Pupils: suspension.

Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the school district superintendent or the school principal determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts. Existing law requires the school district superintendent or the school principal to immediately suspend and recommend the expulsion of a pupil who is determined to have, at school or at a school activity off school grounds, possessed, sold, or otherwise furnished a firearm, brandished a knife at another person, unlawfully sold a controlled substance, committed or attempted to commit a sexual assault or battery, as defined, or possessed an explosive. Existing law states that a school should consider implementing a supervised suspension program or an alternative to the school's off-campus suspension program that involves a progressive discipline approach using specified activities if the number of pupils suspended from school during the prior school year exceeded 30% of the school's enrollment. This bill would instead encourage a school district, commencing with the 2014–15 school year, to implement, for a minimum of 3 years, at a school where the number of pupils receiving off-campus suspensions in the prior school year exceeded 25% of its total enrollment, or exceeded 25% of a numerically significant pupil subgroup of that enrollment, as defined, either (A) an evidence-based system of schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports that employs school-level information about the behavioral and academic history of pupils to define and implement systems of support and interventions at the school, classroom, and individual levels that is aimed at improving the social, emotional, and academic success for all pupils, or (B) other schoolwide strategies that are evidence based and designed to address school climate in order to create learning environments where teachers can teach and pupils can learn and to reduce suspensions from classrooms and the school. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to invite a school that meets or exceeds this threshold percentage of suspensions to attend a regional forum organized by the Superintendent to provide assistance and training regarding the strategies described above, among other things. Commencing with the 2015–16 school year, the bill would decrease the percentage of enrollment or numerically significant pupil subgroup of enrollment that triggers an invitation to attend a regional forum each school year until that percentage is 15% for the 2018–19 school year, in accordance with a prescribed schedule. The bill would require the Superintendent annually from the 2014–15 to the 2018–19 school year, inclusive, to notify each local educational agency that contains at least one school that exceeds the specified thresholds and provide technical assistance as requested; to invite the schools that meet or exceed the specified thresholds applicable to suspensions to send a school leadership team to a regional forum, with a goal of serving no fewer than 100 schools per school year; prioritize invitations to schools with the highest rates of off-campus suspensions; and to provide the State Board of Education with the names of the schools invited to attend a regional forum and the annual rate of reduction or increase in each school's off-campus suspensions. These requirements would be contingent upon the availability of funds, as specified. The bill would authorize the State Department of Education to provide school districts with information regarding schoolwide evidence-based strategies that could be implemented.