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 ****