BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1116 (Huff)
Hearing Date: 05/10/2010 Amended: 05/04/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 1116, an urgency measure, would establish and
define "heritage schools" in the Education Code as entities that
are not full-time day schools that offer foreign language
education or training and/or education on the culture,
traditions, or history of a country other than the United
States. The bill would require heritage schools to file an
affidavit with the Department of Education detailing information
concerning personnel and the course of study and would also
require employees to be fingerprinted and undergo background
checks, as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Heritage school affidavits Startup costs ranging from
$100 to $150, Special*
ongoing costs
of $50, depending
on the number of affidavits
filed, costs to be
mitigated or offset by fees
Department of Justice $1,800 in initial costs and
$370 ongoing Special**
to be fully offset by fees
*New Account created by the bill
**Fingerprint Fees Account
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill may meet the criteria for referral to
the Suspense File.
Current law establishes certain health and safety licensing
standards for the operation of child care centers. These
licensing standards are enforced by the Department of Social
Services (DSS), typically through a site review conducted once
every five years.
Current law requires private schools to file an affidavit with
the Superintendent of Public Instruction detailing specific
information relative to school personnel and the courses of
study, and requires employees to be fingerprinted. The
Department of Education maintains a database with the
information from the affidavits and publishes a list of schools
with specified information.
This bill would define "heritage schools" as schools that serve
children who are school aged and who attend public or private
full-time day schools; specify hours of operation; offer
education or tutoring in a language other than English; offer
education on the culture, traditions or history of country other
than the United States; offer culturally enriching activities;
maintain membership in a state or national cultural or language
association; comply with applicable local government
regulations; and do not operate out of a residence.
Page 2
SB 1116 (Huff)
Essentially, these are schools or centers that offer activities
and education intended to maintain the heritage of a particular
culture, such as instruction in language, dance, and other
traditions.
This bill would require every person, firm, association,
partnership or corporation offering or conducting heritage
school instruction to file, between the first and 15th day of
October of each year with the Superintendent of Public
Instruction an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, by the owner
or other head setting forth the following information for the
current year:
All names of the person, firm, association, partnership,
or corporation under which it has done and is doing
business.
The address of every place of doing business of the
person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation
within the State of California.
The address of the location of the records of the
person, firm, association, partnership or corporation, and
the name and address of the custodian of the records.
The names and addresses of the directors and principal
officers of the person, firm, association, partnership, or
corporation.
The school enrollment, by grades, number of teachers,
co-educational or enrollment limited to boys or girls, and
boarding facilities.
That specified records are kept at the address stated,
and are true and accurate.
Criminal records summary information has been obtained
pursuant to current law affecting private school employees.
A $100 fee would be assessed for first time filers with a $55
annual fee required in subsequent years for deposit into the
Heritage Enrichment Resource Fund, for the purposes of
mitigating the Department of Education's operational costs.
The bill would further require employees to be fingerprinted, as
specified, and the Department of Justice would be required to
ascertain whether the individual has been arrested or convicted
of a crime insofar as that fact can be ascertained from
available information.
This bill would establish heritage schools in the Education Code
similar to the process by which private K-12 schools are
recognized. Earlier legislative efforts have treated heritage
schools as child care providers, and have sought to exempt them
from child care facility licensing requirements - and the
associated applications, fees, and inspections - provided that
the school met other specified standards.
The Department of Social Services (DSS) is responsible for the
monitoring and licensing of child care providers. This bill
would require that notice be provided to the parent or guardian
of an enrollee that the school does have a child care license.
The bill provides no mechanism or obligation for the Department
of Education or the Department of Social Services to monitor the
schools to ensure that specified requirements are being met.
Page 3
SB 1116 (Huff)
In lieu of monitoring, the bill requires the heritage to meet
specified requirements. In addition to those mentioned earlier,
the bill would require the director of the heritage school to
meet certain health and safety obligations including training in
pediatric first aid, CPR, and preventive health practices.
Also, employees would need to undergo a screening for
tuberculosis, pupils would be required to have access sinks,
toilets, and drinking water, and pupils would not be allowed to
have access to cleaning supplies or medication, except as
otherwise provided by law.
If the workload is similar for what is done for private schools,
the Department of Education estimates costs could be as high as
$235,000 in the first year and $212,000 ongoing. Staff notes,
however, that Department is not required to do much other than
to collect the affidavits. It is reasonable to assume that the
Department would incur startup costs related to the development
of the affidavit and of a database, and for technical assistance
and outreach to heritage schools, but these costs are likely to
be less than they are for private school work as there may be
fewer heritage schools and the Department is not required to
monitor compliance. Staff assumes a first year cost in the
range of $100,000 to $150,000, and ongoing work of $50,000. To
the extent the required fees mitigate these costs, the pressure
on the general fund would be reduced.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) estimates one-time costs of $1.8
million for work related to the fingerprinting and criminal
background checks, and ongoing costs of $370,000. These costs
would be entirely covered by fees as DOJ is authorized to assess
sufficient fees to cover the expense. The figures could be
higher or lower depending on the number of heritage schools that
file an affidavit. DOJ assumes there are 3,000 schools for this
estimate, though it is unknown exactly how many of these schools
are currently in operation. Presumably, these costs would be
lower if there are fewer schools.
This bill's key unknown cost factor is the number of heritage
schools, as there is no reliable estimate of this figure. If
the Department's startup costs are $150,000, there would need to
be 1,500 heritage schools to submit an affidavit and fee to
offset the costs. If there are fewer than that number (or fewer
willing to file the affidavit), this bill would represent a cost
to the General Fund. Staff notes that this cost uncertainty
could be removed if the bill were amended to allow the
Department to assess and collect fees that were sufficient to
cover the costs.
SB 379 (Huff, 2009), which would have defined heritage schools
in the Health and Safety Code and established requirements for
them in lieu of standard child care licensing requirements, was
held on this committee's suspense file.
AB 1888 (Huff, 2008), legislation similar to SB 379, was held
under submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.