BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          AB 1156 (Eng)
          
          Hearing Date: 08/15/2011        Amended: 07/06/2011
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-1
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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: AB 1156 revises the existing definition of 
          bullying, and encourages the inclusion of policies and 
          procedures aimed at the prevention of bullying in comprehensive 
          school safety plans. This bill requires the Department of 
          Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Education (CDE) to contract 
          to provide training in the prevention of bullying, as specified. 
          This bill also authorizes a pupil who has been a victim of 
          bullying to transfer to another district.  
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14     Fund
           
          Anti-bullying training                    Potentially 
          significant cost pressure            General
                                                                      
          Transfer rights                           ------Potentially 
          significant costs-------            Local

          School safety plans                 ------Substantial cost 
          pressure-----                   Local 
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the 
          Suspense File. 

          Existing law requires the CDE and the DOJ to contract with one 
          or more professional trainers to coordinate statewide workshops 
          for local educational agencies and school site personnel to 
          assist them in the development of their respective school safety 
          plans. The DOJ and CDE partnered to create the School Law 
          Enforcement Partnership program, and the School Community 
          Violence Prevention training grant. In 2008, this grant 
          program's funding was included in categorical flexibility. In 
          2009, the DOJ ended its participation in the partnership after 








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          its activities were de-funded in the Budget Act. 

          Currently, the CDE contracts with Kern County Office of 
          Education (COE) to administer the School Community Violence 
          Prevention Training grant; Kern COE has a $350,000 contract to 
          perform this training and is scheduled to conduct 28 trainings 
          on bullying prevention in 2011. Despite having the categorical 
          flexibility option, Kern COE has continued to provide the 
          training and has expressed that it intends to continue to do so. 
          It is not, however, under any obligation to continue to fund 
          these trainings. By adding additional training requirements to 
          the $350,000, this bill put pressure on those funds, as well as 
          on other education funds should Kern COE decide in the future to 
          use that grant money flexibly. 
           
          This bill specifies that a pupil complies with school district 
          residency requirements in a school district if his or her 
          residence is located within the boundaries of another district 
          but the pupil meets all of the following conditions: A) the 
          pupil has been determined by the superintendent of that other 
          school district or the principal of the school attended in that 
          other district to have been the victim of an act of bullying , 
          as specified; B) the pupil is unable to transfer to another 
          school within the other school district, as certified by the 
          superintendent of the other district; and C) the pupil is unable 
          to receive authorization for interdistrict attendance in a 
          timely manner. This provision entitles certain victims of 
          bullying to transfer to another school district. While there 
          would not likely be any state costs (since funding follows the 
          student), there will likely be local costs. Schools would likely 
          have to establish a process for verifying that a pupil meets the 
          conditions, and train staff on implementing it.

          This bill also encourages school safety plans, as they are 
          updated and to the extent that resources are available, to 
          include policies and procedures aimed at the prevention of 
          bullying. Schools can already include bullying prevention 
          policies and procedures in their comprehensive safety plans. 
          Legislative encouragement to do so creates additional pressure 
          on schools to take on those additional tasks.












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