BILL NUMBER: SB 1667 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 20, 2002
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 19, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 15, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 3, 2002
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 28, 2002
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 29, 2002
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 17, 2002
INTRODUCED BY Senator Vasconcellos
(Principal coauthors: Senators Alpert and McPherson)
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Strom-Martin)
(Coauthors: Senators Kuehl and Ortiz)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alquist, Diaz, Goldberg, Jackson,
Robert Pacheco, Steinberg, Washington, Wiggins, and Wyland)
FEBRUARY 21, 2002
An act to amend Section 35294.8 of, and to add and repeal Article
10.41 (commencing with Section 35294.20) of Chapter 2 of Part 21 of,
the Education Code, relating to school safety.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1667, Vasconcellos. School violence.
Existing law establishes the School Safety and Violence Prevention
Strategy Program, administered by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction for the purpose of promoting school safety and violence
prevention programs in the public schools.
Existing law makes each school district and county office of
education responsible for the overall development of comprehensive
school safety plans that include specified components, including,
among others, the development of a safe and orderly environment
conducive to learning at the school and a discrimination and
harassment policy consistent with existing law regarding educational
equity. Existing law requires a schoolsite council or school safety
planning committee to hold a public meeting before adopting its
comprehensive school safety plan and requires each school to forward
its comprehensive school safety plan to the school district or county
office of education for approval. Existing law establishes the
School/Law Enforcement Partnership to develop programs and policies
necessary to implement the provisions regarding school safety plans.
Existing law establishes the School Safety and Violence Prevention
Act to provide funds to school districts serving pupils in grades 8
to 12, inclusive, for the purpose of promoting school safety and
reducing schoolsite violence.
Existing law establishes the Machado School Violence Prevention
and Response Task Force to analyze and evaluate existing law and
programs on school-based crisis prevention and response and to make
appropriate policy recommendations on how to enhance state and local
programs and training to adequately prepare school districts and
county offices of education to meet the challenges stemming from
disruptive and violent acts.
This bill would require the schoolsite council or school safety
planning committee to provide written notification to specified
persons of the public meeting that is required to be held before
adopting a comprehensive school safety plan, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program. The bill would encourage the
schoolsite council or school safety planning committee to provide
written notification of the meeting to other specified persons.
This bill would establish the California Double Your Cash program
to lead and encourage the development of a school's plan for
preventing school violence. The bill would provide that, when a
schoolsite council next reviews and updates its school safety plan ,
and to the extent it implements its plan, the schoolsite council is
encouraged to recognize that assuring each pupil a safe physical
environment and a safe, respectful, accepting and emotionally
nurturing environment and that providing each child resiliency skills
are essential components of a comprehensive strategic program for
preventing school violence and to consider incorporating these
components in its plan. The bill would encourage a schoolsite
council to consider including specified elements in its school safety
plan to assure a safe physical environment and to consider
incorporating strategies to assure a safe, respectful, accepting, and
emotionally nurturing environment and to provide each child
resiliency skills.
The bill would require a school safety plan, before it is approved
by the school district or county office of education, to be
presented at a regularly scheduled public meeting of the governing
board of the school district or county office of education, would
require the governing board to discuss specified matters relating to
the school safety plan at the meeting, and would encourage the
governing board to provide written notification of the meeting to
specified persons, thus imposing a state-mandated local program.
The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that any funds
appropriated to implement existing school safety laws shall be
available for expenditure to develop, implement, review, and update
school safety plans. The bill would require state and federal funds
appropriated in support of school safety and violence prevention
programs to be considered additional revenues, as specified, and are
to be used to offset any state-mandated costs incurred by school
districts when complying with the bill.
The bill would make these provisions inoperative on June 1, 2007,
and repeal them as of January 1, 2008.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following general propositions:
(1) The state and the people of California face an unprecedented
crisis and challenge with regard to the safety of our children in our
public schools.
(2) We now have a growing body of research and knowledge with
respect to the root causes of the violence of our children in our
public schools.
(3) We now have the capacity, if we have the will, to address
these root causes of the violence of our children in our public
schools, and make our schools safe for all present, children and
adults alike.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares that the following facts
demonstrate the depth of the crisis with respect to the safety of our
children in our California public schools:
(1) Every 17 seconds in the United States a child is arrested;
children in the United States are 10 times more likely to commit
murder than comparably aged youths in Canada.
(2) Adolescent suicide has increased 400 percent in 30 years. The
United States has the highest youth homicide and suicide rates among
the 26 wealthiest nations in the world.
(3) One hundred sixty thousand children miss school daily due to
fear of attack or peer intimidation.
(4) Hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder have increased
700 percent in two decades. One in 30 youngsters five to 19 years of
age is using Ritalin. Adolescent depression has increased 1,000
percent in 40 years.
(5) Twenty-four percent of high school pupils say they took a
weapon to school at least once in the past year. Seventy-three
percent of youngsters 10 to 18 years of age hit someone during the
year because of anger.
(6) In 10 years, juvenile theft has increased 22 percent. Almost
half of middle and high school pupils admitted stealing from a store
during the year; 25 percent said they did so at least twice.
(7) Since 1969, high school pupils' test cheating increased from
34 percent to 68 percent. A U.S. News & World Report survey found 84
percent of college students believe they need to cheat to get ahead
in the world.
(8) Ninety-two percent of high school pupils lied to their parents
in the past year; more than one in four said they would lie to get a
job.
(9) One out of five fifth graders has been drunk; two-thirds of
eighth graders have used alcohol.
(10) Three million teenagers, about one in four of those sexually
active, acquire a sexually transmitted disease every year. Teen
pregnancy rates are much higher in the United States than in many
other developed countries.
(c) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Each pupil has the right to experience school in a totally
safe environment wherein he or she can develop his or her maximum
potential for becoming a lifelong learner.
(2) The home and family are the best, and every bit as essential,
hope for laying the conditions and teaching the protective factors to
violence proof our children.
(3) The school offers the next best hope in identifying
potentially violent prone pupils, nurturing a climate conducive to
ameliorating violence and nurturing the seeds of peacefulness,
teaching the skills of nonviolence, and intervening and redirecting
violent prone youth towards more prosocial behaviors.
(4) Violence is a learned behavior. If violence is learned, it
can therefore be unlearned.
(5) The most effective violence prevention program has three
essential elements: a physically safe environment, an emotionally and
morally safe environment, and an environment that teaches specific
resiliency skills and moral habits to help pupils counter risk
factors and reframe violent and antisocial behaviors.
(6) Aggression and antisocial behaviors generally become
entrenched by late adolescence. Intervention is more successful when
interventions occur before antisocial and violent patterns become
habits.
(7) An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
(d) The Legislature finds and declares that we now know enough
that we can create the model for a smart comprehensive strategic
action plan that could be adopted in collaboration by all the key
stakeholders at each and every one of our California public schools
that would serve to address those root causes of violence and make
our schools safe for all present, pupils and adults alike, if we
recognize, appreciate, and include and address within our model and
plan the following essential components:
(1) Every child must be assured that the school he or she attends
is a safe physical environment.
(2) Every child must be assured that the school he or she attends
provides a safe, respectful, accepting, and emotionally nurturing
environment that welcomes "the whole child."
(3) Every child must be assured that the school he or she attends
will provide him or her with resiliency skills.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act to do
the following:
(1) Create and provide a model for a smart comprehensive strategic
action plan that, at a minimum, includes each and all of the
following essential components, and that may be deliberated and
adopted by each California public school to prevent violence and
thereby assure the safety of all of our California public school
children:
(A) An explicit statement by the school community, including, but
not limited to, the school district, the schoolsite council, parents,
teachers, and pupils, of the following:
(i) It intends to design and implement a strategic action plan
that will effectively prevent school violence.
(ii) With respect to violence, it holds and intends to honor, in
its practice, the high expectations that violence is a learned
behavior and can therefore be unlearned and prevented.
(iii) A commitment to develop and implement a program that
recognizes the critical role of the parent or guardian as a full
partner in laying the conditions and teaching the protective factors
to violence proof our children.
(iv) A plan to develop and implement a program that utilizes
existing programs that effectively provide violence prevention
strategies.
(v) A plan to develop and implement a program that provides a
personal mentor for each pupil.
(vi) A strategy for including within the existing school structure
a smaller learning environment for all pupils and schools within a
school.
(vii) A strategy for ensuring that each individual enrolled or
employed at the school is provided with informative materials which
explicitly evidence the most up-to-date version of the school safety
plan pursuant to this act.
(2) Create the California "Double Your Cash" program for
preventing school violence--"Californians committed to academic
achievement, school safety, and healthy humans."
(3) Inspire and encourage each California public school to proceed
immediately to convene a full-scale public dialogue of all its key
stakeholders, for the purpose of considering this model, modifying it
to meet its own conditions and circumstances, and adopting and
implementing it.
SEC. 2. Section 35294.8 of the Education Code is amended to read:
35294.8. (a) In order to ensure compliance with this article,
each school shall forward its comprehensive school safety plan to the
school district or county office of education for approval.
(b) (1) Before adopting its comprehensive school safety plan, the
schoolsite council or school safety planning committee shall hold a
public meeting at the schoolsite in order to allow members of the
public the opportunity to express an opinion about the school safety
plan.
(2) The schoolsite council or school safety planning committee
shall notify, in writing, the following persons and entities, if
available, of the public meeting:
(A) The local mayor.
(B) A representative of the local school employee organization.
(C) A representative of each parent organization at the
schoolsite, including the parent teacher association and parent
teacher clubs.
(D) A representative of each teacher organization at the
schoolsite.
(E) A representative of the student body government.
(F) All persons that have indicated they want to be notified.
(3) The schoolsite council or school safety planning committee is
encouraged to notify, in writing, the following persons and entities,
if available, of the public meeting:
(A) A representative of the local churches.
(B) Local civic leaders.
(C) Local business organizations.
(c) In order to ensure compliance with this article, each school
district or county office of education shall annually notify the
State Department of Education by October 15 of any schools that have
not complied with Section 35294.1.
SEC. 3. Article 10.41 (commencing with Section 35294.20) is added
to Chapter 2 of Part 21 of the Education Code, to read:
Article 10.41. Double Your Cash Program
35294.20. (a) The California "Double Your Cash"--"CCAASSHH"
--program is hereby established within the Safe Schools and Violence
Prevention Office of the State Department of Education to lead and
encourage the development of an individualized smart comprehensive
strategic action plan for preventing school violence at each
California public school, consistent with the provisions of this
article.
(b) This program shall be known as the California "Double Your
Cash"--"CCAASSHH"--program.
(c) The "Double Your Cash" designation is derived from the program
being based upon the following four essential interdependent
ingredients:
(1) Californians Committed (to).
(2) Academic Achievement.
(3) School Safety, (and).
(4) Healthy Humans.
35294.21. (a) When a schoolsite council next reviews and updates
its school safety plan pursuant to Article 10.3 (commencing with
Section 35294) and to the extent it implements its plan, the
schoolsite council is encouraged to recognize that there are these
three essential components of a successful comprehensive strategic
action program for preventing school violence, and it is further
encouraged to consider incorporating each of them into its plan:
(1) Assuring each pupil a safe physical environment.
(2) Assuring each pupil a safe, respectful, accepting, and
emotionally nurturing environment.
(3) Providing each child resiliency skills.
(b) To assure a safe physical environment, a schoolsite council is
encouraged to consider including in its school safety plan all of
the following:
(1) A no tolerance for violence policy and practice.
(2) An immediate effective response to violence plan and
implementation.
(3) A no guns allowed policy.
(4) Disallow and discourage the possession of drugs.
(5) Provide for smaller schools.
(c) To assure a safe, respectful, accepting, and emotionally
nurturing environment, a schoolsite council is encouraged to consider
incorporating strategies to achieve all of the following goals:
(1) A school that welcomes the whole child.
(2) A nurturing classroom environment.
(3) A discipline policy that includes teaching respect and
constructive resolution of conflicts.
(4) A discipline policy that aims at restoration of mutual
respect, relationships, and a sense of community that seeks
reintegration of pupils who become alienated through conflict or
misbehavior.
(5) Administrators, teachers, and classified employees who are
prepared through preservice and inservice training to appreciate
their critical capacities for constructively engaging pupils.
(6) Professional education staff who are sensitive to cultural
diversity and ways.
(7) Parents who are invited and accepting to become meaningfully
involved.
(8) More emotional support service personnel, including
counselors.
(9) An adult coach for each pupil.
(10) No bullying.
(d) To provide each child resiliency skills, a schoolsite council
is encouraged to consider incorporating strategies that will provide
each pupil all of the following:
(1) Resiliency.
(2) Authentic self-esteem.
(3) Moral education.
(4) Racial and gender comfort and sensitivity.
(5) Anger management.
(6) Conflict resolution.
(7) Peer counseling.
(8) Peer mediation.
35294.22. (a) Before a school safety plan is approved pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 35294.8, the school safety plan shall be
presented at a regularly scheduled public meeting of the governing
board of the school district or county office of education and the
adoption of the school safety plan shall not be an item for consent
at that meeting. The governing board of the school district or
county office of education shall discuss both of the following:
(1) How the school safety plan addresses the needs of the school
and pupils within that school.
(2) How the schoolsite council considered the three essential
components provided pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 35294.21
when writing the school safety plan.
(b) The governing board of the school district or county office of
education is encouraged to notify, in writing, the persons and
entities specified in paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (b) of
Section 35294.8, if available, of the public meeting required
pursuant to this section.
35294.23. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that any funds
appropriated to implement existing school safety laws shall be
available for expenditure to develop, implement, review, and update
school safety plans pursuant to this article.
(b) State and federal funds appropriated in support of school
safety and violence prevention programs, including, but not limited
to, funds made available through Item 6110-228-0001 of Section 2.00
of the annual Budget Act, shall be considered additional revenues in
accordance with subdivision (e) of Section 17556 of the Government
Code and shall be used to offset any state-mandated costs incurred by
school districts when complying with this article.
35294.25. This article shall become inoperative on June 1, 2007,
and as of January 1, 2008, is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute that is enacted before January 1, 2008, deletes or extends
the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 4. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
this act provides for additional revenue to local agencies or school
districts in an amount sufficient to fund the cost of the state
mandate within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.