BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1309|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1309
Author: Leyva (D)
Amended: 4/27/16
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/20/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
SUBJECT: Pupil discipline: expulsion hearings: county
schools
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill establishes a new process for county offices
of education to consider the expulsion of a student who attends
a school operated by a county office of education.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Requires the governing board of each school district to
establish rules and regulations governing procedures for the
expulsion of students. (Education Code § 48918)
2) Authorizes the governing board of a school district, instead of
conducting an expulsion hearing itself, to contract with the
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county hearing officer, or with the Office of Administrative
Hearings (OAH) for a hearing officer to conduct the hearing.
(EC § 48918)
3) Authorizes the governing board of a school district to also
appoint an impartial administrative panel of three or more
certificated people, none of whom is a member of the
governing board or employed on the staff of the school in
which the student is enrolled. (EC § 48918)
4) Requires the hearing officer or administrative panel, if
recommending expulsion, to prepare and submit to the
governing board findings of fact in support of the
recommendation. Existing law requires all findings of fact
and recommendations to be based solely on the evidence
considered at the hearing. (EC § 48918)
5) Authorizes a student or parent to file an appeal of an
expulsion to the county board of education, and requires the
county board of education to hold a hearing or have a hearing
officer or an impartial administrative panel hear appeals.
(EC § 48919 and § 48919.5)
This bill:
1) Prohibits a student who is enrolled in a school operated by a
county office of education from being recommended for
expulsion unless the principal of the school, or his or her
designee, determines that the student has committed an act
for which students may be expelled.
2) Requires a county board of education, if a principal of a
school that is operated by the county office of education, or
his or her designee, recommends expulsion, to do either of
the following:
a) Contract with the OAH for a hearing officer to conduct
the expulsion hearing.
b) Appoint an impartial administrative panel of three or
more certificated persons, none of whom is a member of the
county board of education or employed on the staff of the
school in which the student is enrolled, to conduct the
expulsion hearing.
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3) Requires the hearing officer or administrative panel, if the
decision is to expel, to prepare and submit to the county
board of education findings of fact in support of the
decision to expel.
4) Requires the findings of fact to be based solely on the
evidence considered at the hearing.
5) Authorizes a student who has been expelled, or the parent of
that student, within 30 days following the decision of the
hearing officer or administrative panel to expel the student,
to file an appeal to the county board of education and
requires the county board of education to hold a hearing on
the matter and render a decision. This bill requires the
appeal hearing to be held in the same manner and have the
same effect as an appeal hearing held pursuant to existing
law.
Comments
Need for the bill. According to the author, "Current law
requires a school district to abide by a detailed process for
the expulsion of a student and the following appeals process
which is heard by the county office of education (COE).
However, state law is silent on the process for expelling a
student from a COE operated school. Because a COE is the board
that would hear an appeal in a typical school district expulsion
case, there is an obvious violation of due process should the
COE be responsible for handling both the expulsion and the
appeal of the expulsion. In order to ensure that students
receive due process when appealing an expulsion, SB 1309 would
create a formal process for the expulsion of a student from a
COE operated school."
Expulsion from a school operated by a county office of
education. County offices of education typically operate county
community schools for students who have been expelled from a
school district, juvenile court schools for students who are in
juvenile detention facilities, and provide some career technical
education, and special education and related services. The Los
Angeles County Office of Education also operates two
comprehensive schools; it is unclear if other county offices of
education operate comprehensive schools.
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Existing law does not provide for a process by which a county
office of education may expel a student. Anecdotally, the
practice of some county offices of education to not expel
students or remove students from school; those county offices of
education typically use various interventions and preventative
measures to keep students in school. If those measures are
unsuccessful, some county offices of education transfer such
students to other county-run programs, such as a military-style
charter school or dropout recovery charter school.
This bill creates a process that is based upon the existing
process for school district expulsion hearings and expulsion
appeals heard by county boards of education. While county
offices of education may not encounter many situations where
they desire to expel a student, this bill establishes a process
by which the potential expulsion of a student is considered by a
body that is not affiliated with the school in which the student
is enrolled.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
If a county office of education chooses to contract with the
OAH to conduct an expulsion hearing, estimated costs for a
one-day hearing could be approximately $4,500, including costs
for the administrative law judge to prepare and conduct the
hearing as well as to write the decision. It is unknown how
many hearings the OAH would conduct. If the OAH was
contracted for 15 hearings statewide in a given year, costs
incurred would be about $68,000. Revenues from the hearings
would be deposited into the Service Revolving Fund.
This bill could result in reimbursable state mandate costs to
conduct expulsion hearings appeals. Statewide reimbursable
mandate costs could be in excess of $50,000 in a given year.
Actual costs would depend upon the number of appeals that
occur, which is currently unknown. Other activities for
county offices of education included in this bill are unlikely
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to be determined a reimbursable state mandate as the
activities are triggered by a decision to recommend a student
for expulsion. Previous decisions made by the Commission on
State Mandates when considering whether school district
expulsion processes constitute a reimbursable state mandate
align with this rationale. (Proposition 98)
SUPPORT: (Verified5/27/16)
California Federation of Teachers
OPPOSITION: (Verified5/27/16)
None received
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
5/28/16 16:46:06
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