Bill Text: CA AB1984 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Pupil discipline: transfer reporting.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2024-09-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 368, Statutes of 2024. [AB1984 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB1984-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  April 01, 2024

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 21, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1984

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Introduced by Assembly Member Weber

January 30, 2024

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An act to add Sections 48439 and 52064.8 Section 48439 to the Education Code, relating to pupil discipline.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1984, as amended, Weber. Transfer reporting for alternative schools, county community schools, and continuation schools: suspension rates: persistently exclusionary. schools.

(1)Existing

Existing law authorizes a county board of education to establish and maintain one or more community schools and to enroll specified categories of pupils, including pupils expelled from a school district, among others. Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to maintain one or more alternative schools, as defined, and requires the governing board of each high school district and each unified school district to establish and maintain within its boundaries special continuation education classes.

Existing law requires enrollment in an alternative school to be voluntary, and authorizes both the voluntary and involuntary transfers of pupils to county community schools and to continuation schools, as specified.

This bill would require the State Department of Education to collect and publish on its DataQuest internet website, and school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to provide to the department, data on pupil transfers, disaggregated by those initiated by the pupil or their parent or guardian and those initiated by the local educational agency, to alternative schools, continuation schools or classes, or county community schools. The bill would require the department to systematically review suspension and expulsion data and that transfer data, and include reducing the use of those transfers in any guidance to local educational agencies relating to ending the disproportionate discipline of pupil subgroups, including African American pupils. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(2)Existing law prohibits a pupil from being suspended from school or recommended for expulsion, unless the superintendent of the school district or the principal of the school in which the pupil is enrolled determines that the pupil has committed an act from a list of specified acts.

Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to adopt local control and accountability plans using a state template adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the local control and accountability plan to include, among other things, a description of annual goals for all pupils and specified subgroups of pupils to be achieved for each state priority, as specified, including, among other state priorities, school climate, as measured by, among other things, suspension and expulsion rates.

This bill would require a school operated by a school district or county office of education, or a charter school, to be considered persistently exclusionary if in each of 3 prior consecutive fiscal years the school’s unduplicated suspension rate, as reported by the department, is 20% or higher, or is 25% or higher for any of specified pupil subgroups.

(3)The

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.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   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 48439 is added to the Education Code, immediately following Section 48438, to read:

48439.

 (a) The department shall collect and publish on its DataQuest internet website, and local educational agencies shall provide to the department, data on pupil transfers, disaggregated by those initiated by the pupil or their parent or guardian and those initiated by the local education agency, to alternative schools established pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 58500) of Part 31, to continuation schools or classes established pursuant to this article, or to county community schools established pursuant to Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 1980) of Part 2 of Division 1 of Title 1.

(b) The department shall systematically review suspension and expulsion data and the data collected pursuant to subdivision (a), and shall include reducing the use of the transfers identified in subdivision (a) in any guidance to local educational agencies relating to ending the disproportionate discipline of pupil subgroups, including African American pupils.

(c) For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school.

SEC. 2.Section 52064.8 is added to the Education Code, to read:

52064.8.

(a)A school operated by a school district or county office of education, or a charter school, shall be considered persistently exclusionary if in each of the three prior consecutive fiscal years either of the following applies:

(1)The school’s unduplicated suspension rate, as reported by the department, is 20 percent or higher.

(2)The school’s unduplicated suspension rate, as reported by the department, for any pupil subgroup is 25 percent or higher.

(b)For purposes of this section, the applicable pupil subgroups shall be:

(1)African American.

(2)Native American.

(3)Hispanic or Latino.

(4)Pacific Islander.

(5)Filipino.

(6)Foster youth.

(7)English learner.

(8)Pupils with disabilities.

(9)Homeless youth.

(10)Migrant.

(11)Socioeconomically disadvantaged.

SEC. 3.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.