BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1154
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 28, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, TOURISM, AND
INTERNET MEDIA
Mike Davis, Chair
AB 1154 (Strickland) - As Amended: April 22, 2009
SUBJECT : California Interscholastic Federation: notice of
sanctions.
SUMMARY : Encourages the California Interscholastic Federation
(CIF) and its Sections to post information relating to team
sanctions online, as specified. Specifically, this bill :
Encourages the CIF and its Sections, if they impose a sanction
on an interscholastic team of a member school, to post online
the name of the school, the team that has been penalized, the
violation that has occasioned the sanction, and a description of
the sanction.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies that the CIF is a voluntary organization that
consists of school and school-related personnel with
responsibility for administering interscholastic athletic
activities in secondary schools; and, establishes a sunset
date of January 1, 2012, for this responsibility.
2)Declares Legislative intent that the CIF, in consultation with
the department, implement the following policies:
a) Give the governing boards of school districts specific
authority to select their athletic league representatives;
b) Require that all league, section, and state meetings
affiliated with the CIF be subject to the notice and
hearing requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act);
c) Establish a neutral final appeals body to hear
complaints related to interscholastic athletic policies;
and,
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d) Provide information to parents and pupils regarding the
state and federal complaint procedures for discrimination
complaints arising out of interscholastic athletic
activities.
3)Requires the CIF to report to the Legislature and the Governor
on its evaluation and accountability activities undertaken on
or before January 1, 2010; and, requires the report to
include:
a) The governing structure of the CIF, and the
effectiveness of that governance structure in providing
leadership for interscholastic athletics in secondary
schools;
b) Methods to facilitate communication with agencies,
organizations, and public entities whose functions and
interests interface with the CIF;
c) The quality of coaching and officiating, including, but
not limited to, professional development for coaches and
athletic administrators, and parent education programs;
d) Gender equity in interscholastic athletics, including,
but not limited to, the number of male and female pupils
participating in interscholastic athletics in secondary
schools, and action taken by the CIF in order to ensure
compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of
1972;
e) Health and safety of pupils, coaches, officials, and
spectators;
f) The economic viability of interscholastic athletics in
secondary schools, including, but not limited to, the
promotion and marketing of interscholastic athletics;
g) New and continuing programs available to pupil-athletes;
and
h) Awareness and understanding of emerging issues related
to interscholastic athletics in secondary schools.
4)Declares Legislative intent that the CIF accomplish all of the
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following:
a) During years in which the CIF is not required to report
to the Legislature and the Governor it shall hold a public
comment period relating to the report at three regularly
scheduled federation council meetings per year;
b) Annually allow public comment on the policies and
practices of the CIF at a regularly scheduled federation
council meeting;
c) Require sections of the CIF to allow public comment on
the policies and practices of the California
Interscholastic Federation and its sections, at each
regularly scheduled section meeting; and
d) Engage in a comprehensive outreach effort to promote the
public hearings.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
1)Author's statement . According to the author, the intent of
the bill is to not only increase the transparency of CIF
activity, but to remind and warn other schools or teams
engaging or considering engaging in activities that violate
CIF regulations. By having these records online, schools and
pupils will have clear examples of what is and is not
acceptable. This will enhance the goal of CIF sanctions to
deter other schools and teams from violating CIF policies.
2)Background on CIF . The California Interscholastic Federation
was organized at a high school athletic convention on March
28, 1914, as a voluntary association of schools. Since 1914,
the California Department of Education (CDE) has allowed the
CIF, to regulate interscholastic athletics, and the CIF has
been the rule-making body for all of California's K-12
athletics programs since 1917. In 1981, that rule-making
authority was expanded to include control over all
interscholastic athletics, replacing the CDE in that role.
The Federation consists of ten regional sections (see Comment
3 below for a list), each of which is divided into several
"leagues," for purposes of scheduling athletic contests,
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assigning referees, etc. Similar organizations exist in other
states. Almost all public, private and parochial schools in
California are CIF members.
The primary responsibilities of CIF are to administer high
school athletic programs and to promulgate and enforce rules
relating to a student's involvement in athletics - age,
semesters in school, scholarship, residence, transfer status,
and amateur standing. Such regulations, which are generated
by the 1,400 member base of secondary schools, prevent
undesirable exploitation of high school students, provide for
the welfare of participants, and ensure that interscholastic
athletics offer major benefits to students in a safe,
rewarding environment.
3)Proposed legislation will cover posting of information
regarding penalties against teams and not individual students,
for duration of the sanction.
This legislation would encourage the CIF and its Sections, if
they impose a sanction on an interscholastic team of a member
school, to post online the name of the school, the team that
has been penalized, the violation that has occasioned the
sanction, and a description of the sanction. Currently, such
information may be found in the minutes of the CIF and 9 of
the 10 Sections which post such information online. The CIF
Oakland Section does not currently have a website.
California Education Code Sections 35179 and 33353 give
voluntary associations, such as the CIF, authority to enact
and enforce rules relating to eligibility for, and
participation in, interscholastic athletics. As the courts
have long recognized, when acting in this capacity, CIF is a
"state" actor. "We note that, inasmuch as CIF is an
organization with responsibility for administering
interscholastic athletics in all California secondary schools
(citation omitted), the enforcement of its rules constitutes
'state action' for purposes of constitutional analysis."
Steffes v. CIF (1986) 176 Cal. App. 3d 739.
According to information provided on their state website, as
state actors, the "CIF is subject to the Brown Act, California
Government Code Section 54950, which guarantees the public's
right to attend and participate in open forum meetings of
local legislative bodies because of the vital role such
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legislative bodies play in bringing participatory democracy to
the citizens of the State of California. As such, local
legislative bodies are generally required to hold meetings in
open forum. However, the Brown Act also recognizes the need
for these bodies to meet in private in order to carry out
their responsibilities." (CIF website, About Us: Brown Act,
accessed April 21, 2009,
http://www.cifstate.org/governance/constitution_bylaws/pdf/Brow
nAct.pdf)
For instance, a balance is struck in the case of CIF statewide
and Section hearings and appeals, where "The Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) restricts access to
student educational records [20 U.S.C./1232(a)]. In addition,
California Education Code Sections 49060-49079 were enacted to
manifest compliance with FERPAs statutory requirements
concerning the privacy of student records. Moreover, CIF
State and CIF Section Hearings are not meetings as defined by
Government Code Section 54952.2(a) because such hearings are
not conducted or ruled upon by a majority of the members of a
legislative body. Rather, such hearings are held and
conducted by either a single hearing officer or a hearing
panel which are randomly selected for each individual hearing.
Therefore, the Brown Act does not apply to CIF State and CIF
Section hearings because such hearings may involve the
presentation of confidential student information and are not
conducted in a manner subject to the Brown Act." (Id.)
If the committee chooses to pass this bill, the author may
wish to clarify that the information posted may not contain
information regarding individual students. The author may
also wish to clarify how information about sanctions from the
Oakland Section will be addressed. Finally, in conversation
with CIF officials, committee staff learned that the CIF
believes the information regarding sanctions brought will only
be posted for the duration of the sanction. This may vary from
a season to a number of years. The author may wish to
consider a time period within which the information will be
made available to the public.
4)CIF organization and Sections . According to information
gathered from the CIF website, "The CIF is a bottom up
organization and its functions are designed to ensure that new
rules only come into being after having been examined and
voted upon by CIF representatives throughout the state of
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California. Each CIF member school is assigned to a local
league. At the league level, the designees enact a league
constitution and bylaws, elect league officers and select from
among themselves a league representative to the section
governing board. The section governing board is usually
referred to as the Board of Managers, but there are some
section governing boards which have a different name. The
section governing boards, in turn, enact their own
constitutions and bylaws, their own officers, and establish
section policies and rules which, along with league policies
and rules, may be stricter than but may not conflict with, CIF
rules. Section governing boards select from their membership
their representatives to the statewide CIF Federated Council."
Under the CIF, the state is broken up into ten sections.
These sections are:
CIF Northern Section; covering the Northern inland section of
the state.
CIF North Coast Section; covering the northwestern and eastern
portions of the San Francisco Bay Area and the coastal regions
in the north.
CIF Sac-Joaquin Section; covering the northeastern portion of
the San Francisco Bay Area, the city of Sacramento, and the
northern portion of the San Joaquin Valley.
CIF San Francisco Section; covering public schools in the city
of San Francisco.
CIF Oakland Section; covering public schools in the city of
Oakland.
CIF Central Coast Section; covering the western and southern
portions of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area,
and inland to King City.
CIF Central Section; covering the central and southern San
Joaquin Valley.
CIF Los Angeles City Section; covering public schools in the
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which covers
almost all of the city of Los Angeles plus some nearby
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communities outside the city.
CIF Southern Section; covering the suburbs of Los Angeles,
Orange County, central Coastal region of the state, the inland
southern portion of the state, as well as most of the Sierra
Nevada.
CIF San Diego Section; covering San Diego County.
5)Previous and related legislation .
AB 352 (Strickland) of 2009, declares the intent of the
Legislature that the CIF in consultation with the CDE, comply
with the California Public Records Act. This bill is pending
before the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization.
AB 1039 (Strickland) of 2009, authorizes a pupil to appeal a
final decision made by the CIF to suspend or terminate a pupil
from participation in a sport for a violation of its codes and
regulations; and, requires the county board of education to be
the final arbiter in the matter. Held in the Assembly
Education Committee as a two year bill.
AB 2312 (Strickland) of 2006, would have prohibited school
districts, associations or consortia of school districts, the
CIF, voluntary associations, or any other entity that governs
interscholastic athletics or activities from prohibiting a
pupil who transfers to a school from participating in
interscholastic athletics or activities at that school. The
bill failed passage in the Assembly Education Committee.
SB 1411 (Ortiz) of 2006, would have allowed students to
transfer between high schools and retain varsity athletic
eligibility in sports in which the student competed during the
previous year. The bill failed passage in the Senate
Education Committee.
SB 562 (Torlakson) Chapter 301, Statutes of 2005, extended the
sunset provisions relating to the California Interscholastic
Federation from January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2012. Specified
certain reporting requirements and extended, indefinitely,
provisions granting authority to the CDE to supervise physical
education courses.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
AB 1154
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Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Dana Mitchell / A.,E.,S.,T. & I.M. /
(916) 319-3450