BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1264
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Date of Hearing: January 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1264 (Conway) - As Amended: January 16, 2014
Policy Committee: EducationVote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY :
This bill makes various changes to comprehensive school safety
plans. Specifically, this bill:
1)Expands the definition of "tactical response to criminal
incidents" to include a plan to safeguard against incidents
that include a firearm, explosive, or other deadly weapon.
2)Requires the comprehensive school safety plan to include a
tactical response plan, as defined.
3)Requires a school district or county office of education (COE)
to publicly announce its adoption or update of a tactical
response plan, but does not require disclosure of those
portions of the plan that may be kept private.
FISCAL EFFECT :
One-time GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs of $250,000
to $500,000 for school districts to update their school safety
plans to include a tactical response plan, as specified.
There are 9,919 public schools in California. Presumably if
the requirements of this measure are determined to be a state
mandate, the requirements and associated costs would be added
to the K-12 mandate block grant (see below).
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose . According to the author, "AB 1264 increases school
safety by ensuring the annual adoption or update of a tactical
safety plan that includes appropriate response to incidents
involving firearms, explosives or other deadly weapons. Since
AB 1264
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1997, the California Education Code has defined elements that
must be included in a comprehensive school safety plan, and
while the statute anticipates adoption of a tactical plan it
does not specifically require such a plan to be adopted, nor
does it specify that such a plan address incidents that
include the use of firearms, explosives or other deadly
weapons. Therefore, to ensure the safety of students and
school personnel, it is necessary to require all comprehensive
school safety plans to contain an annually updated tactical
plan to address incidents that include the use of a firearm,
explosive or other deadly weapon."
2)Background . Existing law specifies that each school district
and COE is responsible for the development of all K-12
comprehensive school safety plans. The school safety plan is
developed by a school site council or a school safety planning
committee. Existing law requires a school to submit the
school safety plan to the school district or COE for approval
and requires the school district or COE to annually notify the
SDE of any schools that have not complied with the requirement
to develop a school safety plan.
3)K-12 Mandate Block Grant . The 2012-13 Budget Act created the
K-12 Mandate Block Grant. A school district, charter school,
or COE may choose to receive a per-pupil allocation to conduct
existing K-12 mandated activities, including those related to
Comprehensive School Safety Plans. If the district, charter
school, or COE chooses to receive this allocation it forfeits
its ability to claim mandate reimbursement via the existing
state process. The advantage of the block grant is that it
provides school districts with annual funding versus waiting
to receive full payment under the existing claims process,
which the state has deferred paying for a number of years.
The number of LEAs filing K-12 mandate claims has been
significantly reduced with the enactment of the K-12 Mandate
Block Grant. A total of 1828 LEAs, or 91%, chose to receive
block grant funding for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
Prior to the 2012-13 Fiscal Year (FY), the annual cost of
the existing school safety plan mandate was approximately $5
million GF/98.
4)Prior legislation .
AB 1264
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AB 680 (Block), Chapter 438, Statutes of 2011, authorizes a
school district or COE, in consultation with law enforcement
officials, to choose not to have its schoolsite council
develop and write those portions of its comprehensive school
safety plan that include tactical responses to criminal
incidents that may result in death or serious bodily injury
at the schoolsite and instead authorizes school district and
COE administrators to write those portions of the school
safety plan.
Analysis Prepared by : Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081