BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1375 (Jackson) - Educational equity: sex equity in
education: federal Title IX notifications
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|Version: April 6, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: April 18, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires by July 1, 2017, public and private
schools, as specified, and local educational agencies to post in
a prominent location on their websites specific information
regarding Title IX, and include this information in an annual
parent notice.
Fiscal
Impact:
Mandate costs: Unknown, but potential reimbursable state
mandate costs up to $1 million to expand the existing annual
parent notification. Additional one-time costs in the
hundreds of thousands may be incurred to the extent schools
and local educational agencies claimed reimbursement for costs
to make the Title IX information available on their websites.
To the extent the Commission on State Mandates (COSM)
determines these activities to be reimbursable, it could
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create pressure to increase the K-12 mandate block grant.
(Proposition 98)
The California Department of Education (CDE) cites minimal
costs to develop and send the letter as required by this bill.
Background: Existing federal law provides that, in part, "no person in the
United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to
discrimination under any educational program of activity
receiving Federal financial assistance." Enforcement of
compliance is initiated upon the filing of a complaint alleging
a violation of Title IX. It also requires each school district
and county office of education, or a local public or private
agency that receives funding from the state or federal
government, to designate a person to serve as the Title IX
compliance coordinator to enforce compliance at the local level,
including coordinating any complaints of non-compliance. (Title
IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to the 1964 Civil Rights
Act)
Existing law also requires the CDE to post on its website, in
both English and Spanish, and at a reading level that may be
comprehended by students in high school, the information set
forth in the federal regulations implementing Title IX.
(Education Code § 221.6) Existing law establishes a list of
rights which are based on the relevant provisions of Title IX,
and authorizes the CDE to use this list to meet this posting
requirement. (Education Code § 221.6 and§ 221.8)
Existing law requires each educational institution in California
(K-12 and postsecondary education) to have a written policy on
sexual harassment, and requires schools to display the policy
in a prominent location in the main administrative building or
other area of the campus or schoolsite, be provided as part of
any orientation program for new students, be provided to each
faculty member, administrative staff and support staff, and
appear in any publication of the school that sets forth the
rules, regulations, procedures and standards of conduct. (EC §
231.5 and § 66281.5)
Existing law requires at the beginning of the school year, the
SB 1375 (Jackson) Page 2 of
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governing board of each school district to notify the parent or
guardian of a minor regarding certain rights and
responsibilities. This annual parent notification must include,
among other things, a copy of the written policy of the school
district on sexual harassment as it relates to students. (EC §
48980)
Proposed Law:
This bill requires by July 1, 2017, public and private schools
that receive federal funds and are subject to the requirements
of federal Title IX, as well as local educational agencies to
post in a prominent and conspicuous location on their websites
specific information regarding Title IX. Specifically, this
information includes:
1. Contact information of the Title IX coordinator for each
of school and local educational agency.
2. The rights of a student and the public and the
responsibilities of schools and local educational agencies
under Title IX, including links to information about those
rights and responsibilities from the CDE's Office for Equal
Opportunity and the United States Department of Education's
Office of Civil Rights websites, and the list of rights
outlined in statute that are based on federal regulations
implementing Title IX.
3. A description of how to file a Title IX complaint, as
specified.
This bill also requires that this information be included in the
annual parent notice, required by current law in which the
governing board of each school district notifies parents or
guardians of a minor student of certain rights and
responsibilities.
Finally this bill requires the CDE to annually send a letter
electronically to all public and private schools that receive
federal funds and are subject to the requirements of Title IX as
well as local educational agencies, informing them of the
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requirement to post the information specified above on their
websites.
Related
Legislation: SB 1014 (Liu, 2015) authorizes a school district
to grant parental leave to a student, as specified, and requires
school districts to notify pregnant and parenting students of
their rights and options, including those available via federal
Title IX, through a number of ways, including annual parent
notifications sent by school districts. SB 1014 is pending in
this committee.
Staff
Comments: The requirement to include specified Title IX
information in the annual parent notice likely expands the
existing consolidated Annual Parent Notification mandate which,
before the K-12 mandate block grant was enacted, averaged costs
in the low millions. Based on the formula for calculating
claimable costs developed by the COSM utilizing a per-page
reimbursement methodology, this bill could result in costs up to
$1 million by adding, possibly two pages, to the annual parent
notification.
Additional potentially significant one-time mandate costs could
be incurred for each school and local educational agency to post
required Title IX information on their websites. If each of the
state's public schools and each school district spent one hour
of staff time at a rate of $50 per hour to prepare and post the
required information on their websites, statewide costs would be
over $500,000. If a school or local educational agency already
posts Title IX related information, but does not include all the
specific elements required by this bill, it would have to
incorporate additional required information to comply with this
bill. These costs would also be eligible to be claimed as a
reimbursable state mandate.
According to the author's office, this measure would help to
fulfill the intent of Title IX and ensure that students, their
families, and the public are informed of their rights, and
remind schools and school districts of their responsibilities
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under Title IX.
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