BILL ANALYSIS
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Date of Hearing: July 1, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
ACR 82 (Hall) - As Introduced: June 16, 2009
SUBJECT : Public education: "Discrimination-Free Zones."
SUMMARY : Encourages public education institutions,
prekindergarten through university campuses, to develop and
enact appropriate procedures that meaningfully address acts of
discrimination that occur on campus and that support tolerance
and acceptance of others regardless of their race, culture,
religion, disability, gender, gender identity, economic
circumstance or sexual orientation. Specifically, this bill :
1)Encourages public institutions to enact procedures, such as
counseling services and conflict management, that meaningfully
address acts of discrimination that occur on campus and
encourages that parents and the campus community are notified
of new procedures as well as existing polices and procedures
that encourage tolerance of others.
2)Encourages public education institutions to establish
themselves as "Discrimination-Free Zones" to provide a safe
haven from intolerance or discrimination and to create a
campus climate that welcomes diversity through placards,
signs, notices of available services, and other appropriate
identifications.
3)Makes findings about California's diverse student body that
reflects the racial, cultural, religious, disability, gender,
gender identity, economic circumstance, and sexual orientation
of California's citizens.
4)States that California's public educators encourage
inclusiveness among the students they educate and the
Legislature condemns all acts of discrimination, intolerance,
and hate aimed at individuals that reflect the state's
diversity.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Acknowledges that California's public schools have an
affirmative obligation to combat racism, sexism, and other
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forms of bias, and a responsibility to provide equal
educational opportunity. (Education Code Section 201)
2)Expresses legislative intent that each public school undertake
educational activities to counter discriminatory incidents on
school grounds and, within constitutional bounds, to minimize
and eliminate a hostile environment on school grounds that
impairs the access of pupils to equal educational opportunity.
(Education Code Section 201)
3)Declares that it is the policy of the state to afford all
persons in public schools, regardless of disability, gender,
nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation,
or any other characteristic that is contained in the
definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the
Penal Code, equal rights and opportunities in the educational
institutions of the state. (Education Code Section 220)
4)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to:
a. Display information on curricula and other resources
that specifically address bias-related discrimination and
harassment based on the characteristics set forth in the
Penal Code and the Education Code on the California
Healthy Kids Resource Center Internet Web site and other
appropriate CDE Websites where information about
discrimination and harassment is posted. (Education Code
Section 234.2)
b. Assess whether local educational agencies have:
i. Adopted policies prohibiting
discrimination and harassment based on
characteristics set forth in current law;
ii. Publicized antidiscrimination and
antiharassment policies, including information about
the manner in which to file a complaint, to pupils,
parents, employees, agents of the governing board,
and the general public; and,
iii. Posted antidiscrimination and
antiharassment policies in all schools and offices,
including staff lounges and pupil government meeting
rooms. (Education Code Section 234.1)
c. Develop a model handout describing the rights and
obligations set forth in current law and the policies
addressing bias-related discrimination and harassment in
schools. Requires the model handout be posted on
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appropriate CDE Internet Websites. (Education Code
Section 234.3)
5)Requires CDE to:
a. Provide regional training to assist school district
personnel in the identification and determination of hate
violence on school campuses.
b. Establish a grant program for school districts shall
be established by the department for the purpose of
enabling pupils and teachers to participate in
educational programs focused on fostering ethnic
sensitivity, overcoming racism and prejudice, and
countering hatred and intolerance. (Education Code
Section 233.8)
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : California has the largest public school system in
the nation, prekindergarten through university, teaching more
than six million students in about 9,800 schools. The diverse
student body is mainly comprised of Hispanics, Filipinos,
Anglo-Saxons, Asians, American Indians, and African Americans.
California has a wide range of ethnicities and cultural
differences within the immense public school system. The
author's office believes more should be done to address the
needs of such a diverse state. ACR 82 encourages public
education institutions to further address the needs of a diverse
student body. By encouraging public education institutions to
enact specific policies and procedures, such as counseling
services and conflict management, they may ease tensions among
the student body and create a safer learning environment.
Additionally, by designating public education institutions as
"Discrimination-Free Zones," schools are encouraged to enact
policies and procedures that reflect this message.
Previous legislation has sought to address discrimination in
public education institutions. AB 537 (Author Kuehl), Chapter
581, Statutes of 2000, the California Student Safety and
Violence Prevention Act of 2000, prohibits discrimination in
California public schools on the same grounds used to define
hate crimes under California law and adds two forms of
discrimination to the existing prohibitions against
discrimination and harassment in California public schools:
actual or perceived sexual orientation and actual or perceived
gender. The legislation further defined discrimination. Former
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Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin established
an advisory task force to "identify, research, and recommend
guidelines to implement AB 537." Many of the strategies and
recommendation made by the task force are specific to what ACR
82 encourages, including the need for the CDE to "provide
guidance to all school personnel on the new law and the school
district policy on responding to climate-setting incidents of
harassment and violence, ensure that schools post an
antidiscrimination policy that explicitly mentions actual or
perceived sexual orientation and gender identity on all school
campuses in locations that students regularly see, and ensure
that schools inform all students and parents/guardians annually
of discrimination prohibitions and grievance procedures,
including information on contacting administrators responsible
for handling complaints."
CDE implemented with some of the recommendations from the task
force report. For example, one of the recommendations was to
integrate methods to monitor compliance with AB 537 into
existing educational compliance systems and develop additional
systems to support compliance. The Office of Equal Opportunity
helped draft a monitoring instrument that was used during
Categorical Program Monitoring visits to verify that local
educational agencies have antidiscrimination policies and that
these policies have been communicated to their constituents. The
second was a recommendation to modify existing data gathering
systems to provide information on the prevalence in schools of
threats, harassment, or violence against students based on
sexual orientation or gender identity. CDE has added many
questions to the California Healthy Kids Survey on safety and
harassment. However, had the report come with funding, more
recommendations would have been implemented.
ACR 82 serves to remind and encourage public education
institutions to come up with and implement these kinds of
measures to prevent and stop discrimination.
Another piece of legislation, AB 394 (Author Levine), Chapter
566, Statutes of 2007, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires CDE
"to monitor adherence to the antidiscrimination and
antiharassment requirements as part of its regular monitoring
and review of local educational agencies." As a result of AB
394, an Educational Equity (EE) instrument is used for
Categorical Program Monitoring, which is an ongoing monitoring
process. The EE instrument holds local educational agencies
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accountable for providing equal rights and opportunities for all
students.
ACR 82 echoes existing legislation, and further encourages
public education institutions to enact more specific polices and
procedures regarding discrimination.
According to the sponsors of this bill, the California Faculty
Association, there are ongoing acts of all kinds of
discrimination that hurt the student body. ACR 82 encourages
public education institutions to further protect their students
from discrimination.
Committee Amendments : In consideration of past legislative
efforts to keep the language defining the extent of prohibition
of discrimination consistent in the statutes, staff recommends
the bill be amended so that the list of protected
characteristics current law.
Staff recommends the bill be amended on page 2, starting on line
25 to read as follows:
Resolved, That all public education institutions,
prekindergarten through university campuses, are encouraged to
develop and enact policies that support tolerance and acceptance
of others regardless of their race or ethnicity, culture,
religion, disability, gender, gender identity, economic
circumstance, or sexual orientation ; , nationality, or any other
characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate
crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code; and be it
further
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Faculty Association
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lauren Greenwood and Marisol Avi?a /
ED. / (916) 319-2087
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