BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1349
AUTHOR: Jackson
AMENDED: March 26, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 2, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Lynn Lorber
SUBJECT : Report on competitive athletics.
SUMMARY
This bill requires public schools to report specific
information regarding participation in competitive
athletics, beginning with the 2015-16 school year and
biennially thereafter.
BACKGROUND
Current federal law provides that, in part, "no person in
the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded
from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be
subjected to discrimination under any educational program
of activity receiving Federal financial assistance." In
order to be in compliance with Federal Title IX, a school
must show compliance with one of these three parts. The
federal tests are:
1) Athletic participation of women and girls is
proportionate to enrollment.
2) The school has a history and continuing practice of
program expansion for women or girls.
3) The school is fully meeting female athletes' interests
and abilities in its present athletic program. (Title
IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to the 1964
Civil Rights Act)
Enforcement of compliance is initiated upon the filing of a
complaint alleging a violation of Title IX.
Current state law establishes standards virtually identical
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to those of Federal Title IX, with one modification: in
Test 2, "history" is defined to mean the past two years.
(Education Code � 230)
Title IX applies to all aspects of educational
opportunities, not just athletics.
ANALYSIS
This bill requires public schools to report specific
information regarding participation in competitive
athletics, beginning with the 2015-16 school year and
biennially thereafter. Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires, beginning with the 2015-16 school year, each
public school with students who participate in
competitive athletics to report to its school district
governing board all of the following information:
a) The total enrollment of the school,
classified by gender.
b) The number of students who
participate in competitive athletics, classified
by gender.
c) The number of boys' and girls'
teams, classified by sport and by competition
level.
d) The names, genders, job titles,
and employment status (full-time, part-time,
contract or volunteer), and the amount of
compensation or stipend for all of the following:
i) The school's athletic director or
equivalent.
ii) Each coach and other athletic
staff, including trainers and team managers.
e) The coach-to-athlete ratio for each team.
f) For high schools, all of the following:
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i) An accounting of the
funding sources used to support athletic
programs and the programs to which those
funds are allocated, including state and
federal funds, fundraising or booster clubs,
game admission and concession receipts, cash
or in-kind donations, and grants.
ii) Any capital outlay expenditure
made for any athletic program.
iii) Expenditures for each athletic
program, including travel, meal allowances
and overnight accommodations, equipment,
uniforms, facilities, improvements to
facilities, publicity expenses, awards,
banquets, and insurance.
iv) A statement of benefits and
services provided to each athletic program,
including replacement schedules for
uniforms, practice and game schedules,
locker rooms, weight rooms, and facilities
for practice, training and competition.
2) Requires school districts to post the data from each
school within the district on the district's website.
This bill requires the data to be retained at the
school for at least three years after the data is
posted on the district's website.
3) Requires, beginning July 1, 2017 and biennially
thereafter, the State Auditor to randomly choose 10
high schools that offer competitive athletics with
numbers that are not proportionally representative of
the male and female participants in the athletic
program, and conduct an audit of each school for full
compliance with Title IX.
4) Requires the State Auditor, within six months of the
July 1 initiation of an audit, report the results of
the audit to the affected schools, their school
districts, the California Department of Education, the
Education and Judiciary Committees of both the Senate
and Assembly. This bill sunsets this reporting
requirement on January 1, 2022.
5) Defines "competitive athletics" as sports where the
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activity has coaches, practices, competitions during a
defined season, a governing organization, and has
competition as its primary goal.
6) States legislative findings and declarations relative
to gender equity in athletics.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Compliance with Title IX . Enforcement of compliance
is initiated upon the filing of a complaint alleging a
violation of Title IX. Current law does not require
any reporting of measures of compliance with Title IX
by K-12 schools.
AB 2295 (Oropeza, Chapter 1060, 2002) contained uncodified
language that required the California Department of
Education and the California Postsecondary Education
Commission to contract jointly for a one-time report
on female participation in athletics. In 2003, the
RMC Research Corporation's independent report "Title
IX Athletics Compliance at California's Public High
Schools, Community Colleges, and Universities"
revealed that of the 125 high schools that returned
surveys, only 26% were in compliance with Title IX
based on proportionality, defined as having
participation rates that were within five percentage
points of the enrollment rates for each gender. One
of the recommendations of the report was to require
high schools to report athletics data annually and to
ensure a monitoring process for Title IX.
2) Author's amendments . The author wishes to amend this
bill to limit the information to be reported by
striking :
a) The names, genders, job titles, and
employment status (full-time, part-time, contract
or volunteer), and the amount of compensation or
stipend for the athletic director and each coach
and other athletic staff.
b) The coach-to-athlete ratio for each team.
c) For high schools, all of the following:
i) An accounting of the funding sources
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used to support athletic programs and the
programs to which those funds are allocated,
including state and federal funds,
fundraising or booster clubs, game admission
and concession receipts, cash or in-kind
donations, and grants.
ii) Any capital outlay expenditure
made for any athletic program.
iii) Expenditures for each athletic
program, including travel, meal allowances
and overnight accommodations, equipment,
uniforms, facilities, improvements to
facilities, publicity expenses, awards,
banquets, and insurance.
iv) A statement of benefits and
services provided to each athletic program,
including replacement schedules for
uniforms, practice and game schedules,
locker rooms, weight rooms, and facilities
for practice, training and competition.
Therefore, this bill would require schools to report
total enrollment by gender, the number of students who
participate in competitive athletics by gender, and
the number of teams for both genders classified by
sport and competition level.
3) State Auditor . This bill requires the State Auditor
to randomly choose, on a biennial basis, 10 high
schools that offer competitive athletics with numbers
that are not proportionally representative of the male
and female participants in the athletic program, and
conduct an audit of each school for full compliance
with Title IX. The Bureau of State Audits appears to
be an appropriate entity to investigate and report on
compliance, as the Bureau of State Audits released a
report in 2013 titled School Safety and
Nondiscrimination Laws, and is required to report,
every three years, on compliance with the federal
Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and
Campus Crime Statistics Act.
Staff recommends amendments to require schools to report to
the district and require the Auditor to report every
three years, rather than biennially.
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4) Disproportionality . This bill requires the State
Auditor to randomly choose 10 high schools that offer
competitive athletics with numbers that are not
proportionally representative of the male and female
participants in the athletic program, and conduct an
audit of each school for full compliance with Title
IX. However, this bill provides no guidance regarding
the consideration of the level of disproportionality;
it is likely that
disproportionality may be more egregious in some
schools than others. Should this determination be
left to the State Auditor?
5) Technical amendments . This bill requires the data to
be retained at the school for at least three years
after the data is posted on the district's website.
Staff recommends an amendment to clarify that the data
must be kept by, rather than at, the school.
This bill requires the State Auditor to report the results
of the audit to the affected schools, their school
districts, the California Department of Education, the
Education and Judiciary Committees of both the Senate
and Assembly. Staff recommends an amendment to also
require the results of the audit to be reported to the
Governor.
6) Related legislation . AB 2512 (Bonilla) adds
compliance with Title IX, including the total number
of pupils, by gender, participating in existing after
school athletic programs, to indicators to be included
in the Academic Performance Index. This bill also
authorizes, beginning January 1, 2018, school
districts to include this information in the
district's local control accountability plan as one
indicator of school climate. AB 2512 is pending in
the Assembly Education Committee.
7) Prior legislation . AB 2323 (Jackson, 2004) would have
required the California Department of Education to
develop a Gender Equity Compliance Survey for high
schools. AB 2323 was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
SUPPORT
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American Association of University Women
California Women's Law Center
OPPOSITION
None on file.