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, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, or association with a person or group with one or more of the specified characteristics.

This bill would require local educational agencies, as defined, to adopt, on or before December 31, 2019, procedures for preventing acts of bullying, including cyberbullying. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to develop an online training module to assist all school staff, school administrators, parents, pupils, and community members in increasing their knowledge of the dynamics of bullying and cyberbullying.

This bill would require the department to post on its Internet Web site the online training module developed by the department and an annually updated list of other available online training modules relating to bullying or bullying prevention. The bill would require a school operated by a school district or a county office of education and a charter school to annually make available the online training module developed by the department to certificated schoolsite employees and all other schoolsite employees who have regular interaction with pupils. By imposing additional duties on schools operated by a school district or a county office of education and charter schools, the bill would 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 the statutory provisions noted above.