William's Settlement

The Williams Settlement Legislation stems from, Williams v. State of California, a statewide class action lawsuit about California’s duty to provide every public school student with instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities and qualified teachers. The case was settled in 2004. Our state legislators passed five pieces of legislation to implement the terms of the settlement known as the “Williams Settlement Legislation.”

The legislation requires that the County superintendent of Schools conduct site visits, to low performing schools ranked in deciles 1-3 on the 2003 base Academic Performance Index (API), to determine the status of the following:

1. Sufficiency of standards-aligned textbook or instructional materials, for all students including English learners, in the four core subjects, (English/Language arts, mathematics, history/social science, science and as appropriate in the secondary, foreign language, health, and laboratory science equipment) to use in class to take home.
2. The condition of facilities that pose emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils. The facility is maintained in a manner that assures that it is clean, safe, functional and in “good repair.”
3. The accuracy of data reported on the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) with respect to the availability of sufficient textbooks and/or instructional materials, the safety, cleanliness, and adequacy of school facilities including good repair, and teacher misassignments and vacancies.