2005 California Education Code Sections 32296-32296.10 Article 6. School Community Policing

32296.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) Many of California's public schools and their surrounding
communities are experiencing crime and violence to a degree that
makes it difficult for pupils and staff to feel safe.
   (b) During the 1996-97 school year, school districts and county
offices of education reported a total of 21,947 crimes against
persons, 19,876 drug and alcohol offenses, 25,718 property crimes
costing schools over twenty-two million six hundred thousand dollars
($22,600,000), and 8,787 other crimes .
   (c) Schools need assistance in carrying out their constitutional
mandate to provide safe environments to educate our children.
   (d) Schools also need assistance in ensuring safe passage for
pupils to and from school and in securing the school campus from
outside criminal activity and disturbances.
   (e) A school community policing approach to school safety, modeled
after community policing principles, offers an effective strategy
for using proactive problem solving and school law enforcement
partnerships to address the causes of crime and fear as well as other
safe school issues in the school and its surrounding community.
   (f) Partnerships among schools, law enforcement, and their
communities provide a positive support system for schools in
addressing safe school issues.
   (g) Collaboration by school-law enforcement-community partnerships
results in strategic approaches to meet the unique needs of the
school community.
32296.1.  (a) This article may be known and cited as the School
Community Policing Partnership Act of 1998.  The purpose of this
article is to provide financial assistance to school districts and
county offices of education to ensure safe, secure, and peaceful
school campuses as guaranteed by the California Constitution through
the use of a community policing approach to school crime and safety
issues.
   (b) The School Community Policing Partnership Grant Program, which
is hereby established, shall be administered by the State Department
of Education through the School/Law Enforcement Partnership
established pursuant to Section 32262.  With respect to this program,
the partnership shall do all of the following:
   (1) Develop application criteria and procedures for local
education agencies pursuant to the provisions of this article.
   (2) Award grants to school districts, county offices of education,
or a consortium of school districts and county offices of education.
   (3) Evaluate the effectiveness of the funded projects.
   (4) Report biennially to the Legislature and Governor on the
results of the program.
32296.3.  "School community policing" means an approach to safe
schools that is founded on developing positive relationships between
law enforcement and the school community in which (1) schools, law
enforcement, community agencies, and the members of the surrounding
school community collaboratively develop long-term, proactive
approaches and systems to address the underlying conditions that
affect the level of school safety; and (2) law enforcement becomes an
integral facet of the school community with highly trained law
enforcement officers having a visible and active presence on and
around school campuses. "School community policing" also involves
highly trained law enforcement officers working with pupils during
and after school, providing opportunities for pupils' active
involvement in positive activities.  It also involves teaching pupils
skills and providing them with a consistent system of recognition
and reinforcement of positive behavior.
32296.4.  Grants under the School Community Policing Partnership
Grant Program shall be awarded on a competitive basis to school
districts, county offices of education, or a consortium of school
districts and county offices of education to develop and implement a
plan that demonstrates a collaborative and integrated approach
between the grant recipients and local law enforcement agencies for
implementing a system of providing safe and secure environments.
Local education agencies applying for grants under this article shall
demonstrate that their proposed program adheres to the definition
and principles of school community policing as set forth in this
article.
32296.5.  Applicants for funds under the School Community Policing
Partnership Grant Program shall demonstrate how their program's
overall design addresses the definition of school community policing
by describing how their programs will do all of the following:
   (a) Form school-law enforcement-community partnerships to prevent
and respond to crime and violence in the school environment.
   (b) Employ a proactive problem-solving process to accomplish all
of the following:
   (1) Identify problems through coordinated needs assessments,
including the use of the results of the California Safe Schools
Assessment pursuant to Section 628.2 of the Penal Code.
   (2) Analyze in a thorough manner information concerning the
problems.
   (3) Develop responses that are innovative and tailormade with the
best potential for eliminating or reducing the problems.
   (4) Evaluate the responses to determine their effectiveness and
modify them as necessary.
32296.6.  (a) School community policing partnerships funded pursuant
to this article shall demonstrate how their program will address the
following:
   (1) Identify the school communities that face a significant public
safety risk of crime including, but not limited to, gang activity,
daylight burglary, late-night robbery, vandalism, truancy, controlled
substance sales, firearm related violence, and juvenile alcohol use.
   (2) Develop information and intelligence sharing systems to ensure
that actions by school districts and county offices of education are
fully coordinated with local law enforcement agencies.
   (3) Identify outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the
program that shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, each
of the following:
   (A) The rate of drug and alcohol-related offenses on the school
campus.
   (B) The rate of crimes against persons on the school campus.
   (C) The rate of crimes against property on the school campus.
   (D) Incidence of pupils in possession of firearms or other weapons
on the school campus.
   (E) The rates of school attendance and truancy.
   (4) Increase understanding and trust between police, the school,
and community members.
   (5) Include an ongoing commitment to developing long-term and
proactive programs and strategies to address the underlying
conditions that cause school and community problems.
   (6) Include knowledge of available school and community resources
and how to access and mobilize them, as well as the ability to
develop new resources within the school and community.
   (7) Include sustained personal commitment of the top management of
law enforcement and other local government agencies, as well as from
all other levels of management and key personnel.
   (b) Applicants for grants under the School Community Policing
Partnership Grant Program shall demonstrate how the plan will be
sustained after the grant period has expired.
32296.7.  The School/Law Enforcement Partnership shall award grants
to a school district, county office of education, or a consortium to
pay the costs of establishing and operating, on behalf of one or more
qualifying schools within the school district, county office of
education, or consortium, programs that apply a community policing
approach to school crime and safety, as follows:
   (a) Grants may be awarded to school districts, county offices of
education, or consortia that have demonstrated readiness to begin
operation of a program or to expand existing programs.  Grants shall
supplement, not supplant, existing programs.
   (b) Grants shall be awarded for no more than three hundred
thousand dollars ($300,000) for the three-year grant period.
   (c) Recipients of grants may also receive one-time startup grants,
in addition to the base grant, that may be used, among other things,
for purchasing equipment, hiring staff, designing a program
evaluation, or hiring a program or evaluation consultant.  Startup
grants shall be awarded for not more than one hundred thousand
dollars ($100,000).
   (d) All grants awarded under this article shall be matched by the
participating local educational agency or consortium and its
cooperating agencies with one dollar ($1) for each four dollars ($4)
awarded.  The match shall be contributed in cash or as services or
resources of comparable value.  It is the intent of the Legislature
that participants seek and utilize funds or resources for this
purpose.  The School/Law Enforcement Partnership may waive the match
requirement upon verifying that the local educational agency or
consortium made a substantial effort to secure a match but was unable
to secure the required match.
   (e) Pursuant to this article, the School/Law Enforcement
Partnership shall award competitive grants to school districts and
county offices of education or consortia in urban, suburban, and
rural areas of northern, central, and southern California.
   (f) Grants shall be awarded for programs that demonstrate the
greatest need and meet the criteria for the program pursuant to
Section 32296.5 for a school safety grant under this article.  The
School/Law Enforcement Partnership shall consider the latest school
crime data for the school or schools in which the program will
operate when determining that need.
   (g) Commencing in the 1998-99 fiscal year, and each subsequent
year for which funding is available, grants shall be awarded
according to the following schedule:
   (1) The School/Law Enforcement Partnership shall issue requests
for applications on or before November 1.
   (2) Grant applications shall be submitted to the School/Law
Enforcement Partnership on or before March 1.
   (3) The School/Law Enforcement Partnership shall award grants on
or before May 15.
32296.8.  Nothing in this article may be construed to require a
school district or a county office of education to hire police
officers as a condition of receiving a grant under the School
Community Policing Partnership Grant Program.  Grant funds may not be
used to provide funding for school resource officer positions in
existence on or before January 1, 2003.
32296.9.  It is the intent of the Legislature that funding for the
School Community Policing Partnership Grant Program established
pursuant to this article shall be provided through the annual Budget
Act and that grants shall be for a period of three years.
32296.10.  This article shall become inoperative on July 1, 2007,
and, as of January 1, 2008, is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute that is enacted before January 1, 2008, deletes or extends
the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.