AB 23: Educational programs: single gender schools and classes.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to initiate and carry on any program or activity, or to otherwise act in any manner which is not in conflict or inconsistent with, or preempted by, any law and which is not in conflict with the purposes for which school districts are established.

Existing law prohibits discrimination against a person on the basis of, among other things, gender in any program or activity conducted by an educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance or enrolls pupils who receive state student financial aid.

This bill, until January 1, 2025, would authorize a school district with an average daily attendance of 400,000 or more pupils to maintain any single gender schools and classes that were enrolling pupils as of July 1, 2017, if certain requirements are met. The bill would authorize a charter school authorized by a school district with an average daily attendance of 400,000 or more pupils that was operating as a single gender school or with single gender classes as of July 1, 2017, to be maintained as a single gender school or to maintain single gender classes, if those same requirements are met. The bill would require a school district that maintains a single gender school or class, and a charter school maintained as a single gender school or that maintains a single gender class to conduct certain evaluations at least once every 2 years, and to report the findings of those evaluations to the State Department of Education and specified legislative committees. The bill would require the department to order corrective action, as specified, if the department finds that a single gender school or class fails to comply with certain federal requirements.

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