BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1072
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB
1072 (Mendoza)
As Amended August 19, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 35-0
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Transportation |13-0 |Frazier, Linder, | |
| | |Baker, Bloom, Brown, | |
| | |Chu, Daly, Dodd, | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, Gomez, | |
| | |Medina, Nazarian, | |
| | |O'Donnell | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Education |7-0 |O'Donnell, Olsen, Kim, | |
| | |McCarty, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |15-2 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Obernolte |
| | |Bonilla, Bonta, | |
| | |Calderon, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
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| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Holden, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, Wood, | |
| | |McCarty | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires, on or before the beginning of the 2018-19
school year, every schoolbus, school pupil activity bus (SPAB),
and youth bus be equipped with a "child safety alert system;"
imposes additional requirements on school districts to ensure
that a pupil is not left unattended on a bus. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Requires a school district's transportation plan to include
procedures to ensure that a pupil is not left unattended on a
schoolbus, SPAB, or youth bus as well as procedures and
standards for designating an adult chaperone, other than the
driver, to accompany pupils on a SPAB.
2)Requires the county superintendent of schools, the
superintendent of a school district, a charter school, or the
owner or operator of a private school that provides
transportation to or from a school or school activity to
notify the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) within five
calendar days of discovery that a driver of a schoolbus, SPAB,
or youth bus has left the vehicle with an unsupervised pupil
onboard and making a finding that the driver's actions
constituted gross negligence.
3)Defines "gross negligence" for purposes of this bill as the
want of even scant care or an extreme departure from the
ordinary standard of conduct.
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4)Provides that being reported as leaving a pupil unsupervised
onboard a schoolbus, SPAB, or youth bus is grounds for the
refusal to issue or revocation of a bus driver certificate.
5)Requires the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to adopt, by
January 1, 2018, regulations governing the specifications,
installation, and use of child safety alert systems.
6)Requires, on or before the beginning of the 2018-19 school
year, each schoolbus, SPAB, and youth bus shall be equipped
with an operational child safety alert system, except for
SPABs used on trips in which pupils are accompanied by adult
chaperones, as specified.
7)Defines "child safety alert system" as a device located at the
interior rear of a vehicle that requires the driver to
manually contact the device before exiting the vehicle,
thereby prompting the driver to inspect the entirety of the
interior of the vehicle before exiting.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Proposition 98/General Fund (GF) cost pressures, potentially
in excess of $1 million, for local education agencies (LEAs)
to modify transportation plans, report information to the DMV,
maintain specified documents for two years and install child
alert systems. These costs are not reimbursable since state
law does not require school districts to provide
transportation on school buses.
2)Minor GF costs to the California Department of Education (CDE)
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to modify bus driver training programs to include instruction
on inspection procedures that ensure a student is not left
unattended.
3)Minor/absorbable costs for the CHP to adopt regulations
regarding child safety alert systems, and to incorporate
requirements into school bus inspections.
4)Minor/absorbable costs for the DMV to account for an
additional circumstance that would result in the refusal to
issue or renew a bus driver certificate, or the revocation or
suspension of that certificate.
COMMENTS: According to the author, there have been at least
eight instances of children being left alone and unsupervised on
schoolbuses for hours at a time in California. In one
particular incident in 2015, a 19 year-old special-needs pupil
passed away after being left alone on a hot schoolbus for
several hours at the end of a home-to-school trip in Whittier.
The author states that this bill would protect children getting
to and from school by establishing safe pupil transportation
procedures to help prevent children from being left on school
buses unattended. These procedures include the installation of
child safety alert systems on vehicles that transport children.
These systems tie directly into the vehicles electrical and
computer systems to trigger the alert system of the vehicle when
the ignition is disengaged. The driver of the vehicle must then
walk to the back of the bus to manually disarm the alert
prompting the driver to check the vehicle for children.
According to the author, the Los Angeles Unified School District
installed these systems on its fleet of 1,300 schoolbuses at a
cost of $194,000, or approximately $150 per bus. The costs of
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these systems vary based on the vendor and the complexity of the
system and the electrical and computer systems of the vehicles
in which they are installed. Similar alert systems are required
in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Wisconsin.
In addition to the alert system requirement, this bill adds
leaving a pupil unattended on a bus to the causes for which DMV
may refuse to issue or may revoke a schoolbus or SPAB driver
certificate. In order to be issued a bus driver certificate, a
driver must hold a driver's license and pass a medical exam,
submit fingerprints, pass a first-aid exam, meet with the CHP
bus coordinator, and take an on-road driving exam. Currently,
that certificate can be revoked on grounds such as a violent
felony conviction or a sex offense. Under this bill, a school
district would be required to report when a driver leaves a
pupil unattended on a bus to DMV.
This bill would also require school districts to include
procedures for school personnel to follow to ensure that a pupil
is not left unattended on a bus in the district's transportation
safety plan required under current law.
Please see the policy committee analysis for full discussion of
this bill.
Analysis Prepared by:
Justin Behrens / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN:
0004637
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