School safety programs: funding.

The School Safety Violence Protection Act establishes the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program, which is administered by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, for the purpose of providing grant funding and coordination of programs and strategies that promote school safety and emphasize violence prevention among children and youth in the public schools. Existing law establishes the school safety consolidated competitive grant, from which grant funds are distributed to school districts in order to carry out one or more purposes for which various specified school safety programs were established, including programs under the School Safety and Violence Prevention Strategy Program. Existing law authorizes a state agency to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and requires the department to issue specialized license plates for that program, if the state agency complies with specified requirements. This bill would require the State Department of Education to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the purpose of creating a specialized license plate program. The bill would require that the fees collected from the sale of the specialized license plates be deposited in the School Violence Prevention Fund, which the bill would establish, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated to the State Department of Education for purposes of carrying out those same school safety programs funded under the school safety consolidated competitive grant program, or as determined by the department for purposes of school violence prevention. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to consult with the Board of State and Community Corrections, the State Department of Social Services, and the State Department of Public Health on school violence prevention and intervention in order to carry out one or more of the purposes of those specified school safety programs.