BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1783 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 1783 (Dodd) - As Amended April 13, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Education |Vote:|7 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: Yes SUMMARY: This bill requires certain local educational agencies (LEAs) to develop a plan to assess items in each school building to determine whether the contents meet earthquake safety AB 1783 Page 2 guidelines. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires, by July 1, 2018, each school district, county office of education (COE), and charter school located in areas with "higher seismicity", to develop a plan for the inspection of school building areas accessible to children. The purpose of the plan is to determine whether the contents of the area comply with the guidelines set forth the Office of Emergency Services (OES) "Guide and Checklist for Nonstructural Earthquake Hazards in California School" (Guide). 2)Defines "higher seismicity" as a school district, COE or charter school located in an area with the result of .30g or greater on the California Geological Survey's Ground Motion Interpolator on the Department of Conservation website. 3)Requires the California Geological Survey to post instructions or links on their website related to determining whether an LEA is in a high seismicity area. 4)Requires the plan to be developed in consultation with a California licensed civil or structural engineer or a California licensed architect, a representative of the local fire service agency, a school administrator or school business official, a classroom teacher, and a representative of classified school employees. 5)Requires the plan to designate a person to assess and develop corrective action plans, identify all school buildings that are to be assessed and the order of assessment, and provide a cost estimate for the assessment. 6)Requires the plan to be submitted to the governing board of AB 1783 Page 3 the school district, the COE, or the governing body of the charter school at a public meeting. 7)Requires each school district, COE, and charter school to complete the assessment by January 1, 2020. Requires the person conducting the inspection to, at minimum, complete the checklist published in the Guide. 8)Requires the governing bodies to review the report in a public meeting and post the report on their Internet Web site. 9)Requires compliant and noncompliant items to be reported to the LEA within 60 days of completing the assessment. Sets forth priorities for remedying noncompliant issues. Requires the district superintendent, COE superintendent or chief administrator of the charter school to annually certify corrective actions taken. FISCAL EFFECT: 1)Unknown Proposition 98/GF state mandated costs, likely in the tens of millions of dollars, for school districts to develop and implement plans for the inspection of school building areas accessible to children. LEAs that meet the high seismicity requirements of the bill are unknown; however, looking at regions with high seismic risk, it is likely the requirements of the bill will affect several hundred school districts, COEs and charter schools. Costs to implement a plan will vary depending on the size of AB 1783 Page 4 the district and the resources needed to review school sites. Costs per district could range from several hundred dollars to over $200,000. For illustration, Los Angeles Unified School District has approximately 30,000 classrooms. Assuming a 15 minute inspection per classroom at an hourly rate of $15, it would take a total of 7,500 hours to inspect all classrooms at a cost of $112,500. Districts are also required to meet with stakeholders to develop both an assessment and corrective action plan. Additional resources will be needed to make corrective actions if deemed necessary. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, this bill is in response to the South Napa Earthquake that struck early in the morning on August 24, 2014. Structural damage to schools was minimal. However, nonstructural damage was significant and could have been life-threatening had the earthquake occurred during school hours. According to the author, replacing and repairing contents damaged by the earthquake was estimated at $9 million for schools in the Napa Unified School District. 2)Background. The Field Act, named after the author of the bill establishing the Act, Assemblymember C. Don Field, was enacted in 1933 after an earthquake in Long Beach. The Field Act addresses the structure of buildings. There are no requirements regarding the contents inside the buildings, although, there are guidelines established in regulations under the Division of Industrial Safety or requirements for insurance purposes. Following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, SB 1122 (Alarcon), AB 1783 Page 5 Chapter 294, Statutes of 1999, was enacted to require the OES to develop an educational pamphlet. The California Emergency Management Agency developed the "Guide and Checklist for Nonstructural Earthquake Hazards in California School." The Guide covers three components within a building - Ceilings and Overhead, Walls and Wall Mounted, and Furniture and Equipment. It is unclear how many school districts have used the recommendations in the Guide to secure nonstructural contents within a school building. Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916) 319-2081