Bill Text: CA AB1912 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Chaptered

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Bill Title: Emergency apportionments: closure and consolidation requirements.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-09-06 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 253, Statutes of 2022. [AB1912 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB1912-Chaptered.html

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Assembly Bill No. 1912

CHAPTER 253

An act to add and repeal Section 41329 of the Education Code, relating to emergency apportionments, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor  September 06, 2022. Filed with Secretary of State  September 06, 2022. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1912, Mia Bonta. Emergency apportionments: closure and consolidation requirements.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district, if it determines during a fiscal year that its revenues are less than the amount necessary to meet its current year expenditure obligations, to request an emergency apportionment through the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. Existing law imposes certain conditions and requirements on a school district that accepts an emergency apportionment, including, among others, that the governing board of the school district prepare a report on the financial condition of the school district. Existing law requires the report to include, among other things, specific actions taken to reduce expenditures or increase income, and the cost savings and increased income resulting from those actions.

This bill would require a school district under financial distress, as defined, before approving the closure or consolidation of a school, to conduct an equity impact analysis in its consideration of school closures or consolidations, as provided. The bill would require the governing board of the school district to develop a set of metrics, as specified, for the development of the equity impact analysis, and to make those metrics public at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district so that the public can provide input regarding the metrics being used to conduct the analysis, as provided. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that its provisions do not apply to a school district’s closure of a school due solely to the unsafe condition of the school’s facilities. The bill would make these provisions inoperative as of July 1, 2028.

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 the statutory provisions noted above.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Digest Key

Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 Section 41329 is added to the Education Code, immediately following Section 41328, to read:

41329.

 (a) A school district under financial distress, as defined in subdivision (b), shall do all of the following before approving the closure or consolidation of a school of the school district:

(1) In deciding what schools to close or consolidate, the governing board of the school district shall conduct an equity impact analysis in its consideration of school closures or consolidations. The governing board of the school district shall develop a set of metrics for the development of the equity impact analysis and make those metrics public at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district so that the public can provide input regarding the metrics being used to conduct the analysis. The metrics shall include, but are not limited to, all of the following:

(A) The condition of a school facility.

(B) The operating cost of a school and the associated savings resulting from a closure or consolidation.

(C) The capacity of a school to accommodate excess pupils.

(D) Special programs available at the schools being considered for closure or consolidation and whether those programs will be provided at the same current level at the schools to which pupils will be diverted.

(E) Environmental factors, including, but not limited to, traffic and proximity to freeway access.

(F) Balance of pupil demographics, including race or ethnicity, pupils with disabilities, English learners, foster youth, and homeless youth, in the schools being considered for closure or consolidation, and the resulting demographic balance of pupils after placement in other schools, in order to determine if the decision to close or consolidate will have a disproportionate impact on any particular demographic group.

(G) Transportation needs of pupils.

(H) Aesthetics and the opportunity for blight and negative impact on the surrounding community.

(I) Impact on feeder school attendance patterns with the closure of any particular school and whether the closure will attenuate attendance at other schools or specialized programs as a result.

(2) (A) The governing board of the school district shall provide its recommendations regarding school closures and consolidations to the public at a regularly scheduled meeting and share how it prepared its list and include, at a minimum, all of the following information:

(i) Factors used to identify the list of school closures or consolidations.

(ii) Equity impact analysis findings for each school closure or consolidation.

(iii) Plan for the use of the schools proposed for closure or consolidation once it becomes a vacated facility.

(iv) Criteria used to assign displaced pupils to other schoolsites, or a description of the process of reassignment that will be used by the school district.

(v) Options and timeline for transitioning pupils to their new schools, including improving safe routes to schools and home-to-school transportation needs.

(B) The governing board of the school district shall review and consider the feedback presented at the public meeting and make its decision on any school closures or consolidations at a subsequently scheduled regular meeting.

(C) At the subsequent regularly scheduled meeting, the governing board of the school district shall present its final recommendation for school closures or consolidations, which shall include a review of how public input was incorporated into the final recommendation. Any affirmative action by the governing board of the school district to implement a school closure or consolidation shall be made only after it adopts a resolution concluding that the community engagement process required pursuant this section has been completed.

(D) (i) Upon an affirmative action by the governing board of the school district to implement a school closure or consolidation, the school district shall provide information to parents and pupils in multiple formats, including, but not limited to, email and paper notifications.

(ii) Notifications to parents shall be translated into their primary language pursuant to Section 48985.

(iii) The information shall include all of the following:

(I) The date of the approved closure or consolidation.

(II) The pupil’s new school assignment, as applicable.

(III) School district resources for pupils and parents to support the pupil’s transition.

(IV) School district contacts for additional information.

(b) For purposes of this section, “financial distress” means a school district with an emergency apportionment pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 41320) or this article, a trustee appointed pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 41320), or an administrator appointed pursuant to this article.

(c) For purposes of this section, “governing board of a school district” includes a trustee appointed pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 41320), or an administrator appointed pursuant to this article.

(d) This section does not apply to a school district’s closure of a school due solely to the unsafe condition of the school’s facilities.

(e) The process outlined pursuant to this section shall not take more than 12 months from the initiation of the equity impact analysis pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) to the notification to parents of the final determination of the governing board of the school district pursuant to subparagraph (D) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).

(f) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2028, and, as of January 1, 2029, is repealed.

SEC. 2.

 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.

SEC. 3.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to mitigate, as soon as possible, the impacts of declining enrollment and chronic absenteeism, due to both long-term demographic trends and the COVID-19 pandemic, which will result in the closure of schools, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.