SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) In 1999, the Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 1475 (Chapter 663, Statutes of 1999), which established the state-administered Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program. California was the first state in the country to create a state safe routes to school program, thereby demonstrating its commitment and investment to safe and healthy children.

(b) In 2007, the passage of Assembly Bill 57 (Chapter 673, Statutes of 2007) extended the SR2S program indefinitely. To date, the SR2S program has awarded $243.5 million for local projects.

(c) Since its creation, the SR2S program has improved safety for child pedestrians and bicyclists, encouraged children to lead healthy and active lifestyles, and has facilitated projects that reduce traffic congestion, fuel consumption, and air pollution.

(d) The Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Federal Highway Administration, is responsible for the administration of the program. Specifically, the department is required to make grants available to local governmental agencies based on the results of a statewide competition. The rating of grant proposals is guided by factors outlined both in statute and within program guidelines.

(e) In an effort to improve the SR2S program and the implementation of the grant awards, the department has, over the years, made guideline and scoring modifications with recommendations from an informal advisory committee. Recently, the department has expanded its commitment to supporting low-resource schools by contracting with the State Department of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco, to evaluate the demographics of SR2S-funded communities and identify barriers in accessing SR2S funds.

(f) In recent years, in anticipation of the appropriation of billions of dollars of federal transportation infrastructure funding, national, state, and local organizations, and federal, state, and local elected officials have coalesced around the question of equitable development and equitable funding, initiating a critical dialogue, at the state and federal levels, about how transportation funds should be spent and how those expenditures will benefit disadvantaged communities.

(g) Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a strong interest in the SR2S program as “a critical program in the fight against obesity.” The Governor is also interested in identifying ways to actively engage low-income communities to increase their participation in the SR2S program and their receipt of funding. To accomplish this goal, the Governor, in a letter to the department dated February 24, 2010, has asked for the department to determine the socioeconomic status of past and current SR2S participants and the appropriate level of participation among these applicants, and to review other Safe Routes to School programs to determine how they have been effective in securing high participation levels from low socioeconomic status communities. Based on its findings, the Governor has directed the department to adapt the SR2S program to “funding priorities and criteria to increase participation in SR2S among low socioeconomic status, disadvantaged schools and communities.”

(h) As the department implements the Governor’s directives and makes improvement to the guidelines and application rubric, it is incumbent on the state to have these program improvements codified and make necessary changes to the law to ensure the commitment to equitable access to the SR2S program remains constant.