BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 320|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 320
Author: Lara (D)
Amended: 9/4/15
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/22/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning,
Pan, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 6-1, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
NOES: Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 39-0, 6/1/15
AYES: Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Cannella, De
León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall, Hancock,
Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno,
Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach,
Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner, Stone,
Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 9/8/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Pupil fees: complaint of noncompliance: appeal
procedures
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill authorizes the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to ensure appeals regarding pupil fees are
resolved in a timely manner and prohibits a school from
establishing a local policy that authorizes resolution of a
complaint by only providing a remedy to the complainant without
SB 320
Page 2
also providing a remedy to all affected students, parents, and
guardians.
Assembly Amendments:
1)Codify provisions authorizing the SPI to ensure complaints are
resolved in a timely manner rather than require the California
Department of Education (CDE) to develop regulations.
2)Delete requirements to notify and provide a public school with
time to respond to new evidence submitted in conjunction with
an appeal before its considered by CDE and instead CDE is
authorized to determine the merit of an appeal regardless of
the newly submitted evidence and resolve the underlying
compliant, as specified.
3)Require the specified public school representative to appear
before the governing board or body of the involved public
school rather than the State Board of Education.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes that state-supported educational opportunities
have a right to be enjoyed without regard to economic status
and prohibits school officials from requiring any pupil,
except for pupils in classes for adults, to purchase any
instructional material for the pupils' use in the school.
(Education Code § 51004 and § 60070)
2)Specifies that a pupil enrolled in a school shall not be
required to pay a pupil fee, deposit or other charge imposed
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. (EC § 49011 and § 49010)
3)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
SB 320
Page 3
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 (LEA's)
decision may appeal the decision to CDE. The complainant shall
receive a written appeal decision within 60 days of CDE's
receipt of the appeal. (EC § 49013)
This bill:
1)Prohibits a school from establishing a local policy that
authorizes resolution of a complaint by only providing a
remedy to the complainant without also providing a remedy to
all affected students, parents, and guardians.
2)Delegates all power and authority necessary to the SPI to
ensure timely resolution of any compliant found by CDE to have
merit.
3)Requires CDE to take the following action:
a) 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
affect students.
b) CDE may make findings on the merit of the appeal without
remanding the compliant to the public school for further
consideration.
c) If the complainant submits new evidence in conjunction
with the appeal, as specified and the CDE determines there
is merit in the appeal, the CDE shall resolve the
underlying complaint. If the CDE determines there is not
merit in the appeal, it shall send the underlying complaint
and new evidence back to the public school for further
consideration.
d) Require the school to provide evidence documenting that
the school has complied with any corrective action, within
60 days of the Department's written decision.
SB 320
Page 4
e) If the school fails to provide corrective action,
require the appropriate representative of a school
district, county office of education, or charter school, as
specified, to appear before the local governing board or
body to explain the school's failure to fulfill that
requirement.
Comments
1)Need for the bill. According to the author, despite existing
law, some schools continue to charge unlawful school fees, and
the complaint process does not always function in the manner
intended. Subsequently, parents have reported that schools
continue to resolve complaints by reimbursing only the family
that filed the complaint and have experienced long delays in
the process due to appeals going back and forth from CDE and
the school. This bill seeks to strengthen the local pupil fee
complaint process and CDE's authority over appeals in order to
improve the process for parents while establishing clear
guidelines for schools.
2)What is a pupil fees complaint? 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
UCPs outlined in regulations (CCR, Title 5, §§ 4600-4687 and
EC §§ 4910-49013).
a) These procedures include among other things:
i) Upon filing the school has 60 days to complete the
investigation and prepare a final report.
ii) If there is disagreement with the school's decision,
the complainant can submit an appeal to CDE within 15
days of receiving the final decision.
iii) If CDE finds merit in the complaint, the school is
required to provide a remedy to all affected students,
parents, and guardians where applicable.
SB 320
Page 5
This bill statutorily clarifies the specific procedure which
must be followed by a school district in order to remedy a
complaint. It also clearly delegates power and authority to
the SPI to ensure timely resolution of any complaints found by
CDE to have merit.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
This bill results in unknown, but potentially significant,
costs for schools to comply with the additional requirements
related to student fee complaints.
CDE indicates the need for 1.5 additional positions and
$192,000 General Fund to implement the requirements of this
bill. However, it appears that the majority of the workload
imposed by this bill may be temporary in nature.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/8/15)
American Civil Liberties Union
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Teachers Association
Californians Together
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/8/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 9/8/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
SB 320
Page 6
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wilk,
Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez, Waldron
Prepared by: Olgalilia Ramirez / ED. / (916) 651-4105
9/8/15 21:51:49
**** END ****