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Sen. Cortese’s bill would update nonpublic-school rules to comply with federal court ruling
Summary
SB 685 would remove a nonsectarian eligibility bar for certified nonpublic schools while strengthening oversight: expanded fingerprint checks, strengthened incident reporting, and measures to ensure public funds pay only for secular services. The committee passed the bill to appropriations.
Senator Cortese introduced SB 685 to update California’s certified nonpublic school statutes to conform to a Ninth Circuit ruling and current constitutional requirements. He said the measure removes an obsolete “nonsectarian” eligibility requirement while preserving safeguards: “The students with disabilities deserve access to safe, specialized educational services that meet their individual needs,” he told the committee.
Kimberly Rosenberger of the California Department of Education, representing State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, described the program as “highly regulated” and said the bill narrows the law to ensure public funds pay only for secular services, expands fingerprint-based background checks to contractors and employees, phases in credentialing expectations for instructional staff, and improves incident reporting. Rosenberger said only about 1% of students with IEPs attend nonpublic schools but that those programs play a critical role when a local education agency cannot provide required services.
No witnesses testified in opposition during the hearing; the author and sponsor said they had accepted committee amendments intended as technical cleanup. The committee recorded the motion to pass SB 685 as amended to appropriations and reported the bill out of committee (committee vote recorded in the transcript as passed; roll-call recorded).
