BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1411 (Runner) - Pupil safety: notification: pupil
victimization reporting
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|Version: March 28, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: April 11, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires that the principal of each public
school ensure that an anti-bullying notice is accessible to all
students in a common area of the school by January 1, 2018.
Fiscal
Impact: Unknown reimbursable state mandate costs, but
potentially in the hundreds of thousands to purchase the custom
notice and post it at school sites. Actual costs would depend
upon factors such as the size and materials schools choose to
use for the notice. To the extent the Commission on State
Mandates (COSM) determines these activities to be reimbursable,
it could create pressure to increase the K-12 mandate block
grant to account for this mandate. (Proposition 98)
Background: Existing law authorizes schools to suspend or recommend for
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expulsion a student who engages in an act of bullying, which is
defined as any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or
conduct. This includes communications made in writing or by
means of an electronic act, directed toward one or more students
that has or will have one or more of the following effects:
causes the student to be fearful, to have a detrimental effect
on his or her physical or mental health, or interferes with his
or her academic performance or participation in school
activities.
The California Department of Education (CDE) is required, among
other things, to monitor whether school districts have adopted a
process for receiving and investigating complaints relating to
discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying. CDE is
also required to develop an online training module on bullying
and cyberbullying for school staff, school administrators,
parents, students, and community members.
According to the author's office, the objective of posting an
actual, tangible "Respect for All" sign in each school is to
help deter prospective bullies and to provide some relief to
victims by directing them to a path for remediation.
Proposed Law:
This bill requires that the principal of each public school
ensure that an anti-bullying notice is accessible to all
students in a common area of the school by January 1, 2018.
Specifically, the notice must include the following four
bulleted notifications:
"All students are entitled to a fear-free learning
environment."
"Any student who has been the victim of discrimination,
harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyberbullying by
another student should report the incident to a teacher or
other school employee."
"A student, parent, teacher, or other concerned party
may report incidents of bullying or other cases of student
victimization to the district superintendent of schools or
the county superintendent of schools."
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"A student found to have threatened, intimidated, or
bullied another student may be subject to suspension or
recommended for expulsion pursuant to Section 48900 of the
Education Code, or to criminal prosecution."
Staff
Comments: This bill requires staff at the state's over 10,000
public schools to create a custom notice that includes the
language specified in the bill and post the notice in a common
area of the school. The additional activities imposed upon
school principals would likely be determined by the COSM to
impose a reimbursable state mandate.
Costs for school staff to comply with the bill's requirements
depend on a number of factors including the size and materials
used for the notice. Notices that may already be accessible to
students at school would likely not fulfill the requirements of
this bill as it requires specified text. Assuming each school
purchases one poster at a cost of $25 each, statewide costs
incurred could be in the low hundreds of thousands. If it took
staff at each school one hour to identify a poster for purchase
and post it on campus, school districts could potentially claim
costs of about $500,000 statewide. Charter schools would also
incur similar costs as traditional public schools but they are
not eligible to submit claims for reimbursement for
state-mandated activities.
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