BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 320 (Lara) - Pupil fees: complaint of noncompliance:
regulations.
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|Version: March 26, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 11, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill prohibits a school from establishing a local
policy or procedure that allows that school to resolve a
complaint regarding student fees by providing a remedy to the
complainant without also providing a remedy to all affected
students, parents, and guardians. This bill also authorizes the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (Superintendent) to ensure
appeals are resolved to all that are affected in a timely manner
by requiring the adoption of regulations governing this process,
as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
This bill results in unknown, but potentially significant,
costs for schools to comply with the additional requirements
related to student fee complaints.
The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates the
need for 1.5 additional positions and $192,000 General Fund to
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implement the requirements of this bill. However, it appears
that the majority of the workload imposed by this bill may be
temporary in nature.
Background: Existing law specifies that a student enrolled in a school
must not be required to pay a student fee for participation in
any educational activity offered by a school, school district,
charter school, or county office of education that constitutes
an integral fundamental part of elementary and secondary
education including curricular and extracurricular activities.
(Education Code § 49011 and 49010)
Existing law provides that a complaint regarding pupil fees may
be filed with the principal of a school under the Uniform
Complaint Procedures (UCP). The complaint may be filed
anonymously. If a public school finds merit in the complaint,
then the public school is required to provide a remedy to all
affected pupils, parents and guardians that, where applicable,
includes reasonable efforts to ensure full reimbursement. A
complainant who is dissatisfied with a local educational
agency's decision may appeal the decision to the CDE. The
complainant must receive a written appeal decision within 60
days of the CDE's receipt of the appeal. (EC § 49013)
According to CDE, an unlawful pupil fees complaint is a written
statement alleging violation of a federal or state law or
regulation related to noncompliance with laws relating to pupil
fees. A complaint alleging a violation must be filed with the
school through uniform complaint procedures outlined in
regulations (CCR, Title 5, sections 4600-4687 and EC sections
4910-49013).
Proposed Law:
This bill prohibits a school from establishing a local policy
or procedure that allows a school to resolve a complaint
regarding student fees by providing a remedy to the complainant
without also providing a remedy to all affected students,
parents, and guardians. This bill also authorizes the
Superintendent to ensure appeals are resolved to all that are
affected in a timely manner by requiring the adoption of
regulations governing this process.
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By June 30, 2016, CDE must adopt regulations including the
following provisions:
If CDE finds merit in an appeal, the department's written
decision must identify with specificity the corrective action
that the school must take to remedy all affected students;
CDE may make findings on the merit of the appeal without
remanding the complaint to the public school for further
consideration;
Require the public school to provide to the department, within
60 days of the department's written decision, evidence
documenting that the school has complied with any corrective
action;
If the public school has not satisfied the requirement above,
a specified representative of the school district, county
office of education, or charter school, as applicable, is
required to appear at the next regularly scheduled meeting of
the State Board of Education (SBE) to explain the public
school's failure to satisfy that requirement.
Related
Legislation:1. AB 1575 (Lara, Ch. 776, 2012) required the CDE to publish
guidelines on pupil fees, incorporate pupil fees into the
uniform complaint process so students and parents can challenge
unlawful fees at their local school, and enabled parents to
appeal a decision through the CDE's uniform complaint process.
AB 165 (Lara, 2011) would have reinforced the constitutional
prohibition on the imposition of pupil fees and establishes
policies to ensure compliance with the prohibition. That bill
was vetoed by the Governor.
Staff
Comments: This bill requires a school to provide CDE with
evidence documenting that the school has complied with
prescribed corrective action within 60 days and if this
requirement is not satisfied, a specified school representative
is required to appear at the next SBE public meeting to provide
an explanation. Since the school is already required to take
corrective action if the CDE has determined the school has
violated pupil fee compliance, the additional costs imposed by
this bill would be for the school to provide evidence of
compliance. In addition, schools are not currently required to
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appear before the SBE to address failure to comply, which would
drive additional costs.
In addition, this bill results in administrative costs to the
CDE to develop or amend existing regulations; update Uniform
Complaint Procedure documents; and provide technical assistance
on changes to the procedures. It is unknown whether the
provisions in this bill would have an effect on the number of
complaints received which would impact ongoing workload.
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