BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 755 (Lieu)
Hearing Date: 05/23/2011 Amended: 05/11/2011
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 7-2
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 755 makes numerous changes to the requirement
that each school have a school safety plan, and how those plans
should be updated. This bill imposes new penalties for schools
and districts that fail to meet these requirements, as
determined by an audit. This bill requires a petition for the
establishment of, or application for the renewal of, a charter
school to include a school safety plan, as specified. This bill
would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
publish, on Department of Education (CDE) website, the name of
each school reported as not complying with the requirements to
adopt, and periodically review and update, a comprehensive
school safety plan
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Notifications to SPI Potentially significant
reimbursable mandate General
Audit requirements Potentially substantial
reimbursable mandate General
Mandate: public meetings Potentially significant
reimbursable mandate General
Website information Minor and absorbable ongoing
workload General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Existing law provides that school districts and county offices
of education are responsible for the overall development of a
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comprehensive school safety plan for each of their constituent
schools. Existing law requires the schoolsite council of a
school to write and develop the school safety plan relevant to
the needs and resources of the particular school, and that a
schoolsite council or school safety planning committee, before
adopting a school safety plan, to hold a public meeting at the
schoolsite. This bill makes changes to the existing requirement
for comprehensive school safety plans, and mandates additional
reporting and notification requirements.
This bill requires, for a school adopting its initial
comprehensive school safety plan, the schoolsite council or
school safety planning committee to hold a public meeting at the
schoolsite to hear public comment about the school safety plan,
and that it notify:
A) a representative of the local school employee organization;
B) a representative of each parent organization registered at
the schoolsite; C) a representative of each teacher organization
at the schoolsite; and D) All persons who have requested to be
notified. This notification requirement imposes a new mandate on
schools.
This bill also requires that a school's principal (or
administrator in charge of a school without a principal) forward
the school's comprehensive school safety plan for the upcoming
school year to the superintendent of the school district or
county office of education, or to the administrator in charge
where there is no superintendent, no later than March 31 of each
year, for review and feedback, as specified. This bill further
requires that no later than October 15 of each year, each
superintendent of a school district or county office of
education, or each administrator in charge of a district or
county office without a superintendent, provide written
notification to the Superintendent identifying each school
within the school district or county that has not complied with
Section 32281 or subdivision (b) of Section 32286 for that
school year. This provision imposes a new mandate on schools and
school districts.
Existing law requires each county superintendent of schools to
provide for an audit of all funds under his or her jurisdiction.
These audits are fiscal in nature, and their requirements set in
statute. This bill adds a requirement that audits include a
summary of the extent to which the local educational agency has
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complied with the requirement that each of its schools develop a
comprehensive school safety plan pursuant to Section 32281, and
specifies penalties for noncompliance. This requirement could
add substantial costs to audits and constitute a reimbursable
mandate, because this type of information is not currently
collected in the fiscal auditing process. School districts would
have to compile and share that information with auditors, who
would then have to find a way to include it in a report to the
SPI.
This bill requires, to the extent reported, that the SPI publish
on the CDE website the name of each school reported as not
complying with the school safety plan. The CDE has indicated
that this task would be minor, and the workload could be
absorbed within existing resources.