BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 634 (Price) - Schools Safety Plans: Safety Drills
Amended: May 1, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 634 requires comprehensive school safety plans
to include procedures for conducting school safety drills. This
bill would require each school during each school year to
conduct a minimum number of school evacuation drills relating to
fire incidents, as provided, and authorize schools to conduct
other specified school evacuations. This bill would further
require schools to conduct at least one law enforcement school
lockdown drill.
Fiscal Impact:
Mandate: Potentially significant reimbursable costs
incurred by requiring schools to develop procedures for
conducting school safety drills, and for requiring schools
to conduct at least one law enforcement lockdown drill per
year.
Background: Existing law requires each school district and COE
to be responsible for the overall development of all
comprehensive school safety plans for its schools. The
schoolsite council is required to write and develop a
comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and
resources of that school. (Education Code § 32281)
School districts and COEs, in consultation with law enforcement,
are authorized to elect not to have schoolsite councils develop
and write portions of the school safety plan that include
tactical responses to criminal incidents. Portions of the safety
plan containing tactical responses may be developed by school
administrators in consultation with law enforcement. Governing
boards are authorized to approve the tactical response portion
of the safety plan in a closed session. (EC § 32281)
SB 634 (Price)
Page 1
Existing law requires the comprehensive school safety plan to
include: (1) an assessment of the current status of school crime
committed on school campuses and at school-related functions,
and (2) identification of appropriate strategies and programs
that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety and
detail procedures for complying with existing laws; disaster
procedures; policies regarding suspension or expulsion; a
discrimination and harassment policy; and, a safe and orderly
environment conducive to learning. The comprehensive school
safety plan is required to be evaluated at least once a year.
(EC § 32282)
Existing law further requires each school to submit its school
safety plan to the school district or COE for approval and
requires a school district or COE to notify the California
Department of Education (CDE) by October 15 of every year of any
school that is not in compliance. (EC § 32288)
Existing law also requires, the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, if he or she determines that there has been a
willful failure to make any report required in school safety
plan statutes, to: a) Notify the school district or county
office of education in which the willful failure has occurred;
and, b) Make an assessment of up to $2,000 against that school
or county office, which may be done by deducting funding from
the district's or COE's future apportionment. (EC § 32287).
Existing law requires every public, private or parochial school
building having an occupant capacity of 50 or more, or with more
than one classroom, to have a dependable and operative fire
alarm system, and for the fire alarm to be tested at least once
a month. Existing law requires a fire drill to be conducted at
least once every month at elementary schools and at least four
times a year at the intermediate levels. (EC § 32001)
Proposed Law: SB 634 requires that, as a component of the
comprehensive school safety plan, a school establish procedures
for conducting school safety drills. This bill would require
each school, during each school year, to conduct a specified
minimum number of school evacuation drills relating to fire
incidents, and authorize schools to conduct school evacuation
drills for other incident types. This bill would also require
schools to conduct at least one law enforcement school lockdown
drill per school year. The bill would authorize schools, school
districts, and COEs preparing for and executing these drills to
SB 634 (Price)
Page 2
work with local first responders and law enforcement agencies,
as specified.
Related Legislation: SB 49 (Lieu) requires school safety plans
to include procedures related to response to a person with a gun
on campus, extends from annually to every third year the
frequency of review of safety plans, and requires charter school
petitions to include a description of a school safety plan. This
bill is also scheduled to be heard in this Committee on May 13,
2013.
Staff Comments: This bill makes statutory changes to the
existing state mandates regarding comprehensive school safety
plans. The state has paid nearly $10 million over the past three
years in local educational agency (LEA) reimbursements for the
1,450 mandate claims related to comprehensive school safety
plans.
This bill places two new requirements on LEAs with regard to
their comprehensive school safety plans already mandated in
state law. Both are likely to expand the scope of the existing
school safety plans mandates and result in significant
additional state costs.
This bill requires LEAs to establish procedures for conducting
school safety drills, including for law enforcement lockdown
drills newly required by this bill. This mandate will apply to
the more than 10,000 schools in California, and is likely to
result in significant reimbursable costs to LEAs. These new
duties and requirements will expand the reimbursement level for
the existing mandate. Since the mandate has already been proven
and the reimbursement methodology determined, it will be
relatively simple for school districts and COEs to show that
this bill further increases their mandated duties with respect
to comprehensive school safety plans. School districts can also
aggregate their costs among all their schools and file a single
mandate claim.
This bill requires all schools to conduct at least one law
enforcement school lockdown drill "to prepare pupils, school
personnel, and law enforcement personnel to respond to
situations in which conditions inside school buildings are safer
than conditions outside school buildings." This requirement is
likely to result in reimbursable costs for LEAs to coordinate
SB 634 (Price)
Page 3
with law enforcement, as well as to plan and conduct the drills.
While the bill states that LEAs "may work with local first
responders and law enforcement agencies to formulate safety
plans and to prepare and execute safety drills," it appears to
functionally require that coordination by specifying that part
of the purpose of the lockdown drill is to prepare law
enforcement personnel to respond to incidents occurring in
school campuses. There may be additional costs to LEAs to
involve law enforcement personnel, and those costs could be
deemed reimbursable.