Legislative Updates – September 2017

Capital

Friday, September 15th was the last day of work for State Legislators in 2017. Over the past two weeks they held marathon floor sessions, sending hundreds of bills to Governor Brown’s desk for his signature or veto. The Governor has until Sunday, October 15th to act on legislation. Unless otherwise indicated, bills signed by Governor Brown take effect January 1, 2018.

Key Bills Pending Before Governor Brown – Our team has provided a summary of all bills we are tracking that went to the Governor in the last two weeks, sorted by subject area with links to the full final version of the legislation. However, the following bills may be of particular interest:

  • Sanctuary State – SB 54 (de Leon), otherwise known as the “California Values Act,” passed out of the Senate early Saturday morning by a party-line vote of 27-11. This vote came hours after a federal judge in Chicago had blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to withhold Department of Justice grant funds as a means of deterring states and cities from adopting “sanctuary” policies like those in SB 54. The bill would limit how state and local law enforcement, including school police and security departments, can cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. If signed, SB 54 would be the most comprehensive and far-reaching policy of its kind in the country.
  • Housing Deal – In the waning hours of the last day of session, and after a last-minute push by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to reach the necessary two-thirds vote threshold needed for two of the package’s three key bills, the Senate passed a package of housing bills meant to address the state’s housing affordability crisis. Included in the package were SB 2 (Atkins), which would add a $75 fee to certain real estate transaction documents and is expected to raise between $200 million to $300 million annually for local and state governments, SB 3 (Beall), which would place a $4 billion bond on the 2018 ballot ($3 million for existing housing projects, $1 billion for veteran’s housing), and SB 35 (Wiener), which would provide for a streamlined application process for certain housing developments when there is a housing shortage.
  • Reserve Cap – SB 751 (Hill), marks the end of a three-year battle over the local reserve cap, which was part of a deal between the Governor and the California Teachers Association (CTA) related to Proposition 2 (Rainy Day Fund). The California School Boards Association (CSBA) and CTA reached a compromise that changes the reserve cap “trigger” so that it is even more remote (it does not apply until after an accumulation of at least three percent of the Proposition 98 guarantee in the Proposition 98 “reserve”), along with other provisions that exempt small school districts (ADA less than 2,501) and basic aid districts. The cap, if it is triggered, would be 10% and applies to assigned and unassigned ending balances in the general fund. The Governor is expected to sign this compromise, and most school officials and their representatives are looking forward to spending more time and effort on important educational policy issues.
  • Meal Shaming – SB 250 (Hertzberg) attempts to ensure that when a parent or guardian has unpaid school meal debt, the pupil is not singled out or made to feel responsible for that debt by requiring LEAs to make sure that the pupil is not shamed, treated differently or served a meal that differs from what other pupils would receive under the LEA’s policy.
  • Wireless Equipment – In an effort heavily criticized by local governments across the state, SB 649 (Heuso) would limit local authority to deny or regulate the placement of cellular equipment in or on public rights-of-way, including street lights and utility towers. The author and proponents claim the bill is necessary to improve connectivity across the state, and to prepare for the next wave of cellular service. Meanwhile, opposition argued the bill would reduce local input on possibly aesthetically unappealing equipment and that there is no real pressing need for the bill.
  • Lead Testing – Following a string of high-profile reports revealing elevated levels of lead in school water systems, AB 746 (Gonzalez-Fletcher) was authored to require testing of any community water system that services a schoolsite built before 2010 on, or before, July 1, 2019. Certain findings will trigger notice and remedial action. For now, the State Water Board offers financial assistance to any school district that requests lead testing.
  • Free Feminine Hygiene Products – AB 10 (C. Garcia) would require Title 1 schools serving students in grades 6 through 12 to provide free feminine hygiene products in at least half of the restrooms on campus. The bill passed both houses of the Legislature with overwhelming bi-partisan support. According to the author, “Feminine hygiene products are a necessity for the health, well-being, and full participation for those who menstruate. No person who menstruates should ever need to worry about access to tampons or sanitary pads. These products are medical necessities for half of our population and as a state California should not wait to lead the country to increase access to these products.”
  • Home-to-School Transportation (HTST) Program – SB 527 (Galgiani) would provide an annual COLA to the HTST program that is currently a component of some LEA’s LCFF entitlement calculation. HTST funds are required to be used for transportation purposes, but the targeted funds do not increase with the cost of living; only the LCFF base grant (and subsequently the grade span adjustments, supplemental, and concentrations grants) increase with a COLA each year. There has been a lot of controversy over how to address HTST program changes as numerous reports have highlighted the program’s inequitable distribution of the funds, largely driven by outdated formulas from decades past. The bill faces an uphill battle with the Governor’s Administration as they have consistently prioritized using all available growth in Prop 98 to increase the LCFF base grants.
  • Prescription Drug Transparency – School groups came out in support of SB 17 (Hernandez), in light of the rising costs associated with employer-sponsored healthcare. If signed into law by Governor Brown, SB 17 would attempt to temper the impact of prescription drug costs on healthcare premiums by requiring that drug companies report and explain significant price increases.

Bills that Stalled in 2017 – As we previously reported, a number of closely watched bills failed to get out of the Legislature, including the school start time bill (SB 328 by Senator Portantino) and the state STEM school (AB 1217 by Assembly Member Bocanegra and Senator Portantino). It is also worth noting a number of other major policy debates stalled out in 2017, but are expected to return in 2018. These issues include legislation dealing with reform of charter schools, teacher tenure, EL reclassification, and LCFF/LCAP transparency, among others.

What’s Next? It is finally quiet in Sacramento as Legislators have gone home to their districts for the remainder of 2017. The Legislature will reconvene on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.

Once the Governor has acted upon the bills currently pending on his desk, we will distribute a complete report of all changes in law from bills signed in 2017.

Assessment and Accountability

Charter Schools

Curriculum and Instruction

Early Childhood

Facilities/Transportation

Governance/Operations

  • AB 23 (Ridley-Thomas) – Educational programs: single gender schools and classes.
    This bill authorizes the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to maintain any single gender schools and classes that were enrolling pupils as of July 1, 2017. Under the bill, LAUSD is allowed to maintain existing single gender schools and classes but cannot establish new ones.
  • AB 233 (Gloria) – Pupils: right to wear religious, ceremonial, or cultural adornments at school graduation ceremonies.
    Specifies that a pupil has the right to wear religious, ceremonial, or cultural adornments at school graduation ceremonies. This provision applies to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. The local education agency maintains the authority to prohibit an item that is likely to cause substantial disruption or interfere with the ceremony.
  • AB 249 (Mullin) – Political Reform Act of 1974: campaign disclosures.
    This bill changes the content and format of disclosure statements required on certain campaign advertisements in a manner that generally requires such disclosures to be more prominent. Establishes new requirements for determining when contributions are considered to be “earmarked.”
  • AB 261 (Thurmond) – School districts: governing boards: pupil members: preferential voting.
    Requires that student members of school district governing boards have preferential voting rights.
  • AB 522 (Cunningham) – Alcoholic beverages: nonprofit corporations: raffles.
    This bill allows a nonprofit corporation that has been issued a special temporary on-sale or off-sale beer or wine license pursuant to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, and that has also obtained a raffle registration from the Department of Justice, to offer, provide, or award alcoholic beverages as a prize in a raffle.
  • AB 660 (Rubio) – Public agencies: unlawful interference.
    Expands the crime of trespass to include interfering with a lawful business carried on by a public agency open to the public by knowingly making a material misrepresentation of the law to those attempting to transact business with the agency and refusing to leave.
  • AB 667 (Reyes) – Pupil discipline: suspension: informal conference.
    This bill requires that, during the mandatory informal conference, a school principal or district superintendent of schools inform a pupil who is being suspended of the other means of correction that were attempted prior to the suspension.
  • AB 765 (Low) – Local initiative measures: submission to the voters.
    Eliminates the requirement that a special election be held to vote on a local initiative measure if certain conditions are met, and instead generally requires for the measure to be submitted to voters at a regularly scheduled election unless the governing body of a county, city, or district calls for a special election.
  • AB 837 (Low) – No party preference voters: partisan primary elections.
    This bill requires the Secretary of State (SOS), county elections officials, and members of a precinct board to provide to voters who have declined to disclose a political party preference information regarding their ability to vote on a political party’s ballot at a partisan primary election, provided the political party has authorized voters who have declined to disclose a political party preference to vote in the partisan election.
  • AB 840 (Quirk) – Elections: vote by mail and provisional ballots.
    Permits a voter who did not sign his or her vote by mail identification envelope to return a completed unsigned ballot statement to the local elections official by email. Also requires an elections official to provide the official’s mail address on the website containing the unsigned ballot statement instructions.
  • AB 867 (Cooley) – Political Reform Act of 1974: contributions.
    This bill recasts various provisions of the Political Reform Act (PRA) that are located within the definition of the term “contribution” such that other terms and substantive reporting requirements are relocated to their own sections of the PRA.
  • AB 894 (Frazier) – Candidates’ statements: false statements.
    Increases the maximum fine for knowingly making a false statement of a material fact in a candidate’s statement from $1,000 to $5,000.
  • AB 918 (Bonta) – California Voting for All Act.
    This bill significantly expands the availability and accessibility of facsimile ballots in languages other than English in situations where such fax ballots are required to be made available pursuant to existing law. Also requires various signage and postings at polling places to inform voters of the resources available in other languages.
  • AB 1104 (Chau) – The California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act.
    Expands the definitions of “political cyberfund” and “political web site” under the California Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act to include websites that urge or appear to urge the support or opposition of candidates for public office.
  • AB 1194 (Dababneh D) Elections: local bond measures: tax rate statement.
    This bill requires the fiscal statement that is required to be included in the sample ballot for local bond measures to include the best estimate from official sources of the average annual tax rate that would be required to be levied to fund the bond issue over the entire duration of the bond debt service and to identify the final fiscal year in which the tax is anticipated to be collected.
  • SB 31 (Lara) – California Religious Freedom Act: state agencies: disclosure of religious affiliation information.
    Directs California state and local governments to refrain from initiating, participating in, or assisting with any program to create a religious list, registry, or database, or using information about people’s national origin or ethnicity to achieve the same basic purpose. Provides that an agency or employee would only be deemed in violation of the Act’s provision if the agency or employee shared the information with the actual knowledge that it would be used for purposes prohibited by the Act.
  • SB 45 (Mendoza D) Political Reform Act of 1974: mass mailing prohibition.
    This bill codifies the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) regulation regarding mass mailings sent at public expense and prohibits these mass mailings from being sent within the 60 days preceding an election by or on behalf of a state or local candidate whose name will appear on the ballot.
  • SB 54 (De León) – Law enforcement: sharing data.
    Prohibits California law enforcement agencies, including school police and security, from using agency or department resources or personnel to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes. Requires the Attorney General, by October 1, 2018, to publish model policies limiting assistance with immigration enforcement to the fullest extent possible consistent with federal and state law at specified locations, including public schools. Would also require those specified locations, including public schools, to implement this model policy, or an equivalent policy.
  • SB 169 (Jackson) Education: sex equity.
    This bill requires K-12 schools to use a “preponderance of evidence” standard to decide whether an incident of sexual harassment or violence occurred. Requires higher education institutions to, among other things, adopt rules and procedures for the prevention of sexual harassment, and adopt and post on their websites the grievance and investigation procedures to resolve complaints of sexual harassment.
  • SB 344 (Bradford D) School attendance: interdistrict attendance.
    Extends the sunset date on the extended timeline provided to county boards of education in Class 1 and Class 2 counties to determine whether a student who has filed an interdistrict appeal should be permitted to attend in the district in which the student desires to attend. Now requires the county board of education in a class 1 county, until July 1, 2023, to make the determination within 60 calendar days and and county board of education in a class 2 county, until July 1, 2019, to make the determination within 45 calendar days.
  • SB 358 (Stern) – Political Reform Act of 1974: Secretary of State: online filing and disclosure system.
    This bill requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to include on the its website conspicuous hyperlinks to the website of any local government agency contains publicly disclosed campaign finance information. Requires that the SOS must update these hyperlinks no later than December 31 of each year.
  • SB 468 (Leyva D) School districts: governing boards: pupil members.
    Specifies that the student member of a school district governing board must receive all open meeting materials at the same time they are presented to the board members. Additionally requires the student member to be invited to staff briefings of board members or be provided a separate staff briefing within the same timeframe as the staff briefing of board members.
  • SB 568 (Lara) – Primary elections: election date.
    This bill, beginning in 2019, changes the date of the statewide direct primary and the presidential primary to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March and continues the requirement that the presidential primary be consolidated with the statewide direct primary.

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