BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1375
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
1375 (Jackson)
As Amended June 20, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 39-0
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Education |7-0 |O'Donnell, Olsen, | |
| | |Kim, McCarty, | |
| | |Santiago, Thurmond, | |
| | |Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Arts |7-0 |Chu, Obernolte, | |
| | |Hadley, Levine, Low, | |
| | |Medina, Nazarian | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |20-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonilla, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
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| | |Jones, Obernolte, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, | |
| | |Wagner, Weber, Wood, | |
| | |McCarty | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires educational institutions to post specified
information about Title IX on their Web sites. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Requires, by July 1, 2017, public schools, private schools
that receive federal funds and are subject to the requirements
of Title IX, school districts, county offices of education,
and charter schools to post in a prominent and conspicuous
location on their Web sites all of the following:
a) The name and contact information of the Title IX
coordinator, including the coordinator's phone number and
email address
b) The rights of students and the public and the
responsibilities of the school under Title IX, including,
links that information on the Web sites of the California
Department of Education (CDE) Office for Equal Opportunity
and the United States (U.S.) Department of Education's
Office of Civil Rights (OCR)
c) A description of how to file a complaint under Title IX,
including:
i) An explanation of the statute of limitations within
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which a complaint must be filed after an alleged incident
of discrimination has occurred, and how a complaint may
be filed beyond the statute of limitations
ii) An explanation of how the complaint will be
investigated and how the complainant may further pursue
the complaint, including links to this information on the
OCR Web site
iii) A link to the OCR complaint form, and the contact
information for the office
2)Requires, by April 1, 2017, and annually thereafter, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to email a letter
to all schools informing them of the requirements of the bill
and of their responsibilities under Title IX.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Proposition 98/General Fund state mandated costs, potentially
in excess of $500,000, for public schools, school districts,
and county offices of education to develop the notice required
by the bill and post it online. There are over 11,000 LEAs
that could be impacted by the requirements of this bill.
Actual costs will depend on size and types of claims LEAs
submit to the Commission on State Mandates (CSM) to implement
this measure. Charter schools and private schools would also
incur costs to implement the requirements of this bill;
however, these schools are not eligible to seek reimbursement
from the CSM for mandated activities.
2)Minor/absorbable costs to the CDE to monitor compliance and to
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develop and send the letter to LEAs annually.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. According to the author's office:
According to testimony provided by both the OCR and CDE,
school districts are often unaware that Title IX requires
them to:
Appoint a Title IX coordinator at both the district
and school level who is responsible for coordinating
the school and school district's Title IX compliance,
and that the coordinator should not have other
responsibilities that create a conflict of interest
with his or her role as coordinator.
Adopt and publish rules and procedures on how to
receive, investigate, and respond to a complaint filed
under Title IX.
Notify all students, their families, and staff of
their rights under Title IX.
This lack of awareness can be seen in common day
interpretations of Title IX. Whereas many people
typically correlate Title IX with gender equity in
interscholastic athletics, many are unaware that Title IX
forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in any
federally funded education program or activity. This
includes protections against gender bias, gender-based
harassment, sexual harassment, and sexual violence.
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Although the CDE states on its Web site that 'many school
districts now have a Title IX coordinator,' schools
remain unaware of the consequences with being
noncompliant with Title IX. This can result in the
school district being held legally responsible if it
becomes aware of or does not address, either through lack
of response or lack of awareness of a complaint or
violation of Title IX.
SB 1375 can help to bridge the gap between awareness and
lack of compliance by providing a simply yet effective
way of ensuring districts uphold their responsibilities
under Title IX.
Existing posting requirements. Current law requires the CDE to
post on its Web site the information set forth in the federal
regulations implementing Title IX. There is no requirement in
current law to post information about Title IX, or the contact
information for the Title IX coordinator, on school campuses or
on Web sites of school districts.
2015 OCR guidance supports putting Title IX information on Web
sites. In an April, 2015 "Dear Colleague" letter, the OCR
reaffirmed schools' obligation to make Title IX information
visible in the community. It stated:
The Title IX coordinator's contact information must be widely
distributed and should be easily found on the recipient's
website and in various publications?OCR encourages recipients
to create a page on the recipient's website that includes the
name and contact information of its Title IX coordinator(s),
relevant Title IX policies and grievance procedures, and other
resources related to Title IX compliance and gender equity. A
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link to this page should be prominently displayed on the
recipient's homepage. [emphasis added]
This bill's requirements to post information on school and
district Web sites is consistent with the recommendations in
this recent federal guidance.
Analysis Prepared by: Tanya Lieberman / ED.
/ (916) 319-2087 FN: 0004062