BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READIN G


          AB  
          63 (Bonilla)


          As Amended  May 28, 2015


          Majority vote


           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Committee       |Votes |Ayes                |Noes                |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
          |----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
          |Education       |6-0   |O'Donnell, Kim,     |                    |
          |                |      |McCarty, Santiago,  |                    |
          |                |      |Thurmond, Weber     |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
          |----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
          |Transportation  |16-0  |Frazier, Achadjian, |                    |
          |                |      |Baker, Bloom,       |                    |
          |                |      |Campos, Chu, Daly,  |                    |
          |                |      |Dodd, Eduardo       |                    |
          |                |      |Garcia, Gomez, Kim, |                    |
          |                |      |Linder, Medina,     |                    |
          |                |      |Melendez, Nazarian, |                    |
          |                |      |O'Donnell           |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
          |----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
          |Appropriations  |17-0  |Gomez, Bigelow,     |                    |
          |                |      |Bonta, Calderon,    |                    |
          |                |      |Chang, Daly,        |                    |
          |                |      |Eggman, Gallagher,  |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |








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          |                |      |Eduardo Garcia,     |                    |
          |                |      |Gordon, Holden,     |                    |
          |                |      |Jones, Quirk,       |                    |
          |                |      |Rendon, Wagner,     |                    |
          |                |      |Weber, Wood         |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
          |                |      |                    |                    |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 


          SUMMARY:  Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to  
          apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for the purpose of  
          creating a specialized license plate program to generate funds for  
          school violence prevention programs.  Specifically, this bill:  


          1)Requires the DMV, after deducting its administrative costs, to  
            deposit the fees collected from the sale of the specialized  
            license plates in the School Violence Prevention Fund,  
            established by this bill.
          2)Specifies that upon appropriation by the Legislature, the moneys  
            in that fund shall be allocated to the CDE in order to carry out  
            one or more of the purposes of the School Safety Violence  
            Protection Act, as specified in the Education Code on January 1,  
            2015, or as determined by the CDE for purposes of school  
            violence prevention.  Specifies that the moneys shall be  
            available for both charter and noncharter public schools.   


          3)Requires the CDE to comply with all the requirements of the  
            Vehicle Code that apply to a state agency sponsoring a  
            specialized license plate program.


          4)Authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to  
            consult with the Board of State and Community Corrections, the  
            State Department of Social Services, and the State Department of  
            Public Health on school violence prevention and intervention in  
            order to carry out one or more of the purposes of the grant  








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            program.  


          FISCAL EFFECT:  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee:


          1)Potential one-time special fund costs of approximately $440,000  
            to DMV to establish the specialized license plate program,  
            including computer programming changes and updating forms.   
            Pursuant to current law, DMV will make computer programming and  
            form changes only after program applications meet a  
            7,500-application threshold.  Therefore, the DMV will incur  
            these costs only if it receives enough applications to require  
            the CDE to implement the program. The DMV will incur minor  
            ongoing costs to continue issuing specialty license plates and  
            renewals under the program.  All of the DMV's initial and  
            ongoing costs will be covered by a portion of the additional $50  
            fee paid for original specialized license plates and the  
            additional $40 fee to renew such plates.


          2)Minor costs to CDE to submit the program application and license  
            prototype to DMV, design and print the license plate  
            application, and collect and hold applications and fees until  
            7,500 applications are received. 


          3)Potential ongoing revenue to CDE for grants to school districts,  
            from a portion of the additional fees for new and renewed  
            specialty license plates generated after the funding  
            requirements are satisfied.


          COMMENTS:  Background on school safety programs.  Prior to the  
          fiscal year (FY) 2009-10, the state provided funding to two  
          categorical programs that focus on school safety and violence  
          prevention.  The Carl Washington School Safety and Violence  
          Prevention Act (school safety block grant) provided direct grants  








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          for local educational agencies (LEAs) to devise violence  
          prevention strategies in schools.  Funds could be used to provide  
          schools with personnel, including counselors, social workers,  
          nurses, and psychologists; install effective and accessible on  
          campus communication devices; establish in-service training  
          program for school staff to assist school staff in identifying and  
          communicating at-risk children and youth and referring these  
          pupils to counseling; establish cooperative arrangements with  
          local law enforcement agencies; or for use for other strategies  
          for achieving school safety and prevention of violence.  In FY  
          2009-10, the program received almost $80 million.  


          The School Safety Consolidated Competitive Grants consolidated six  
          programs - the Safe School Planning and Partnership Mini-grants,  
          School Community Policing, Gang-Risk Intervention Program, Safety  
          Plan for New Schools, School Community Violence Prevention  
          Training, and Conflict Resolution - into one program.  The program  
          received $14.3 million in FY 2009-10.  These funds were also used  
          for a contract with the Kern County Office of Education to  
          coordinate trainings for LEAs in various regions of the state on  
          three topics:  safe school planning, crisis preparedness and  
          response, and bullying and cyberbullying prevention and  
          intervention.    


          The FY 2009-10 budget agreement imposed a 20% reduction on 39  
          categorical programs and gave LEAs that received those funds in FY  
          2007-08 the flexibility to use the funds for any educational  
          purposes from FY 2008-09 through FY 2012-13 (SB 4 X3 (Ducheny),  
          Chapter 12, Statutes of the 2009-10 Third Extraordinary Session).   
          This reduction and flexibility provision is commonly known as  
          "Tier 3" flexibility, which gave LEAs $4.5 billion in additional  
          unrestricted funds.  SB 70 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee),  
          Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011, extended categorical flexibility to  
          FY 2014-15.  The local control funding formula (LCFF), enacted in  
          2013, eliminated most categorical programs and integrated  
          categorical program funds, including the Carl Washington School  
          Safety and Violence Prevention and the School Safety Consolidated  








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          Competitive Grants, into school districts' base grants.  These  
          programs no longer exist.    


          What does this bill do?  This bill attempts to generate funds for  
          school safety and violence prevention activities through the sale  
          of specialized license plates.  This bill requires the CDE to  
          apply to the DMV for a specialized license plate after collecting  
          7,500 applications.  Funds generated through the sale of the  
          license plates will be directed for the purposes established by  
          the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program, which  
          is a competitive grant program, or other school violence  
          prevention purposes determined by the CDE.  


          Specialized licensed plate program.  Prior to 2007, any new  
          specialized license plate required specific legislative  
          authorization.  That practice was held to be unconstitutional by  
          the federal courts in that the Legislature approved some of the  
          plates and rejected others, while using no standardized or  
          objective criteria for those decisions.  In response to the court  
          decision, AB 84 (Leslie), Chapter 454, Statutes of 2006,  
          established the current specialized license plate program to  
          provide a forum for government speech that promotes California's  
          state policies.  Specialized license plates created must publicize  
          or promote a state agency, or the official policy, mission, or  
          work of a state agency.  AB 84 excludes private organizations from  
          seeking specialized license plates as a forum for private speech,  
          and thus addresses the court's objection.  


          At least 7,500 paid applications must be received by the state  
          agency before the state agency can notify DMV; this is to ensure  
          that there are sufficient funds to pay for costs that will be  
          incurred by the DMV.  According to the DMV, the following plates  
          have been created pursuant to legislation:  a) 9/11 Memorial; b)  
          Coastal Commission; c) Tahoe Conservancy; d) Yosemite National  
          Park; e) Arts; f) Veterans; and g) Have a Heart, Be a Star, Help  
          Our Kids.  Two plates, Two Pet Lovers and Agriculture, were  








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          developed by agencies pursuant to statutory authority. 


          It is unclear what process the CDE will use to collect 7,500  
          applications, whether the CDE will be successful in collecting  
          7,500 applications, or how much money will be generated.  A number  
          of bills introduced over the last few years have attempted to  
          re-establish funding for various categorical programs.  While the  
          other bills propose to use the General Fund, this bill proposes  
          generating funds though private sources.  


          The author states, "According to the Centers for Disease Control  
          and Prevention, homicide and suicide remain the leading causes of  
          death among youth aged 10 to 24.  In addition, a recent study by  
          the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found  
          that nearly 17% of school-aged children experience bullying.   
          Nationally this equates to approximately 1.6 million children in  
          grades 6 through 10 being bullied once a week and approximately  
          1.7 million children bullying other children.  Much of this  
          violence is preventable with strategies focused on identifying  
          high-risk individuals, providing early intervention, and  
          supporting communities, families, and those who are exposed to  
          violence or prone to violent behavior."    


          Prior legislation.  This bill is nearly identical to last year's  
          SB 544 (DeSaulnier), which failed in the Assembly Education  
          Committee due to a lack of a motion and second to move the bill.   
          The difference is that SB 544 would have directed the funds  
          towards both the School Safety Consolidated Competitive Grants and  
          the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program.  This  
          bill only directs the funds for the latter program, mainly because  
          the statute establishing the School Safety Consolidated  
          Competitive Grants programs were repealed through SB 971 (Huff),  
          Chapter 923, Statutes of 2014, which repealed a number of  
          categorical programs no longer in existence due to LCFF.  










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          Analysis Prepared by:                                               
                          Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087  FN:  
          0000670