Suspensions and expulsions: willful defiance: interventions and supports.

(1) 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, including, among other acts, disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials, or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties. Existing law authorizes a teacher to suspend any pupil from class for any of the listed acts, including willful defiance, for the day of the suspension and the day following. Existing law prohibits the suspension of a pupil enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive, and recommending the expulsion of a pupil enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, for disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of those school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties. Existing law, until July 1, 2025, prohibits the suspension of a pupil enrolled in any of grades 6 to 8, inclusive, for those acts. Existing law applies these same provisions to charter schools. This bill would extend the prohibition against the suspension of pupils enrolled in any of grades 6 to 8, inclusive, including those pupils enrolled in a charter school, for disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials, or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties to all grades, by 4 years to instead be until July 1, 2029, and, commencing July 1, 2024, would prohibit the suspension of pupils enrolled in any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, including those pupils enrolled in a charter school, for those acts until July 1, 2029, but would retain a teacher's existing authorization to suspend any pupil in any grade from class for any of the listed acts, including willful defiance, for the day of the suspension and the day following, as provided. (2) Existing law authorizes suspension to be imposed only when other means of correction, including, among other things, a conference between school personnel, the pupil's parent or guardian, and the pupil, or participation in a restorative justice program, fail to bring about proper conduct, except as provided. This bill would authorize certificated and classified employees, including certificated and noncertificated employees at charter schools, to refer pupils to school administrators for appropriate and timely in-school interventions or supports, from the specified list of other means of correction, for willful defiance, and would require school administrators, including charter school administrators, within 5 business days, to document the actions taken and to place that documentation in the pupil's record, as specified. The bill would also require the school administrator, by the end of the 5th business day, to inform the referring employee, verbally or in writing, what actions were taken and, if none, the rationale used for not providing any appropriate or timely in-school interventions or supports. By imposing additional duties on public school administrators, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that alternatives to suspension or expulsion be imposed against a pupil who is truant, tardy, or otherwise absent from school activities. This bill would instead prohibit a suspension or expulsion from being imposed against a pupil based solely on the fact that they are otherwise absent from school activities. (4) 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.