-campus and to require students to disclose whether they
were dismissed from another institution for sexual assault, in
order to ensure the physical safety of the students and
employees of the district, and the public.
2)Author's amendment. This Committee recently heard and passed SB
186 (Jackson) which proposed an expansion and clarification of
the authority of community college districts to discipline
students for sexual assault or sexual battery whether that
behavior occurred on or off campus. Section 1 of this bill
proposes a more expanded authority to discipline students for
behavior which occurs off campus. According to the author, in
order to eliminate any conflict, it is his intent to eliminate
Section 1 from this bill. Staff recommends the bill be
amended to delete section 1 consistent with the author's
intent.
3)Suspension versus expulsion. This bill has two effects. Current
law authorizes a district to consider whether a student
seeking admission was expelled or is undergoing expulsion
proceedings at another district for specified offenses. This
bill expands that list of offenses to include a violation of
AB 969 (Williams) Page 5
of ?
the districts adopted policies on sexual assault, domestic
violence, and dating violence.
Second, this bill expands the authority of a district to deny,
permit, or permit conditionally the enrollment of a student by
authorizing the district to consider whether the student was
"suspended" for any of these same offenses, including
violation of a district's sexual assault policies. Should
behavior which results in suspension from a district be
assigned the same consequences as behavior which results in
expulsion?
According to the author, it is the intent to 1) explicitly
clarify that discipline related to violations of sexual
assault policies are subject to disclosure and consideration
when seeking admission to another district, and 2) to ensure
that districts are provided the tools necessary to protect
students, employees, and the public in cases of the most
egregious violations of sexual assault policies. Staff
recommends the bill be amended to delete the bill's
application to students who are "currently suspended."
4)Similar legislation. SB 186 (Jackson) expands the definition of
"good cause" for purposes of removal, suspension or expulsion
from a community college to include sexual assault or sexual
battery and, for this conduct exclusively, makes an exception
to the prohibition against removal, suspension, or expulsion
unless the conduct is related to college activity or
attendance and clarifies that this activity must occur while
enrolled as a student. SB 186 was heard and passed by this
Committee in March 2015, by a vote of 7-0 and is currently
awaiting action in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
SUPPORT
Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General
North Orange Community College District
OPPOSITION
None received.
-- END --
AB 969 (Williams) Page 6
of ?