Educational equity: local educational agency policies against bullying.

Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education to assess whether local educational agencies have taken certain actions related to educational equity, including adopting a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on specified characteristics such as disability, gender, gender identity, race, or sexual orientation, or association with a person or group with one or more of the specified characteristics and adopting a process for receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on the specified characteristics. Existing law, the Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985 (the act) , requires certain schoolsite councils to develop a comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of that particular school. The act requires the comprehensive school safety plan to identify appropriate strategies and programs that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety, including the development of a discrimination and harassment policy consistent with the Safe Place to Learn Act. The act also requires each school to forward its comprehensive school safety plan to the school district or county office of education for approval. This bill would require each local educational agency to develop and implement a policy against bullying, as specified, which includes, at a minimum, a procedure for referring victims of bullying to counseling, mental health, or other health services as appropriate; mandatory training for certificated employees on the prevention, and addressing, of bullying; and a procedure for the documentation of all incidents of bullying that take place within the local educational agency as well as the responsive actions taken, if any. The bill would require the local educational agency to report the documentation of the bullying incidents to the department, as provided. By requiring local educational agencies to develop and implement a bullying policy and to report certain information to the department, this bill would increase the duties of local school officials and thereby impose a state-mandated local program. 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 these statutory provisions.