Non Discrimination Policy

STUDENT/EMPLOYEE NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICIES

 

STUDENT NON-DISCRIMINATION

(Charter Petition)

 

Charter School shall not require a parent/legal guardian/student to provide information regarding a student’s disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, legal or economic status, primary language or English Learner status, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in section 422.55 of the Penal Code, or any other information that would violate federal or state law, prior to admission, participation in any admissions or attendance lottery, or pre-enrollment event or process, or as a condition of admission or enrollment. Charter School may request, at the time of, and as part of, conducting its lottery process, the provision of information necessary to apply specific admissions preferences set forth in this Charter.

 

Charter School shall not request or require submission of a student’s IEP, 504 Plan, or any other record or related information prior to admission, participation in any admissions or attendance lottery, or pre-enrollment event or process, or as a condition of admission or enrollment.

 

Center for Advanced Learning will admit all students who wish to attend the Charter School as specified in Education Code § 47605(d)(2)(A). If the number of students who wish to attend the Charter School exceeds capacity, enrollment shall be determined by a random public drawing. CAL shall only admit students who reside in California.

 

Prospective students in the attendance area of Wadsworth Elementary School, where CAL’s recruitment efforts are focused are overwhelmingly low achieving and economically disadvantaged. Efforts to recruit from this pool are prima facie evidence of efforts to recruit low-achieving and economically disadvantaged students.

 

Students and their parent(s)/guardian(s) must complete an application, which is available in the Charter School’s office and submit it directly to Center for Advanced Learning. Upon admission to CAL, parents and students are required to sign an agreement that they will abide by school policies on academics, attendance, and conduct. These “Family Agreements” are kept on file in the main office.

 

The Charter School will annually designate an application deadline, which shall signify the close of the open enrollment period, and only applications received prior to the deadline will be included in the public random drawing. Public notice will be posted at the Charter School site regarding a date, time, and location of the public drawing once the deadline date has passed. Unless it is determine in advance that the school site would be inadequate, the lottery will be held at the school. This information is also included on our Lottery Application. Lottery applications will also include the date, time, and location of the drawing, as will the Charter School’s web site. The rules to be followed during the process of the lottery will be communicated through a letter to those invited.

 

Summary of the Center for Advanced Learning Application Process

 

The CAL Application process includes:

b. Completion of all necessary paperwork, including but not limited to:

 

California state residency is the only requirement for enrollment, and Center for Advanced Learning will admit all pupils who wish to attend the Charter School, subject only to capacity. If the number of pupils who wish to attend CAL exceeds capacity, attendance, except for existing pupils of the Charter School, shall be determined by a public random drawing. In the event of such a drawing, preference in admissions will be granted in the following order:

 

• Children of employees of Center for Advanced Learning

• Siblings of students enrolled at Center for Advanced Learning

• Students who reside in the Los Angeles Unified School District

• Students who reside in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area but outside of the District

• All other students

 

Center for Advanced Learning uses a computerized lottery program to maintain, organize and tag applicants for preference in the lottery. To ensure fairness, names will be uploaded publicly and chosen at random by the computer. A designee of Center for Advanced Learning’s Board of Directors will be present at the drawing and will verify whether the lottery procedures were fairly executed. The Board designee will observe the loading of the list of students into the computer, and monitor the principal as each grade level is uploaded and announced. Once capacity is reached at the random drawing, the remaining names will continue to be drawn and will be placed on a computerized waiting list in the order drawn. If vacancies occur during the school year, the vacancies will be filled ac- cording to the waiting list.

 

Waiting List

The computer program immediately establishes the waiting list and priority ranking from the applications that do not receive admission and shall be used to fill enrollment vacancies that occur during the year.

The waiting list will be established from the applications that do not receive admission and shall be used to fill enrollment vacancies that occur during the year. If a position opens during the school year, the family at the top of the wait list will be contacted by telephone, by the school office to offer their student admission. Should the family decline the seat or fail to respond within 48 hours, the next family on the list will be contacted until the open position is filled. The family is required to leave a working contact number with the office.

 

The Charter School will maintain on file the verification of the fairness of the lottery process, the ordered list of lottery winners, and the ordered wait list. It will also maintain records of efforts to reach parents or guardians of students on the wait list who are notified when positions are available and documentation of parent and guardian responses, including time stamps.

 

It is the policy of Center for Advanced Learning to be unbiased in its programs, curriculum, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations. The Charter School shall not discriminate against any student on the basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code.

 

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act

The Charter School will adhere to the provisions of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and ensure that each child of a homeless individual and each homeless youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education as provided to other children and youths.

 

The Charter School will include specific information in their outreach materials, websites, at community meetings, open forums, and regional center meetings notifying parents that the

school is open to enroll and provide services for all students, which shall include a District standard contact number to access additional information regarding enrollment. A student’s IEP will never be required prior to participation in any attendance lottery or as a condition for enrollment.

 

EMPLOYEE NON-DISCRIMINATION

(Employee Handbook)

 

POLICY 210: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

 

POLICY:

 

It is the policy of CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING to comply with all applicable law prohibiting discrimination and to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. Center for Advanced Learning prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state or local laws. All such discrimination is unlawful.

 

This commitment applies to all persons involved in the operations of the organization, and prohibits unlawful discrimination by any employee of the organization, including Supervisors and co-workers, and any third person. It is understood that all employees and prospective employees must have the legal authorization to work in the United States.

 

We will make reasonable accommodations to comply with applicable laws ensuring equal employment opportunities to qualified individuals with a disability. These accommodations will be made for the known physical or mental disability of an applicant or an employee, unless undo hardship would result.

 

Any applicant or employee who requires an accommodation in order to perform the essential functions of the job should contact their immediate Supervisor and the Principal, or designee, with day-to-day personnel responsibilities, and request such an accommodation. The individual with the disability should specify what accommodation he or she needs to perform the job. In good faith, we will determine what, if any, effective accommodating can be made. This assessment may also require a physician’s statement attesting to the employee’s condition and/or need for accommodation. We will indentify possible accommodations, if any, that will help eliminate the limitation. If the accommodation is reasonable and will not impose an undue hardship, we will make the accommodation.

 

PROCEDURE:

 

1. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

 

An employee who believes a complaint of unlawful discrimination is appropriate should provide a written complaint to the immediate Supervisor as soon as possible after the incident. Your complaint should be specific, and should include the names of the individuals involved, and the names of any witnesses. If the Supervisor is not available or is allegedly the subject of what the employee believes to be unlawful discrimination, the employee may provide a written complaint to the Director and /or Board of Directors. As an organization, we will immediately undertake an effective, thorough, and objective investigation and attempt to resolve the situation.

2. RESOLUTION ACTION

 

If the CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING Board of Executive Directors determines that unlawful discrimination has occurred, effective remedial action will be taken commensurate with the severity of the offense. Appropriate action will also be taken to deter any future reoccurrence of discrimination. CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING will not retaliate against an employee for filing a complaint and will not knowingly or unknowingly permit retaliation by management or other employees. A co-worker who is found guilty of discrimination may be terminated.

 

POLICY 220: AGAINST UNLAWFUL HARASSMENT

POLICY:

 

CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING is committed to providing a work and educational atmosphere that is free of unlawful harassment. The Center for Advanced Learning policy prohibits sexual harassment, and harassment based on gender, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition, race, religion, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, age, sexual orientation, law, ordinance or regulation. All such harassment is unlawful. CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING is committed to providing a work environment that is pleasant, professional, and free from intimidation, hostility or other offenses that might interfere with work performance.

 

CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING does not condone nor allow anyone, including any Supervisor, co-worker, vendor, client, student or customer to engage in verbal, physical or visual harassment of employees. This policy applies to applicants for employment and independent contractors working within the company. Any applicant or independent contractor who feels that they have been subjected to harassment in violation of this policy should immediately report this violation to the Principal, Director and / or Board of Directors.

 

See Equal Opportunity Employment Policy, Policy Number 210. FEHA (Gov. Code Section §12940 (h), 29 C.F.R. Section §1604.11.

 

PROCEDURE:

 

1. HARASSMENT

 

A. Definition

 

Harassment includes regular, pervasive, and unwelcome verbal, physical, and visual conduct that creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile working environment or that interferes with work performance. Such conduct constitutes harassment when:

• Verbal conduct such as epithets, derogatory jokes or comments or slurs;

• Physical conduct including assault, unwanted touching, intentionally blocking normal movement or interfering with work because of sex, race or any other protected basis;

• Retaliation for reporting or threatening to report harassment; or

• Deferential or preferential treatment based on any of the protected classes above.

 

2. PROHIBITED HARASSMENT CONDUCT

 

Prohibited unlawful harassing conduct can take many forms and include, but is not limited to slurs, jokes, derogatory statements, gestures, pictures, or cartoons regarding an employee’s sex, race, color, national origin, religion, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

 

California law defines harassment because of sex as including sexual harassment, gender harassment, and harassment based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted sexual advances, or visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. This definition includes

many forms of offensive behavior and includes gender-based harassment of a person of the same sex as the harasser. Prohibited unlawful sexual harassment includes, but is not limited to, the following behavior:

 

• Unwanted sexual advances

• Offering employment benefits in exchange for sexual favors

• Making or threatening reprisals after a negative response to sexual advances

• Visual conduct: leering, making sexual gestures, displaying of sexually suggestive objects or pictures, cartoons or posters

• Verbal conduct: making or using derogatory comments, epithets, slurs or jokes of a sexual nature

• Verbal sexual advances or propositions

• Verbal abuse of a sexual nature, graphic verbal commentaries about an individual, suggestive or obscene letter, notes, or invitations

• Physical conduct: touching, assault, impeding or blocking movements

 

Sexual harassment crosses age and gender boundaries and cannot be stereotyped. Two types of sexual harassment exist. The first, “quid pro quo,” may be defined as an exchange of sexual favors for improvement in your working conditions and/or compensation. The second category, “hostile, intimidating, offensive working environment,” can be described as a situation in which unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature when such conduct creates an intimidating or offensive environment.

 

3. COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

 

Any employee who believes himself or herself to be the subject of unlawful harassment or observes another employee being unlawfully harassed should provide a written complaint to the immediate Supervisor. The written complaint should contain the specific facts of the incident(s) and the name(s) of the individual(s) involved. Supervisors must immediately report any incidents of harassment to their Supervisor, irrespective of the manner in which such harassment comes to their attention. Failure to report such harassment may lead to disciplinary action taken against the Supervisor. If the Supervisor is not available or is allegedly subjecting the employee to what the employee believes to be unlawful harassment, the employee may provide a written complaint to the next level of management or Director. The Director and/or the Board of Executive Directors will investigate all claims of harassment. The results of the investigation and notice of any corrective action taken will be communicated to the complaining employee in a timely manner after completing the investigation.

 

Special privacy safeguards will be applied in handling harassment complaints. Every reported complaint of harassment will be investigated thoroughly, promptly, objectively, and discreetly. The Agency will not tolerate retaliation against any employee for cooperating in an investigation or for making a complaint.

 

4. RESOLUTION ACTION

 

If CENTER FOR ADVANCED LEARNING determines that unlawful harassment has occurred, effective action will be taken in accordance with the circumstances involved. Any employee determined to be responsible for unlawful harassment will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including termination. The complainant will be advised of the results of the investigation consistent with existing employee confidentiality policies.