BILL NUMBER: SB 256	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Berryhill

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2015

   An act to amend Section 42283 of the Education Code, relating to
school finance.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 256, as introduced, Berryhill. School finance: necessary small
schools.
   Existing law, for specified purposes, provides that a necessary
small school is an elementary school with an average daily attendance
of less than 97, excluding pupils attending the 7th and 8th grades
of a junior high school, maintained by a school district to which any
of certain conditions apply.
   This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 42283 of the Education Code is amended to read:

   42283.  (a) For purposes of Sections 42281 and 42282, a "necessary
small school" is an elementary school with an average daily
attendance of less than  97,   97 pupils, 
excluding pupils attending the seventh and eighth grades of a junior
high school, maintained by a school district to which any of the
following conditions apply:
   (1) If as many as five pupils residing in the school district and
attending kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, excluding pupils
attending the seventh and eighth grades of a junior high school, in
the elementary school with an average daily attendance of less than
97  pupils  would be required to travel more than 10 miles
one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their home to
the nearest other public elementary school.
   (2) If as many as 15 pupils residing in the school district and
attending kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, excluding pupils
attending the seventh and eighth grades of a junior high school, in
the elementary school with an average daily attendance of less than
97  pupils  would be required to travel more than five miles
one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their home to
the nearest other public elementary school.
   (3) If topographical or other conditions exist in a school
district  which   that  would impose
unusual hardships if the number of miles specified in paragraph (1)
or (2) were required to be traveled, or if during the fiscal year the
roads  which   that  would be traveled
have been impassable for more than an average of two weeks per year
for the preceding five years, the governing board of the school
district may, on or before April 1, request the Superintendent, in
writing, for an exemption from these requirements or for a reduction
in the miles required. The request shall be accompanied by a
statement of the conditions upon which the request is based, giving
the information in a form required by the Superintendent. The
Superintendent shall cause an investigation to be made, and shall
either grant the request to the extent he or she deems necessary, or
deny the request.
   (b) For purposes of this section, "other public elementary school"
is a public school, including a charter school, that serves
kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 8, inclusive,  exclusive
of   excluding  grades 7 and 8 of a junior high
school.