Existing law governs the tort liability and immunity of, and claims and actions against, public entities and their officers and employees. A public entity is not liable for an injury, except as otherwise provided by statute, whether the injury arises out of an act or omission of the public entity or a public employee or any other person.

Existing law specifies that a charter school is deemed to be a “school district” for purposes of statutory provisions regarding apportionments from the State School Fund, allowances for transportation, and state lottery funds and provisions of the California Constitution regarding the calculation of the minimum amount of funding for the support of school districts and community college districts.

This bill would require the California Law Revision Commission to submit a report to the Legislature, on or before December 1, 2008 March 1, 2009, that includes a general description of the policy purposes served by the governmental tort liability provisions described above, and a general discussion of the possible consequences of adding charter schools to the list of public agencies covered by those provisions and whether charter schools possess the characteristics of a public entity that are relevant to those policy purposes. The bill would request the State Department of Education and the Department of Justice to assist the commission in complying with the reporting requirement.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.