Bill Text: CA AB636 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Postsecondary education: student safety.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2015-10-09 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 697, Statutes of 2015. [AB636 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB636-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 636 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 697
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 9, 2015
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 9, 2015
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 31, 2015
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY MAY 11, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 29, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Medina
FEBRUARY 24, 2015
An act to amend Section 67380 of the Education Code, relating to
postsecondary education.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 636, Medina. Postsecondary education: student safety.
Existing law requires the governing board of each community
college district, the Trustees of the California State University,
the Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, the
Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of
postsecondary educational institutions receiving public funds for
student financial assistance to require the appropriate officials at
each campus to compile records of specified crimes and noncriminal
acts reported to campus police, campus security personnel, campus
safety authorities, or designated campus authorities. Existing law
requires, as a condition of participation in a specified financial
aid program, any report by a victim of a Part 1 violent crime, sexual
assault, or hate crime, as defined, received by a campus security
authority and made by the victim for purposes of notifying the
institution or law enforcement, to be immediately, or as soon as
practicably possible, disclosed to the appropriate local law
enforcement agency without identifying the victim, unless the victim
consents to being identified after the victim has been informed of
his or her right to have his or her personally identifying
information withheld. Existing law prohibits this report to a local
law enforcement agency from identifying the alleged assailant if the
victim does not consent to being identified.
This bill would authorize the identification of the alleged
assailant, even if the victim does not consent to being identified,
if the institution determines both that the alleged assailant
represents a serious or ongoing threat to the safety of students,
employees, or the institution, and that the immediate assistance of
the local law enforcement agency is necessary to contact or detain
the assailant. In that case, the bill would require the institution,
as a condition of participation in the financial aid program, to
disclose the identity of the alleged assailant to the local law
enforcement agency and to immediately inform the victim of that
disclosure.
This bill also would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 67380 of the Education Code is amended to read:
67380. (a) Except as provided in subparagraph (C) of paragraph
(6), the governing board of each community college district, the
Trustees of the California State University, the Board of Directors
of the Hastings College of the Law, the Regents of the University of
California, and the governing board of any postsecondary educational
institution receiving public funds for student financial assistance
shall do all of the following:
(1) Require the appropriate officials at each campus within their
respective jurisdictions to compile records of both of the following:
(A) All occurrences reported to campus police, campus security
personnel, or campus safety authorities of, and arrests for, crimes
that are committed on campus and that involve violence, hate
violence, theft, destruction of property, illegal drugs, or alcohol
intoxication.
(B) All occurrences of noncriminal acts of hate violence reported
to, and for which a written report is prepared by, designated campus
authorities.
(2) Require any written record of a noncriminal act of hate
violence to include, but not be limited to, the following:
(A) A description of the act of hate violence.
(B) Victim characteristics.
(C) Offender characteristics, if known.
(3) (A) Make the information concerning the crimes compiled
pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) available within two
business days following the request of any student or employee of, or
applicant for admission to, any campus within their respective
jurisdictions, or to the media, unless the information is the type of
information exempt from disclosure pursuant to subdivision (f) of
Section 6254 of the Government Code, in which case the information is
not required to be disclosed. Notwithstanding subdivision (f) of
Section 6254 of the Government Code, the name or any other personally
identifying information of a victim of any crime defined by Section
243.4, 261, 262, 264, 264.1, 273a, 273d, 273.5, 286, 288, 288a, 289,
422.6, 422.7, or 422.75 of the Penal Code shall not be disclosed
without the permission of the victim, or the victim's parent or
guardian if the victim is a minor.
(B) For purposes of this paragraph and subparagraph (A) of
paragraph (1), the campus police, campus security personnel, and
campus safety authorities described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph
(1) shall be included within the meaning of "state or local police
agency" and "state and local law enforcement agency," as those terms
are used in subdivision (f) of Section 6254 of the Government Code.
(4) Require the appropriate officials at each campus within their
respective jurisdictions to prepare, prominently post, and copy for
distribution on request, a campus safety plan that sets forth all of
the following: the availability and location of security personnel,
methods for summoning assistance of security personnel, any special
safeguards that have been established for particular facilities or
activities, any actions taken in the preceding 18 months to increase
safety, and any changes in safety precautions expected to be made
during the next 24 months. For purposes of this section, posting and
distribution may be accomplished by including relevant safety
information in a student handbook or brochure that is made generally
available to students.
(5) Require the appropriate officials at each campus within their
respective jurisdictions to report information compiled pursuant to
paragraph (1) relating to hate violence to the governing board,
trustees, board of directors, or regents, as the case may be. The
governing board, trustees, board of directors, or regents, as the
case may be, shall, upon collection of that information from all of
the campuses within their jurisdiction, transmit a report containing
a compilation of that information to the Legislative Analyst's Office
no later than January 1 of each year and shall make the report
available to the general public on the Internet Web site of each
respective institution. It is the intent of the Legislature that the
governing board of each community college district, the Trustees of
the California State University, the Board of Directors of the
Hastings College of the Law, the Regents of the University of
California, and the governing board of any postsecondary educational
institution receiving public funds for student financial assistance
establish guidelines for identifying and reporting occurrences of
hate violence. It is the intent of the Legislature that the
guidelines established by these institutions of higher education be
as consistent with each other as possible. These guidelines shall be
developed in consultation with the Department of Fair Employment and
Housing and the California Association of Human Relations
Organizations.
(6) (A) Notwithstanding subdivision (f) of Section 6254 of the
Government Code, require any report made by a victim or an employee
pursuant to Section 67383 of a Part 1 violent crime, sexual assault,
or hate crime, as described in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code,
received by a campus security authority and made by the victim for
purposes of notifying the institution or law enforcement, to be
immediately, or as soon as practicably possible, disclosed to the
local law enforcement agency with which the institution has a written
agreement pursuant to Section 67381 without identifying the victim,
unless the victim consents to being identified after the victim has
been informed of his or her right to have his or her personally
identifying information withheld. If the victim does not consent to
being identified, the alleged assailant shall not be identified in
the information disclosed to the local law enforcement agency, unless
the institution determines both of the following, in which case the
institution shall disclose the identity of the alleged assailant to
the local law enforcement agency and shall immediately inform the
victim of that disclosure:
(i) The alleged assailant represents a serious or ongoing threat
to the safety of students, employees, or the institution.
(ii) The immediate assistance of the local law enforcement agency
is necessary to contact or detain the assailant.
(B) The requirements of this paragraph shall not constitute a
waiver of, or exception to, any law providing for the confidentiality
of information.
(C) This paragraph applies only as a condition for participation
in the Cal Grant Program established pursuant to Chapter 1.7
(commencing with Section 69430) of Part 42.
(b) Any person who is refused information required to be made
available pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) may maintain a civil action for damages against any
institution that refuses to provide the information, and the court
shall award that person an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars
($1,000) if the court finds that the institution refused to provide
the information.
(c) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Hate violence" means any act of physical intimidation or
physical harassment, physical force or physical violence, or the
threat of physical force or physical violence, that is directed
against any person or group of persons, or the property of any person
or group of persons because of the ethnicity, race, national origin,
religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender
expression, disability, or political or religious beliefs of that
person or group.
(2) "Part 1 violent crime" means willful homicide, forcible rape,
robbery, or aggravated assault, as defined in the Uniform Crime
Reporting Handbook of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(3) "Sexual assault" includes, but is not limited to, rape, forced
sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a foreign object, sexual
battery, or the threat of any of these.
(d) This section does not apply to the governing board of a
private postsecondary educational institution receiving funds for
student financial assistance with a full-time enrollment of less than
1,000 students.
(e) This section shall apply to a campus of one of the public
postsecondary educational systems identified in subdivision (a) only
if that campus has a full-time equivalent enrollment of more than
1,000 students.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, this
section shall not apply to the California Community Colleges unless
and until the Legislature makes funds available to the California
Community Colleges for the purposes of this section.
