BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                        SB 320|
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                                        VETO 


          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

           SENATE FLOOR:  40-0, 9/10/15
           AYES:  Allen, 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

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR:  78-0, 9/8/15 - See last page for vote

           SUBJECT:   Pupil fees:  complaint of noncompliance:  appeal  
                     procedures









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          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  
          also providing a remedy to all affected students, parents, and  
          guardians.

          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  
            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 the California Department  
            of Education (CDE). The complainant shall receive a written  
            appeal decision within 60 days of CDE's receipt of the appeal.  
            (EC § 49013)








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          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. 

             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. 









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          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. 

            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  








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          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:   (Verified10/29/15)


          American Civil Liberties Union 
          California Association for Bilingual Education 
          California Teachers Association 
          Californians Together


          OPPOSITION:   (Verified10/29/15)


          None received


          GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE:


               I am returning Senate Bill 320 without my signature.

               This bill would modify the Uniform Complaint Procedures for  
               pupil fee complaints by creating unique timelines for these  
               types of appeals.

               Creating unique timelines for certain types of complaints  








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               makes the "Uniform Complaint Procedures" decidedly less  
               uniform. I do not think we should pursue such a piecemeal  
               approach.


          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,  
            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
          11/4/15 13:34:17


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