BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 549
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 549 (Jones-Sawyer)
As Amended August 15, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(May 29, 2013) |SENATE: |36-1 |(August 26, |
| | | | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY : Specifies that as the comprehensive school safety
plans are reviewed and updated, the Legislature encourages all
plans, to the extent that resources are available, to include
clear guidelines for the roles and responsibilities of mental
health professionals, community intervention professionals,
school counselors, school resource officers (SROs), and police
officers on school campus, if the school district uses these
people. Specifies that the guidelines may include primary
strategies to create and maintain a positive school climate,
promote school safety, and increase pupil achievement, and
prioritize mental health and intervention services, restorative
and transformative justice programs, and positive behavior
interventions and support.
The Senate amendments change "intervention professionals" to
"community intervention professionals," add school counselors to
the list of individuals for which school safety plans are
encouraged to establish guidelines, and create a new section in
the Education Code for this provision.
FISCAL EFFECT : None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Existing law requires each school to develop a school
safety plan that includes processes, procedures, and policies to
ensure student and staff safety at a school site. The
components of the plan range from daily processes, such as
procedures for safe ingress and egress of pupils, parents and
school employees; to disaster and emergency procedures such as
those during and after earthquakes; to behavioral policies such
as discrimination and harassment policies. The school safety
plan is developed by a school site council or a school safety
planning committee. Current law requires a school to submit the
AB 549
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school safety plan to the school district or county office of
education (COE) for approval and requires the school district or
COE to annually notify the California Department of Education
(CDE) of any schools that have not complied with the requirement
to develop a school safety plan. The Superintendent of Public
Instruction is authorized to impose a fine of not more than
$2,000 against a school district or COE for any willful failure
to make any required report. According to the CDE, there has
been no report of noncompliance by schools and no district or
COE has been fined for willfully failing to report a school that
has not developed a school safety plan. It is unclear whether
this is because there has been no violations and every school in
the state has developed its school safety plan, or whether
districts or COEs have not reported schools that have not
developed their school safety plans.
This bill encourages the school safety plan, as it is reviewed
and updated, to include guidelines on the roles and
responsibilities of mental health and community intervention
professionals, school counselors, SROs and police officers on
the school campus. The guidelines may include strategies to
create positive school climates and culture and prioritize
mental health and intervention services, restorative and
transformative justice programs, and positive behavior
interventions and support.
In the last couple of years, legislation has focused on reducing
punitive measures, such as out of school suspensions and
expulsions, and emphasized more positive strategies, such as
restorative and transformative justice programs and positive
behavior interventions and support, to change behaviors. The
rationale is that a student is more likely to engage in gangs,
commit criminal activities and enter the juvenile justice system
if they are not in school. Consistent with this belief is that
the presence of law enforcement on school campuses and
incarceration of pupils are contrary to the cultivation of a
positive school culture. Earlier versions of this bill
attempted to limit the role of SROs and police officers to
protection of the physical safety of students and staff.
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087
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FN: 0001735