Add these mandatory changes to your 2021 Annual Notices
May 3, 2021
As school districts and county offices of education prepare to update their parental annual notices (Annual Notice) for the upcoming school year, the law firm Lozano Smith advises that they should be aware of two mandatory changes to Annual Notices for 2021 concerning the transfer rights of bullying victims and Uniform Complaint Procedures, as well as new annual notification and posting requirements for school districts and county offices operating California state preschool programs.
Mandatory Annual Notice changes
Expanded Transfer Rights for Victims of Bullying: School districts of residence are now required to approve a request from a victim of bullying to attend another school within that district. If the requested school is at capacity, the district of residence must accept a request for an alternate site. If the district has only one school offering the grade level of a student who is the victim of bullying, leaving no option for an intradistrict transfer, the student may apply for an interdistrict transfer. In that case, the school district of residence may not prohibit the transfer if the school district of proposed enrollment approves the student’s application for transfer. Because Education Code 48980, subdivision (g), requires that Annual Notices include a description of all existing statutory and local attendance options, this information regarding the ability to transfer for victims of bullying should be included in Annual Notices for 2021.
Uniform Complaint Procedures: Effective July 1, 2020, complaints regarding special education, child nutrition programs, Williams Complaints, and state preschool health and safety issues in school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that are exempt from licensing, may no longer be brought under the Uniform Complaint Procedures. Each of these categories of complaints are processed through existing or new procedures found in federal or California regulations.
LEAs will need to review and update their Uniform Complaint policies and procedures to reflect these changes and may need to develop separate complaint forms for Special Education, Child Nutrition Programs, Williams Complaints, and State Preschool Health and Safety Complaints.
Related requirements
There are additional annual notification and posting requirements for California State Preschool Programs.
Annual Notification: If applicable, LEAs must clearly indicate which of their California state preschool programs are operating as exempt from state licensing and which are not. Lozano Smith recommends that this information be included in the Annual Notice.
Posting Notice in Preschool Classrooms: A notice must be posted in all California state preschool program classrooms operating as exempt from state licensing, notifying parents, guardians, students, and teachers of both of the following:
1. The health and safety requirements under title 5 of the California Code of Regulations that apply to California state preschool programs, namely:
- Outdoor shade that is safe and in good repair;
- Drinking water that is accessible and readily available throughout the day;
- Safe and sanitary restroom facilities with one toilet and handwashing fixture for every 15 children;
- Restroom facilities that are only available for preschoolers and kindergartners;
- Visual supervision of children at all times;
- Indoor and outdoor space that is properly contained or fenced and provides sufficient space for the number of children using the space at any given time;
- Playground equipment must be safe, in good repair, and age appropriate.
2. Where a complaint form may be obtained, or, if available, provide a link to the downloadable complaint form from the CDE’s website.
Lozano Smith regularly reviews and updates Annual Notices for school districts and COEs around the state. Read this full client news brief at www.lozanosmith.com/news-clientnewsbriefdetail.php?news_id=3079.
ADVERTISEMENT