Golden Gate Community School offers free tutoring to qualified students. Please click the link below to download an application packet or call the school office at 313-2950.

• English (270k PDF, 5pgs.)
• Spanish (270k PDF, 5pgs.)

The County Board of Education recognizes that student discipline is primarily the prerogative of the local school district. Standards of behavior acceptable to the district and procedures to assure that the standards are observed are essential to an effective school climate. The County Board of Education also recognizes, however, that the right to due process and the right to a fair and just resolution of behavior issues are supported through the appeal process.

Expulsion is the most severe form of discipline which a local district may invoke. The County Board of Education is vested with the responsibility of serving as the final appeal body in such cases. The hearing of expulsion appeals is intended to safeguard the rights of the student(s) and the rights of the district.

Appeals must be filed with the Associate Superintendent, Student Programs and Services, within 30 days from the date the district board voted to expel the student. The County Board of Education will schedule an appeal hearing within 20 school days after the appeal has been accepted.

The County Board's review of the district's decision is limited to the following issues:

1. Whether the district board acted outside of its jurisdiction;
2. Whether there was a fair hearing before the district board;
3. Whether there was a prejudicial abuse of discretion;
4. Whether there is relevant and material evidence which, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, could not have been produced or which was improperly excluded at the hearing before the governing board.

Supplemental Online Information: GreatSchools.net – Who Makes Discipline Decisions?

If the governing board of a school district denies an interdistrict transfer request, the person with custody of the student may file an appeal with the County Board of Education within 30 days of the denial by the district. Once the County Office of Education has determined that all local remedies have been exhausted, an appeal hearing may be scheduled.

Interdistrict transfers are transfers from one school district to another. They are not transfers from one school to another within the same school district.

The County Board of Education cannot direct that a student be served in a specific school within a school district, only that the student may attend a school in the district.

The County Board of Education shall base its decision to approve or deny the appeal on a review of the evidence presented to the district issuing the denial. Any new evidence presented may result in the County Board of Education remanding the case to the local board for reconsideration.

The County Board of Education shall hear the appeal and render a decision within 30 days after the appeal has been filed, unless the hearing is continued by any party based on a showing of good cause.

Appeals are filed with the Associate Superintendent, Student Programs and Services.

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Home schooling, a situation where non-credentialed parents teach their own children, exclusively at home, whether using a correspondence course or other curricula, is not authorized in California.

There are three options available to parents who want to provide a setting other than a public school classroom:

1. Private Tutoring: The first option is private tutoring which is a statutory exemption from the compulsory public school attendance law (Education Code sections 48200, 48224). The tutor (who may be any person including a parent) must have a valid California teaching credential for the grade level being taught and instruction must be in the branches of study required in the public schools.
   
   Tutoring must be provided for at least three hours per day, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and for at least 175 days per calendar year, and in the English language. The affidavit required of a private school (discussed below) is not required of a tutor.
   
   
2. Private School Enrollment: The second option, which is also a statutory exemption from attendance in the public school system, is to enroll the student in a private full-time day school (Education Code section 48222). Private schools also must instruct pupils in all the branches of study required in the public schools. Private school authorities must keep attendance in a register, indicating every absence by a pupil of a half day or more for each day that school is maintained. The law does not set any minimum standards for private schools with regard to number of students, number or length of school days, and does not require that instructors be credentialed. Private school instructors must be "capable of teaching." The California Attorney General has interpreted this to mean that teachers in private schools should meet standards comparable to these required for public school teachers in similar positions, excepting only the credentials (3 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 193).
   
   The law requires private school authorities to file a Private School Affidavit with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction disclosing certain information (Education Code section 33190). This affidavit is solely for statistical purposes and publishing a directory of private K-12 schools in the state. It is not a license or approval to operate a private school. Both the private school exemption (Section 48222) and the affidavit requirement (Section 33190) explicitly states that filing the Private School Affidavit is not to be construed as an approval of the school or its courses. Therefore, filing the affidavit has no effect on the status of a person or institution; it does not transform a parent into a private school. People v. Turner (1953) 121Cal.App.2d Supp.861, appeal dismissed 347 U.S.972, rejected the concept that parents may designate their own home instruction program a "private school" in order to avoid the credential requirement. That conclusion was affirmed in the court case, In re Shinn (1961) 195 Cal.App.2d 683, and held that such courses do not constitute a "private full-time day school" within the meaning of the Education Code (id., at 693-694).

   Online Filing of Affidavits
   Beginning in the Fall of 2002, the California Department of Education will use an online process for filing Private School Affidavits at: www.cde.ca.gov/privateschools. For more information, please call 916.319.0373.
   

3. Independent Study: As a third option, the Department of Education encourages parents to consider independent study through the local public school system (Education Code section 51745 and following). This is an alternative to classroom instruction, and is consistent with the local school district's course of study. Although enrollment in the public school is required, independent study allows students to pursue educational opportunities outside the classroom within the pupil's independent study taught by a credentialed employee of the school district. A child with exceptional needs may participate in independent study only if his or her individualized education program, developed pursuant to Education Code section 56340 and following, provides for that participation (Education code section 51745(c )).

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Download Uniform Complaint Procedures Brochures:

• English (60k PDF, 2pgs.)
• Spanish (64k PDF, 2pgs.)