General Waiver Authority

Education Code Section 33050 et seq:

33050 (a) The governing board of a school district or a county board of education, on a district wide or countywide basis or on behalf of one or more of its schools or programs, after a public hearing on the matter, may request the State Board of Education to waive all or part of any section of this code or any regulation adopted by the State Board of Education that implements a provision of this code that may be waived, except:

There are areas of Education Code that are excluded from this waiver authority. If you have questions on these call the Waiver Office at 916-319-0824.

Reasons to Deny

33051 (a) The State Board of Education shall approve any and all requests for waivers except in those cases where the board specifically finds any of the following:

1. The educational needs of the pupils are not adequately addressed.
2. The waiver affects a program that requires the existence of a school site council and the school site council did not approve the request.
3. The appropriate councils or advisory committees, including bilingual advisory committees, did not have an adequate opportunity to review the request and the request did not include a written summary of any objections to the request by the councils or advisory committees.
4. Pupil or school personnel protections are jeopardized.
5. Guarantees of parental involvement are jeopardized.
6. The request would substantially increase state costs.
7. The exclusive representative of employees, if any, as provided in Chapter 10.7 (commencing with Section 3540) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code, was not a participant in the development of the waiver.

Need to Reapply

33051 (b) The governing board of a school district that has requested and received a general waiver under this article for two consecutive years for the same general waiver is not required to reapply annually if the information contained on the request remains current. The State Board of Education may require updated information for the request whenever it determines that information to be necessary. Nothing in this section shall prevent the State Board of Education from rescinding a waiver if additional information supporting a rescission is made available to the board. This waiver process shall not apply to waivers pertaining to teacher credentialing, which shall be submitted to the State Board of Education annually.

Default Approval

33052 (a) If formal action by the State Board of Education on a waiver request is not taken by the second regular meeting of the board following receipt of a complete and documented waiver request by the State Department of Education, the waiver shall be deemed approved for one year, commencing the first day of the following month.

Reporting Requirements

33053 The State Department of Education shall annually submit a report to the Governor, Legislature, State Board of Education, and make the report available to the superintendent and board president of each school district and county office of education. This report shall include a description of the number and types of waivers requested of the board, the actions of the board on those requests, and sources of further information on existing or possible waivers.

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