BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 49
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 26, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
SB 49 (Lieu and Steinberg) - As Amended: May 28, 2013
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : School safety plans
SUMMARY : Makes changes to the provisions governing
comprehensive school safety plans. Specifically, this bill :
1)Adds the Attorney General and city attorneys to the definition
of law enforcement agencies.
2)Specifies that "principal" includes the principal's designee.
3)Adds nongovernmental organization to the provision requiring
the school safety plan to include a procedure to allow
specified entities to use school buildings, grounds, and
equipment for mass care and welfare shelters during disasters
or other emergencies.
4)Adds as a required component of the school safety plan
procedures related to individuals with guns on school campuses
and at school-related functions, including but not limited to,
training programs related to active shooters and active
terrorists.
5)Updates the date by which each school must adopt its
comprehensive school safety plan, from March 1, 2000 to March
1, 2014, and requires the school to review and update its plan
every third year thereafter, instead of every year thereafter.
6)Specifies that the comprehensive school safety plan may be
evaluated and amended as needed by the school safety planning
committee, but shall be evaluated by March 1, 2014 and every
third year thereafter, rather than at least once a year.
Requires an updated file of all safety-related plans and
materials to be readily available for inspection by law
enforcement and school employees, rather than by the public.
7)Strikes a duplicative provision requiring the comprehensive
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school safety plan, as written and updated by the schoolsite
council or school safety planning committee, to be submitted
to the school district or county office of education (COE) for
approval.
8)Requires a principal, no later than July 31 of every third
year, instead of every year, to accurately report the status
of the school's safety plan for the upcoming school year,
including a description of its key elements, in the annual
school accountability report card (SARC). Requires the report
to include, but is not limited to, whether or not a school
safety plan was adopted for the upcoming year, the date the
school safety plan was adopted and a description of the safety
plan's elements.
9)Requires each principal to provide a written or electronic
notice to each teacher and classified employee of that school
that the adopted school safety plan is readily available for
inspection.
10)Requires, no later than October 15, 2014 and every third year
thereafter, each superintendent of a school district or COE to
provide written notification to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) identifying each school within the school
district or county that has not complied with the requirement
to develop a comprehensive school safety plan or included the
information about the school safety plan on the SARC.
11)Specifies that confidential information relating to tactical
responses to criminal incidents shall not be included at the
public meeting to allow members of the public an opportunity
to express an opinion about the school safety plan.
12)Requires each principal to keep and maintain a copy of the
most recent school safety plan for that school, and the
superintendent of the district or COE to keep a copy of the
most recent school safety plan and every notification made to
the SPI identifying each school within the district or county
that has not complied with the requirement to develop a school
safety plan.
13)Requires all books, documents, records, and other papers kept
and maintained to be open for inspection and copying at the
district office or school on business days, excluding legal
holidays, during the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., within 48
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hours of a written, verbal, or electronic request by a law
enforcement agency. Specifies that an electronic version of a
book, document, record or other paper is sufficient to meet
the requirements of this provision.
14)Strikes the provision authorizing a complaint of
noncompliance with the school safety planning requirement of
Title IV of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to be
filed with the California Department of Education (CDE) under
the Uniform Complaint Procedures.
15)Requires the CDE to monitor compliance using an existing
monitoring framework.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies that the schoolsite council or a school safety
planning committee is responsible for developing the
comprehensive school safety plan. (Education Code Section
(EC) 32281)
2)Specifies that the comprehensive school safety plan shall
include an assessment of the current status of school crime
committed on school campuses and at school-related functions
and identification of appropriate strategies and programs that
will provide or maintain a high level of school safety and
address the school's procedures for complying with existing
laws related to school safety, including child abuse reporting
procedures; disaster procedures; an earthquake emergency
procedure system; policies regarding pupils who commit
specified acts that would lead to suspension or expulsion;
procedures to notify teachers of dangerous pupils; a
discrimination and harassment policy; the provisions of any
schoolwide dress code; procedures for safe ingress and egress
of pupils, parents, and school employees to and from school; a
safe and orderly environment conducive to learning; rules and
procedures on school discipline; and hate crime reporting
procedures. (EC 32282)
3)Requires the comprehensive school safety plan to be evaluated
at least once a year. (EC 32282)
4)Requires each school to include a description of key elements
of the school safety plan in the annual SARC. (EC 32286)
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5)Requires the schoolsite council or school safety planning
committee to hold a public meeting to allow public comment.
Requires the comprehensive school safety plan to be submitted
to the school district or COE for approval and requires a
school district or COE to notify the CDE by October 15 of
every year of any school that is not in compliance. (EC
32288)
6)Provides that if the SPI determines that there has been a
willful failure to make any report, the SPI shall notify and
assess no more than $2,000 against that school district or
COE. (EC 32287)
7)Authorizes the portions of a school safety plan that include
tactical responses to criminal incidents to be developed by
school district or COE administrators in consultation with law
enforcement officials and with a representative of an
exclusive bargaining unit of school district or COE employees,
if he or she chooses to participate. Authorizes the school
district or COE to elect not to disclose those portions of the
comprehensive school safety plan that include tactical
responses to criminal incidents. (EC 32281)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, extending the frequency of required reviews from
annually to every third year will likely significantly reduce
the costs associated with an existing reimbursable state
mandate. Significant costs to expand the scope of an existing
reimbursable mandate for which the state currently pays in
excess of $3 million, annually.
COMMENTS : Background . 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 school safety plan to the school
district or COE for approval and requires the school district or
COE to annually notify the CDE of any schools that have not
complied with the requirement to develop a school safety plan.
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The SPI 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 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.
Purpose of the bill . According to the author, a substantial
number of schools throughout the state have not complied with
the requirement to develop a school safety plan, due to the fact
that self reporting has proven ineffective. The author reviewed
SARC reports of schools in the Los Angeles Unified School
District and reports that in 2008-09, 53.2% of middle schools
and 49.1% of senior high and continuation schools did not report
school safety plans. The author further states that with the
recent events in Connecticut, it is imperative for all schools
to have up-to-date school safety plans.
This bill makes a number of changes to the school safety plan,
including updating the date by which each school must adopt a
school safety plan, from March 1, 2000 to March 1, 2014. The
bill changes the requirement to update and review the school
safety plan from annually to once every three years. According
to the author, this is to provide flexibility to schools as
school safety plans may not need to be updated every year.
Staff recommends an amendment to specify that nothing prohibits
each school from reviewing and updating its plan as needed in
between the three years.
This bill adds informational provisions; including requiring the
principal to notify all school staff in a written or electronic
format that the school safety plan is available for inspection,
and requiring all documents, records, books and material related
to the school safety plan to be open for inspection and copying
at the district office or a school between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on
business days, within 48 hours of a written, verbal, or
electronic request by a law enforcement agency. Requiring the
materials to be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. may be too
restrictive. While a district office may maintain those hours,
school hours will vary. Staff recommends an amendment
specifying "school hours" for schools and "business hours" for
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district offices.
The bill revises the provision requiring a school district or
COE to notify the CDE of any schools that have complied with the
requirements to develop a school safety plan. Specifically, the
bill requires the superintendent of a school district or COE to,
by October 15, 2014 and every third year thereafter, provide
written notification to the SPI of any school that has not
complied with the development of a school safety plan or the
requirement to include elements of the school safety plan in the
SARC. The SARC is an annual report card with information about
students and the school, including pupil demographics, student
assessment results, teacher qualifications, and many other
provisions.
The bill makes conforming changes in the SARC provisions to
require information regarding the school safety plan to be
included in the SARC every third year. This could be
interpreted to mean that the SARC would only contain information
about the school safety plan every third year. Staff recommends
an amendment to require the information to be included every
year and updated when the school safety plan is updated.
This bill adds to the required components in the school safety
plan procedures related to individuals with guns on school
campuses and at school related functions, including, but not
limited to, training programs related to active shooters and
active terrorists. According to the author, it is not the
intent of this bill to require participation in training
programs. The bill also clarifies that strategies relating to
tactical responses to criminal incidents, developed by
administrators, in consultation with law enforcement agencies,
and approved in closed session, shall not be included in the
meeting to allow the public an opportunity to provide comments
about the school safety plan.
Technical amendment . The bill's new provision in Section 6 of
the bill establishing EC Section 32286.1, which requires the
superintendent of a school district or COE to provide written
notification to the SPI of schools that have not complied with
the requirement to develop a school safety plan is duplicative
of existing EC Section 32288(c). Staff recommends striking
Section 32288(c).
Arguments in support . The Torrance Unified School District
states, "The District believes that SB 49 makes changes to
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procedures governing the comprehensive school safety plan that
are in alignment with the realities that all communities face
today. It recasts and updates provisions of existing law to
better reflect the conditions needed to continue assuring the
safety of our school children and staff."
The Association of California School Administrators has a
support if amended position. The requested amendment changes
the requirement to have materials available for inspection and
photocopying during school hours rather than between the hours
of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Related legislation . AB 549 (Jones-Sawyer), pending in the
Senate, 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
and intervention professionals, if the school district uses
intervention professionals, school resource officers, and police
officers on the school campus. 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.
AB 1264 (Conway) expands the definition of "tactical response to
criminal incidents" to include a plan to safeguard against
incidents that include a firearm, explosive, or other deadly
weapon; requires the comprehensive school safety plan to include
a protocol for teachers to provide notification of pupils
identified as having a potential mental health issue that is
likely to result in violence or harm to the pupil or others; and
requires the auditor's report of a local educational agency's
(LEA) annual financial audit to include, commencing in the
2014-15 fiscal year, a summary of the extent to which the LEA
has complied with the requirement that each of its schools
develop a comprehensive school safety plan. The bill failed
passage in the Assembly Education Committee this year.
SB 634 (Price) requires a comprehensive school safety plan to
establish minimum requirements and standards for schools to
follow when conducting school safety drills and reviewing school
emergency and crisis response plans, requires all school
districts and COEs to incorporate specified safety drills into
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their school safety plan, and requires each school to conduct
two school evacuation drills and one law enforcement school
lockdown drill during each school year. The bill was held in
the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file this year.
Prior related legislation . AB 680 (Block), Chapter 438,
Statutes of 2011, authorizes a school district or COE, in
consultation with law enforcement officials, to choose not to
have its schoolsite council develop and write those portions of
its comprehensive school safety plan that include tactical
responses to criminal incidents that may result in death or
serious bodily injury at the schoolsite and authorizes, instead,
school district and COE administrators to write those portions
of the school safety plan.
AB 519 (Hernández) authorizes the comprehensive school safety
plan to include rules and procedures regarding the use of
restraint and seclusion, prohibits an educational provider from
using chemical and mechanical restraint, and limits the use of
physical restraint and seclusion. The bill was held in this
Committee by the author in 2011.
SB 755 (Lieu) makes a number of changes to the comprehensive
school safety plan, including extending the requirement to
develop a school safety plan to charter schools and imposing a
fine of between $250 and $1,000 on any principal, administrator
at a school without a principal, and any superintendent of a
school district or COE for failing to develop a school safety
plan or failing to make specified reporting requirements. The
bill was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense
file in 2011.
AB 2501 (Lieu) makes a number of changes to comprehensive school
safety plan, including extending the requirement to develop a
school safety plan to charter schools and imposing a fine of
between $250 and $1,000 on any principal, administrator at a
school without a principal, and any superintendent of a school
district or county office of education for failing to develop a
school safety plan or failing to make specified reporting
requirements. The bill was held in this Committee by the author
in 2010.
AB 2639 (Lieu), held in the Senate Appropriations Committee
suspense file in 2008, requires each school district or COE to
annually submit to the CDE by October 15 a report that includes
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a list of schools within its jurisdiction that have and have not
developed a school safety plan.
AB 810 (Lieu), held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee's
suspense file in 2007, requires the SPI to notify the Commission
on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) of a principal or schoolsite
administrator's failure to comply with requirements related to
the development and adoption of the school safety plan by
October 15 of each year and requires the CTC to suspend the
principal or administrator's credential for one year if he or
she does not correct the noncompliance within 30 days of
receiving the notice from the SPI.
AB 115 (J. Horton), Chapter 423, Statutes of 2003, increased the
fine to school districts for a willful failure to report a
noncompliant school to the SPI from $500 to $2000.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Red Cross, California Chapters
Association of California School Administrators (if amended)
California Charter Schools Association Advocates (prior version)
California School Employees Association (prior version)
California State PTA
Los Angeles County Democratic Party (prior version)
Los Angeles County Office of Education
PeaceBuilders (prior version)
Torrance Unified School District
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087