BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 63
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READIN G
AB
63 (Bonilla)
As Amended May 28, 2015
Majority vote
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|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 | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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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