Schools: safety.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to establish a security department under the supervision of a chief of security or a police department under the supervision of a chief of police and under the direction of the superintendent of the school district. The governing board is authorized to employ personnel to ensure the safety of school district personnel and pupils and the security of the real and personal property of the school district. In addition, a school district is authorized to assign a school police reserve officer who is deputized to a schoolsite to supplement the duties of school police personnel. This bill would establish the Safe Schools Initiative, under which the Superintendent of Public Instruction would award grants to school districts with high schools located in areas with the highest crime rates. A grant recipient would be required to use funds awarded to employ at least one police officer to provide services at the high school or high schools in the school district that qualified the school district for the award. The grant program would be funded by a 0.025% augmentation of the vehicle license fee that would be imposed on vehicles with a market value of $50,000 or more. This bill would result in a change in state taxes for the purpose of increasing state revenues within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.