Senate Bill No. 1349

Introduced by Senator Jackson

(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Bonilla)

February 21, 2014

An act to add Section 221.9 to the Education Code, relating to school athletics.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1349, as introduced, Jackson. School athletics: information relating to competitive athletics.

(1) Existing law, known as the Sex Equity in Education Act, declares that it is the policy of the state that elementary and secondary school classes and courses, including nonacademic and elective classes and courses, be conducted without regard to the sex of the pupil enrolled in those classes and courses. The act also prohibits public funds from being used in connection with any athletic program conducted under the auspices of a school district governing board or any student organization within the district that does not provide equal opportunity to both sexes for participation and for use of facilities.

This bill would express legislative findings and declarations relating to the participation of girls and women in competitive athletics. The bill would require, commencing with the 2015-16 school year and every 2 years thereafter, each public elementary and secondary school in the state that has pupils who participate in competitive athletics, as defined, to report specified data to its school district governing board. The bill would also require school district governing boards to cause this information to be posted on the school district’s Internet Web site. Because this bill would impose new duties on schools and school districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program.

(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) Female pupils receive substantial benefits from participating
in athletics, including physical benefits, psychological and
emotional health benefits, learning responsible social behavior,
and achieving greater academic success. The achievements of
women in athletics is demonstrated by their performances in the
Olympic Games, women’s professional sports leagues, and other
national and international women’s sporting events that receive
public attention.

(b) In 1912, only 2 percent of Olympic athletes were women;
in 2012, 44 percent of Olympians were women.

(c) Between 1972 and 2011, the number of girls competing in
high school sports jumped from under 295,000 to nearly 3,200,000.
But girls’ opportunities still have not reached the level that boys
were at back when Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
to the 1964 Civil Rights Act was enacted.

(d) There are more women playing collegiate sports--about
200,000--than ever before. The number of female athletes at
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools has
increased from less than 30,000 to over 193,000 since 1972, but
women still have over 60,000 fewer participation opportunities
than their male counterparts.

(e) Despite the fact that millions of women and girls are
competing, they are unlikely to see athletic role models of their
own gender in the media. Researchers from the University of
California and Purdue University completed a 20-year study of
sports coverage that shows the short shrift that women’s sports
receives compared to men’s on network news and ESPN
SportsCenter: in 2009, women’s sports got only 1.6 percent of the
airtime, down from 6.3 percent in 2004.

(f) Unfortunately, Title IX has not managed to extend the social
and health benefits of sports to all girls equally. In 2008, a national
survey of pupils in grades 3 to 12, inclusive, by the Women’s
Sports Foundation found that 75 percent of Caucasian girls play
sports, compared to less than two-thirds of African American and
Hispanic girls, and about one-half of Asian girls. And, while boys
from immigrant families are well represented in youth sports, less
than one-half of the girls from those families are playing.

(g) The gender gap is also worse in urban schools and among
kids from low-income families. These disparities in youth sports
persist at the collegiate level. African American women are
underrepresented in all sports except for Division I basketball and
track and field, and Latinas make up just 4 percent of the female
athletes in the NCAA.

SEC. 2.  

Section 221.9 is added to the Education Code, to read:

221.9.  

(a) Commencing with the 2015-16 school year and
every two years thereafter, each public elementary and secondary
school in the state that has pupils who participate in competitive
athletics shall report to its school district governing board all of
the following information:

(1) The total enrollment of the school, classified by gender.

(2) The number of pupils enrolled at the school who participate
in competitive athletics, classified by gender.

(3) The number of boys’ and girls’ teams, classified by sport
and by competition level.

(4) The names, genders, job titles, and employment status,
including, but not limited to, full-time, part-time, contract, or
volunteer, and the amount of compensation or stipend, if any, for
all of the following: the school’s athletic director or equivalent,
and each coach and other athletic staff, including trainers and team
managers.

(5) The coach-to-athlete ratio for each team.

(6) For schools maintaining any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, all
of the following:

(A) An accounting of the funding sources that are used to
support the school’s athletics programs and the programs to which
those funds are allocated, including, but not necessarily limited
to, state and federal funding, fundraising or booster clubs, game
admission and concession receipts, cash or in-kind donations, and
grants.

(B) Any capital outlay expenditure made for any athletic
program.

(C) Expenditures for each athletic program, including, but not
necessarily limited to, travel expenses including transportation,
meal allowances and overnight accommodations, equipment,
uniforms, facilities, improvements to facilities, publicity expenses,
awards, banquets, and insurance.

(D) A statement of benefits and services provided to each
athletic program, including, but not necessarily limited to,
replacement schedules for uniforms, practice and game schedules,
locker rooms, weight rooms, and practice, competitive, and training
facilities.

(b) The school district governing board shall cause the
information submitted by each school pursuant to subdivision (a)
to be made publicly available by being posted on the Internet Web
site of each school district.

(c) The materials used by each school to compile the information
submitted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be retained at the school
for at least three years after the information is posted on the Internet
pursuant to subdivision (b).

(d) As used in this section, “competitive athletics” includes, but
is not necessarily limited to, interscholastic and intramural athletics.

SEC. 3.  

If the Commission on State Mandates determines that
this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to
local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made
pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division
4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.