Bill Text: CA SB129 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Heritage school instruction.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB129 Detail]
Download: California-2009-SB129-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 129 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 23, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 18, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Senators Huff and Yee
( Coauthor: Senator Romero
)
FEBRUARY 5, 2009
An act to add Article 6 (commencing with Section 33195) to Chapter
2 of Part 20 of Division 2 of Title 2 of the Education Code,
relating to heritage school instruction, and declaring the urgency
thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 129, as amended, Huff. Heritage school instruction.
(1) Existing law requires every entity offering or conducting
private school instruction on the elementary or high school level to
annually verify information by filing with the Superintendent of
Public Instruction an affidavit or statement under penalty of perjury
setting forth specified information relating to the current year.
The affidavit or statement must be made available to any parent or
guardian whose child is currently enrolled or is considering whether
to enroll his or her child in the school. If the employees of any
entities that have a contract with a private school to provide
specified services may have any contact with pupils, those employees
must are required to submit their
fingerprints to the Department of Justice for a background check. The
Department of Justice may is authorized to
notify the private school when the employee has a pending
criminal case, or a criminal conviction, of specified crimes. Private
schools contracting with an entity for construction or other related
services where employees of the entity will have other than limited
contact with pupils, must are required to
ensure the safety of the pupils by utilizing one or more
methods.
This bill would apply a substantially identical verification
requirement to heritage schools, which is a school for children that
serves children who are at least 4 years and 9 months of age to 18
years of age and who attend a public or private full-time school, and
which offers foreign language education or tutoring and cultural
education relating to a foreign country. The heritage school would
also be required to maintain membership in a state or national
cultural or language association, comply with relevant applicable
local regulations, and not operate out of a residential home.
(2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Article 6 (commencing with Section 33195) is added to
Chapter 2 of Part 20 of Division 2 of Title 2 of the Education Code,
to read:
Article 6. Verification of Heritage School Instruction
33195. (a) Every person, firm, association, partnership, or
corporation offering or conducting heritage school instruction shall
, between the first and 15th day of October of each year,
commencing on October 1, 2011, file with the Superintendent
of Public Instruction an affidavit or statement, under
penalty of perjury, by the owner or other head setting forth the
following information for the current year:
(1) All names, whether real or fictitious, of the person, firm,
association, partnership, or corporation under which it has done and
is doing business.
(2) The address, including city and street, of every place of
doing business of the person, firm, association, partnership, or
corporation within the State of California.
(3) The address, including city and street, of the location of the
records of the person, firm, association, partnership, or
corporation, and the name and address, including city and street, of
the custodian of the records.
(4) The names and addresses, including city and street, of the
directors, if any, and principal officers of the person, firm,
association, partnership, or corporation.
(5) The school enrollment, by grades, number of teachers,
coeducational or enrollment limited to boys or girls, and boarding
facilities.
(6) That the following records are maintained at the address
stated, and are true and accurate:
(A) The courses of study offered by the institution.
(B) The names and addresses, including city and street, of its
faculty, together with a record of the educational qualifications of
each faculty member.
(7) Criminal record summary information that has been
obtained pursuant to Section 44237.
(b) Whenever two or more heritage schools are under the effective
control or supervision of a single administrative unit, the
administrative unit may comply with the provisions of this section on
behalf of each of the schools under its control or supervision by
submitting one report.
(c) Filing pursuant to this section shall not be interpreted to
mean, and it shall be unlawful for any school to expressly or
impliedly represent, that the State of California, the Superintendent
of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, the
State Department of Education, or any division or bureau of the
, the state board, the department, or any division or
bureau of the department, or any accrediting agency has made
any evaluation, recognition, approval, or endorsement of the school
or course, unless this is an actual fact.
(d) Filing pursuant to this section does not grant a heritage
school any right to receive state funding.
(d)
(e) The Superintendent shall prepare and publish a list
of heritage schools to include the name and address of the school
and the name of the school owner or administrator.
33195.1. (a) Commencing October 1, 2011, the affidavit or
statement filed with the Superintendent of Public
Instruction pursuant to Section 33195 shall, under penalty
of perjury, include a statement manifesting compliance with the
provisions of Section 44237.
(b) In the case of any heritage school where an instructor also
serves as the administrator of the school, the affidavit or statement
shall be made available upon request to the parents or guardians of
all pupils currently enrolled in the school and to any parent or
guardian considering whether to enroll his or her child in the
school.
33195.2. (a) Except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c), if
the employees of any entity that has a contract with a heritage
school to provide any of the following services may have any contact
with pupils, those employees shall submit or have submitted their
fingerprints in a manner authorized by the Department of Justice
together with a fee determined by the Department of Justice to be
sufficient to reimburse the department for its costs incurred in
processing the application:
(1) School and classroom janitorial.
(2) Schoolsite administrative.
(3) Schoolsite grounds and landscape maintenance.
(4) Pupil transportation.
(5) Schoolsite food-related services.
(b) This section shall not apply to an entity providing any of the
services listed in subdivision (a) to a heritage school in an
emergency or exceptional situation, such as when a pupil's health or
safety is endangered or when repairs are needed to make school
facilities safe and habitable.
(c) This section shall not apply to an entity providing any of the
services listed in subdivision (a) to a heritage school when the
heritage school determines that the employees of the entity will have
limited contact with pupils. In determining whether a contract
employee has limited contact with pupils, the heritage school shall
consider the totality of the circumstances, including factors such as
the length of time the contractors will be on school grounds,
whether pupils will be in proximity with the site where the
contractors will be working, and whether the contractors will be
working by themselves or with others. If a heritage school has made
this determination, the heritage school shall take appropriate steps
to protect the safety of any pupils that may come in contact with
these employees.
(d) A heritage school may determine, on a case-by-case basis, to
require an entity providing schoolsite services other than those
listed in subdivision (a) or those described in Section 33195.3 and
the entity's employees to comply with the requirements of this
section, unless the heritage school determines that the employees of
the entity will have limited contact with pupils. In determining
whether a contract employee will have limited contact with pupils,
the heritage school shall consider the totality of the circumstances,
including factors such as the length of time the contractors will be
on school grounds, whether pupils will be in proximity with the site
where the contractors will be working, and whether the contractors
will be working by themselves or with others. If a heritage school
makes this determination, the heritage school shall take appropriate
steps to protect the safety of any pupils that may come in contact
with these employees. If a heritage school requires an entity
providing services other than those listed in subdivision (a) and its
employees to comply with the requirements of this section, the
Department of Justice shall comply with subdivision (e).
(e) (1) The Department of Justice shall ascertain whether the
individual whose fingerprints were submitted to it pursuant to
subdivision (a) has been arrested or convicted of any crime insofar
as that fact can be ascertained from information available to the
department. When the Department of Justice ascertains that an
individual whose fingerprints were submitted to it pursuant to
subdivision (a) has a pending criminal proceeding for a felony as
defined in Section 45122.1 or has been convicted of a felony as
defined in Section 45122.1, the department shall notify the employer
designated by the individual of that fact. The notification shall be
delivered by telephone or electronic mail to the employer.
(2) The Department of Justice, at its discretion, may notify the
heritage school of instances in which the employee is defined as
having a pending criminal proceeding described in Section 45122.1 or
has been convicted of a felony as defined in Section 45122.1.
(3) The Department of Justice may forward one copy of the
fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to verify any
record of previous arrests or convictions of the applicant. The
Department of Justice shall review the criminal record summary it
obtains from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and shall notify the
employer only as to whether or not an applicant has any convictions
or arrests pending adjudication for offenses which, if committed in
California, would have been punishable as a violent or serious
felony. The Department of Justice shall not provide any specific
offense information received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
to the employer. The Department of Justice shall provide written
notification to the contract employer only concerning whether an
applicant for employment has any conviction or arrest pending final
adjudication for any of those crimes, as specified in Section
45122.1, but shall not provide any information identifying any
offense for which an existing employee was convicted or has an arrest
pending final adjudication.
(f) An entity having a contract as specified in subdivision (a)
and an entity required to comply with this section pursuant to
subdivision (d) shall not permit an employee to come in contact with
pupils until the Department of Justice has ascertained that the
employee has not been convicted of a felony as defined in Section
45122.1.
(1) This prohibition does not apply to an employee solely on the
basis that the employee has been convicted of a felony if the
employee has obtained a certificate of rehabilitation and pardon
pursuant to Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 4852.01) of Title 6
of Part 3 of the Penal Code.
(2) This prohibition does not apply to an employee solely on the
basis that the employee has been convicted of a serious felony that
is not also a violent felony if that employee can prove to the
sentencing court of the offense in question, by clear and convincing
evidence, that he or she has been rehabilitated for the purposes of
schoolsite employment for at least one year. If the offense in
question occurred outside this state, then the person may seek a
finding of rehabilitation from the court having jurisdiction where he
or she is resident.
(g) An entity having a contract as specified in subdivision (a)
and an entity required to comply with this section pursuant to
subdivision (d) shall certify in writing to the heritage school that
neither the employer nor any of its employees who are required by
this section to submit or have their fingerprints submitted to the
Department of Justice and who may come in contact with pupils have
been convicted of a felony as defined in Section 45122.1.
(h) An entity having a contract as specified in subdivision (a) on
the effective date of the act adding this section and an entity
required to comply with this section pursuant to subdivision (d) by a
heritage school with which it has a contract on the effective date
of the act adding this section shall complete the requirements of
this section within 90 days of that date.
(i) Where reasonable access to the statewide electronic
fingerprinting network is available, the Department of Justice may
request electronic submission of the fingerprint cards and other
information required by this section.
33195.3. (a) A heritage school contracting with an entity for the
construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or repair of a school
facility where the employees of the entity will have contact, other
than limited contact, with pupils shall ensure the safety of the
pupils by one or more of the following methods:
(1) The installation of a physical barrier at the worksite to
limit contact with pupils.
(2) Continual supervision and monitoring of all employees of the
entity by an employee of the entity whom the Department of Justice
has ascertained has not been convicted of a violent or serious
felony. For purposes of this paragraph, an employee of the entity may
submit his or her fingerprints to the Department of Justice pursuant
to subdivision (a) of Section 33195.2 and the department
Department of Justice shall comply with
subdivision (d) of Section 33195.2.
(3) Surveillance of employees of the entity by school personnel.
(b) An entity that contracts with a heritage school for the
construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or repair of a school
facility is not required to comply with the requirements of Section
33195.2 if one or more of the methods described in subdivision (a) is
utilized.
(c) (1) This section shall not apply to an entity providing
construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or repair services to a
school facility in an emergency or exceptional situation, such as
when a pupil's health or safety is endangered or when repairs are
needed to make school facilities safe and habitable.
(2) For purposes of this section, a violent felony is any felony
listed in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 of the Penal Code and a
serious felony is any felony listed in subdivision (c) of Section
1192.7 of the Penal Code.
33195.4. For purposes of this article, "heritage school" means a
school that serves children who are at least 4 years and 9 months of
age and no older than 18 years of age, who attend a public or private
full-time day school, that does all of the following:
(a) Specifies regular hours of operation.
(b) Offers education or academic tutoring, or both, in a foreign
language.
(c) Offers education on the culture, traditions, or history of a
country other than the United States.
(d) Offers culturally enriching activities, including, but not
limited to, art, dancing, games, or singing, based on the culture or
customs of a country other than the United States.
(e) Maintains membership in a state or national cultural or
language association.
(f) Complies with relevant local government regulations, where
applicable.
(g) Does not operate out of a residential home.
SEC. 2. 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 Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to ensure that pupils have the opportunity to attend
heritage schools to supplement their full-time day school curriculum
with education of a foreign language and the culture, traditions, or
history of a country other than the United States, it is necessary
that this act take effect immediately.
