Existing law, the Field Act, generally requires the Department of General Services to supervise the design and construction of, the reconstruction or alteration of, or the addition to, a school building to ensure, among other things, that plans and specifications comply with adopted rules and regulations and building standards, including those relating to seismic safety. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services, in cooperation with the State Department of Education, the Department of General Services, and the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission, to develop an educational pamphlet for use by school personnel to identify and mitigate the risks posed by nonstructural earthquake hazards.

This bill would require each school district, county office of education, and charter school, on or before January 1, 2020, to complete an inspection of the contents in areas that are accessible to or occupied by pupils in each of its school buildings located in an area of higher seismicity, as defined, to assess whether the contents in each area comply with the guidelines set forth in the pamphlet and to develop corrective actions to bring noncompliant contents into compliance with the published guidelines. The bill would require, within 60 days of completing the inspection for each area within a school building, that a checklist of compliant and noncompliant contents be reported to the governing board of the school district, the county board of education, or the governing body of the charter school, as applicable, with a prioritization of noncompliant items that threaten the safety of pupils and school personnel and a set of recommended corrective actions to bring high-priority noncompliant contents into compliance with the published guidelines. By imposing additional duties on local educational agency officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Department of Conservation, on or before February 1, 2017, to post instructions or a hyperlink on its Internet Web site on how to determine whether a school district, county office of education, or charter school building is located in an area of higher seismicity. The bill would make implementation of these provisions contingent upon funding being provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute.

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 these statutory provisions.