SB 1349, as amended, Jackson. School athletics: information relating to competitive athletics.
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 year thereafter, each public
elementary and secondary school in thebegin delete stateend deletebegin insert state, including each charter school,end insert that offers competitive athletics, as defined, to make specified data publicly available at the end of the school year,begin delete and to post this information on the school’s Internet Web site.end deletebegin insert as specified.end insert
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
The Legislature finds and declares all of the
2following:
3(a) Female pupils receive substantial benefits from participating
4in athletics, including physical benefits, psychological and
5emotional health benefits, learning responsible social behavior,
6and achieving greater academic success. The achievements of
7women in athletics is demonstrated by their performances in the
8Olympic Games, women’s professional sports leagues, and other
9national and international women’s sporting events that receive
10public attention.
11(b) In 1912, only 2 percent of Olympic athletes were women;
12in
2012, 44 percent of Olympians were women.
13(c) Between 1972 and 2011, the number of girls competing in
14high school sports jumped from under 295,000 to nearly 3,200,000.
15But the level of opportunity for girls still has not reached the level
16of opportunity for boys that existed when Title IX of the Education
17Amendments of 1972 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted.
18(d) There are more women playing collegiate sports--about
19200,000--than ever before. The number of female athletes at
20National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools has
21increased from less than 30,000 to over 193,000 since 1972, but
22women still have over 60,000 fewer participation opportunities
23than their male counterparts.
24(e) Despite the fact
that millions of women and girls are
25competing, they are unlikely to see athletic role models of their
26own gender in the media. Researchers from the University of
27California and Purdue University completed a 20-year study of
P3 1sports coverage that shows the short shrift that women’s sports
2receives compared to men’s on network news and ESPN
3SportsCenter: in 2009, women’s sports got only 1.6 percent of the
4airtime, down from 6.3 percent in 2004.
5(f) Unfortunately, Title IX has not managed to extend the social
6and health benefits of sports to all girls equally. In 2008, a national
7survey of pupils in grades 3 to 12, inclusive, by the Women’s
8Sports Foundation found that 75 percent of Caucasian girls play
9sports, compared to less than two-thirds of African American and
10Hispanic girls, and about one-half of Asian girls. And, while boys
11from
immigrant families are well represented in youth sports, less
12than one-half of the girls from those families are playing sports.
13(g) The gender gap is also worse in urban schools and among
14kids from low-income families. These disparities in youth sports
15persist at the collegiate level. African American women are
16underrepresented in all sports except for Division I basketball and
17track and field, and Latinas make up just 4 percent of the female
18athletes in the NCAA.
Section 221.9 is added to the Education Code, to read:
(a) Commencing with the 2015-16 school year and
21every year thereafter, each public elementary and secondary school
22in thebegin delete stateend deletebegin insert state, including each charter school,end insert that offers
23competitive athletics shall publicly make available at the end of
24the school year all of the following information:
25(1) The total enrollment of the school, classified by gender.
26(2) The number of pupils enrolled at the school who participate
27in competitive athletics,
classified by gender.
28(3) The number of boys’ and girls’ teams, classified by sport
29and by competition level.
30(b) The data required pursuant to subdivision (a) shall reflect
31the total number of players on a team roster on the official first
32day of competition.
33(c) The school shallbegin delete postend deletebegin insert make the information specified in
34subdivision (a) publicly available as follows:end insert
35begin insert(1)end insertbegin insert end insertbegin insertIf the school maintains an Internet Web site, by postingend insert the
36informationbegin delete specified in subdivision (a)end delete on the school’s Internet
37Web site.
38(2) If the school does not maintain an Internet Web site, by
39submitting the information to its school district or, for a charter
40school, to its charter operator. The school district or charter
P4 1operator shall post the information on its Internet Web site, and
2the information shall be disaggregated by schoolsite.
3(d) The materials used by a school to compile the information
4specified in subdivision (a) shall be retained by the school for at
5least three years after the
information is posted on the Internet
6pursuant to subdivision (c).
7(e) As used in this section, “competitive athletics” means sports
8where the activity has coaches, a governing organization, and
9practices, and competes during a defined season, and has
10competition as its primary goal.
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