AB 312

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law requires school districts and county offices of education to be responsible for the overall development of comprehensive school safety plans for its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires the schoolsite council, or the school safety committee if so designated, to consult with a representative from a law enforcement agency, a fire department, and other first responder entities in the writing and development of the comprehensive school safety plan, and requires the comprehensive school safety plan and any updates to the plan to be shared with the law enforcement agency, the fire department, and the other first responder entities. Existing law requires the school safety plan to include, among other things, procedures for conducting tactical responses to criminal incidents. This bill would establish the School Safety Division within the State Department of Education for purposes of administering the Sate-To-Tell Program, which the bill would also establish. The bill would require the program to be administered by the Director of School Safety, who would be appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and who would be authorized to hire staff as appropriate. The bill would also establish the Safe-To-Tell Program Advisory Committee within the School Safety Division and would require the committee to annually report to the Governor and the Legislature, on or before December 31, specified information relating to the program. The bill would establish the Safe-To-Tell Account in the General Fund for purposes of implementing this chapter, and would require funds in the account to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only for purposes of this chapter. The bill would provide that appropriations from the account shall not count towards satisfying the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution. The bill would require the Director of School Safety to implement the program consistent with specified requirements, including, among others, that any person be able to anonymously report any dangerous, violent, or unlawful activity that is being conducted or threatened to be conducted on the property of a local educational agency, as defined, at an activity sponsored by the local educational agency, or on a schoolbus of a local educational agency, and that the program operate a crisis call center, internet website, mobile telephone application, and email address for its purposes. The bill would require the crisis call center to be staffed by individuals with evidence-based counseling and crisis intervention training, to be operational 24 hours per day, every day of the year, and to support and help facilitate a coordinated response by schools, public safety dispatchers, and sworn law enforcement agents to an identified crisis when such a response is to be reasonably expected. The bill would require all information received by the program to be strictly confidential and would require the School Safety Division to develop specified policies and procedures, including policies and procedures that ensure that if a report filed with the program is determined by the director to be a false report, information about the subject of the false report is immediately removed from the subject pupil's record, if they are a pupil, including records held by the local educational agency and an individual school, and that the director shall notify any law enforcement agencies previously notified of the report. The bill would require law enforcement agencies notified by the director to remove the report from any records on the subject, unless the report is part of an active criminal investigation. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies and local law enforcement agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require each local educational agency to establish school-based teams of at least 3 members of the administrative staff at each of its schools for purposes of receiving notice of any report submitted to the program concerning a respective school. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the School Safety Division to maintain a list of points of contact for each school-based team, local law enforcement dispatch, and law enforcement agencies, and to develop and provide training relating to the program, as specified. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.