BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1390|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1390
Author: Havice (D), et al
Amended: 8/25/00 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-3, 5/17/00
AYES: Alpert, Alarcon, Hayden, Hughes, O'Connell, Ortiz,
Sher, Vasconcellos
NOES: McPherson, Knight, Monteith
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-5, 8/23/00
AYES: Johnston, Alpert, Burton, Escutia, Karnette, Perata,
Vasconcellos
NOES: Johnson, Kelley, Leslie, McPherson, Mountjoy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-21, 1/27/00 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Pupils: violence prevention
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill establishes the Bullying Prevention
Grant Program for grades 5 and 6, and appropriates $150,000
to the State Department of Education for the purpose of
implementing the program.
ANALYSIS : Two major school safety acts were approved by
the Legislature in 1999. They are summarized below.
SB 334 (Alpert) - The School Safety and Violence Protection
Act
CONTINUED
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In 1999 the Legislature enacted and the Governor approved
SB 334 (Alpert; Chapter 996, Statutes of 1999), the "No
More Victims' Violence Prevention and School Safety 2000
Strategy." Contained within SB 334 were numerous
provisions relative to school safety and juvenile justice.
The school safety provisions, known as the "School Safety
Violence Protection Act," contained the following elements:
1. School safety plans.
A.Requires all schools, including new schools, to have
school safety plans.
B.Requires existing plans to be reviewed every year.
C.Requires that the status of such plans, and their key
elements, be included in the annual school
accountability report card distributed to parents.
D.Deletes the sunset clauses on various provisions of
the school safety plan law.
1. Requires coordination and cooperation by the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the
Attorney General of existing school safety and violence
protection programs.
A.Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985.
B.School Safety Plans Act.
C.School Community Policing Act.
1. Expands the school safety and violence protection
elements of support for which schools and school
districts may apply.
A.Provision of counselors and other support services.
B.Effective and accessible communication devices.
C.In-service programs for all school staff.
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D.Cooperative relationships with local law enforcement.
E.Any other proposal that schools and school districts
design to meet the goals and objectives of current law
in providing safe schools and violence prevention
among children and youth.
1. Requires an evaluation of programs established and
funded pursuant to the act, with annual reports to the
Legislature.
2. Requires SPI to establish appropriate rules and
regulations to implement the act.
3. Appropriated $5 million to fund competitive grants
appropriated under the act for grades kindergarten
through 7, inclusive.
Although Governor Davis signed SB 334, he line
item-vetoed the $5 million appropriation, so that the
act was not implemented, thus providing no 1999-2000
fiscal year funding for kindergarten and grades 1 to 7,
inclusive.
The Carl Washington School Safety and Violence Prevention
Act
Also in 1999, AB 1113 (Florez; Chapter 51, Statutes of
1999), a trailer bill to the 1999 Budget Act, established
the School Safety Violence Protection Act (SSVPA) for
grades 8 to 12, inclusive. An appropriation of $100
million was provided in the 1999 Budget Act to fund the
program.
Assembly Bill 658 (Washington; Chapter 645, Statutes of
1999), subsequently renamed the SSVPA to the "Carl
Washington School Safety and Violence Protection Act"
(CWSSVPA), authorized county offices of education to
participate in the CWSSVPA, and appropriated $1 million for
county offices to participate.
The funds appropriated for the CWSSVPA are allocated by SPI
to school districts on the basis of enrollment, and
requires a minimum allocation of $5,000 for each
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schoolsite, or a minimum of $10,000 for each school
district, whichever is greater. The funds are required to
be used for one or more of the following:
1. Providing schools with personnel, including but not
limited to, licensed or certificated school counselors,
school social workers, school nurses, and school
psychologists, who are trained in conflict resolution.
Requires any law enforcement personnel hired pursuant to
this act to be a trained and sworn peace officers.
2. Providing effective and accessible on-campus
communication devices and other school infrastructure
needs.
3. Establishing an in-service training program for school
staff to learn to identify at-risk students, to
communicate effectively with those students, and to
refer those students to appropriate counseling.
4. Establishing cooperative arrangements with local law
enforcement agencies for appropriate school-community
relationships.
5. For any other purpose that the school or school district
determines would contribute to providing safe schools
and preventing violence among students.
This bill establishes the Bullying Prevention Grant Program
(BPGP) for grades 5 and 6, and appropriates $150,000 to the
State Department of Education (SDE)for the purpose of
implementing the program. Specifically, this bill:
1. Establishes BPGP for grades 5 and 6. School districts
with jurisdiction over schools maintaining grades 5 and
6 may apply to SDE for a grant to implement a two-year
bullying prevention program, subject to an appropriation
being made for this purpose.
2. Requires SPI to develop criteria by which grant
recipients will be selected. The SPI is to develop and
maintain guidelines for bullying prevention programs.
3. Provides that the amount of a grant is $5000 for a
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two-year program. Grant funds are to be expended to
implement a locally designed program or to purchase
existing bullying prevention materials and programs.
4. Requires SDE to report by January 1, 2003 on the overall
effectiveness of the grant program.
5. Appropriates $150,000 from the general Fund to the SDE
for awarding 30 $5,000 grants pursuant to BPGP.
Comments
There are 943 school districts eligible (jurisdiction over
grades 5 and 6) to apply for one of 30 grants made
available by this bill.
Need for the bill . In materials provided by the author,
news articles and research papers discuss at some length
the impact of bullying in school, and that a bill such as
this provides schools and school districts with the
opportunity to focus efforts to reduce the impact of
bullying in the pupil population.
What do we know about bullying ? In materials provided by
the author, researchers who have studied bullying have
reached the following conclusions:
1. About 10 percent to 15 percent of children say they are
regularly bullied.
2. Bullying takes place most frequently in school.
3. At school, bullying occurs most often where there is
little or no adult supervision -- on the playground, in
the hallways and cafeteria, and in the classroom before
lessons begin.
4. Most bullying is verbal rather than physical.
5. Bullying begins in elementary school, peaks in middle
school, and falls off in high school. It does not,
however, disappear altogether.
6. Boys bully both boys and girls. Girls tend to bully
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girls.
7. Although boys are more often the perpetrators and
victims of bullying, girls tend to bully in more
indirect ways, manipulating friendships, ostracizing
classmates, and spreading malicious rumors.
8. Both bullies and onlookers tend to blame the victims for
the treatment they receive.
9. Although most victims don't look very different from
their classmates, they are taunted most often because of
their physical appearance.
10.Boys who are chronically victimized tend to be more
passive and physically weaker than their tormentors. In
Middle school, girls who mature early are commonly
victims of harassment.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
Appropriates $150,000 from the General Fund to SDE.
SUPPORT : (Unable to verify due to time constraints)
Long Beach Unified School District
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Alquist, Battin, Bock, Cardenas, Cardoza, Cedillo,
Corbett, Correa, Cunneen, Davis, Dutra, Firebaugh,
Florez, Frusetta, Gallegos, Havice, Hertzberg, Honda,
Jackson, Keeley, Knox, Kuehl, Leach, Lempert, Longville,
Lowenthal, Machado, Maldonado, Mazzoni, Migden, Nakano,
Robert Pacheco, Rod Pacheco, Papan, Pescetti, Reyes,
Romero, Scott, Shelley, Soto, Steinberg, Strom-Martin,
Thomson, Vincent, Washington, Wayne, Wesson, Wiggins,
Wildman, Wright, Zettel, Villaraigosa
NOES: Aanestad, Ackerman, Ashburn, Baldwin, Baugh, Brewer,
Campbell, Cox, Dickerson, Granlund, House, Kaloogian,
Leonard, Maddox, Margett, McClintock, Olberg, Oller,
Runner, Strickland, Thompson
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NC:sl 8/27/00 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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