BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 496
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Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 496 (Alejo) - As Amended: April 26, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:9-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires a school's comprehensive school safety plan
to include a protocol for ensuring that all school personnel
have access to classrooms and other school facilities during a
disaster or other emergency if a school restricts that access
during the regular hours of operation.
FISCAL EFFECT
One-time GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs to school
districts of approximately $250,000 to update school safety
plans at each of their schoolsites. In 2009-10, there were
9,888 schoolsites in the state.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Current statute specifies that each school district
and county office of education (COE) is responsible for the
overall development of all comprehensive school safety plans.
It also delineates the contents of these plans, including
procedures for dealing with safety-related issues and
emergency procedures.
This measure is the result of a school shooting that occurred
at an elementary school in the Carlsbad Unified School
District in October 2010. A gunman walked onto campus during
recess and began shooting at the students. Two children were
treated for non-life threatening injuries. According to the
bill's sponsor, the Laborer's International Union of North
America, Local 777, classified employees who were supervising
the children at the time of the shooting were not able to take
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the children into the school building to avoid the gunfire.
They state the building was locked and they did not have keys
to allow them entrance.
According to the author, "The lack of specificity �under
current law] regarding what �school safety] plans must include
has resulted in some plans failing to adequately address site
specific scenarios. The unfortunate result of this is that
children and school employees may be at greater risk during
emergency situations at certain schools due to inadequacies in
the school's comprehensive safety plan. �This bill] would
create better protections for public school children and
employees by ensuring that all school personnel have access to
classrooms during a disaster or other emergency if the school
limits access during regular operating hours."
2)Unpaid K-12 mandates . According to the Legislative Analyst's
Office, the state owes approximately $3.4 billion in K-12
mandate costs for prior years. Prior to the 2010 Budget Act,
the state deferred mandate payments for several years with the
promise of making the payments to school districts in future
years. As a result, districts did not received payment for
annual services they were required to conduct, including the
school safety plan mandate. The school safety plan mandate
totals approximately $5 million GF/98 annually.
SB 90 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 7,
Statutes of 2011 allocated $80 million GF/98 to school
districts for annual K-12 mandate costs; the state, however,
still owes school districts for the prior year costs.
3)Related legislation . SB 755 (Lieu), pending in the Senate
Education Committee, makes a number of changes to the
comprehensive school safety plan, including requiring charter
schools to develop a plan and establishing a fine for
specified school and district personnel who fail to develop a
plan, as specified.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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