Bill Text: CA AB630 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Pupil safety: bullying.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-01 - Died pursuant to Art. IV, Sec. 10(c) of the Constitution. From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB630 Detail]

Download: California-2011-AB630-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 630	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Hueso

                        FEBRUARY 16, 2011

   An act to add Article 1.4 (commencing with Section 32204) to
Chapter 2 of Part 19 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code,
relating to pupil safety.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 630, as introduced, Hueso. Pupil safety: bullying.
   Existing law establishes the School Safety and Violence Prevention
Act, a statewide program administered by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, pursuant to which funds are allocated to school
districts serving pupils in any of grades 8 to 12, inclusive, for the
purpose of promoting school safety and reducing schoolsite violence,
including, but not limited to, providing conflict resolution
personnel, providing on-campus communication devices, establishing
staff training programs, and establishing cooperative arrangements
with law enforcement agencies.
   This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to encourage
school districts to establish programs, to be implemented throughout
the year and integrated either into the regular curriculum or
through separate instruction, to reduce bullying through training and
best practice methodologies involving collaboration among pupils,
parents, and school staff. The bill would declare the intent of the
Legislature that the training encouraged by the bill should help
pupils identify different forms of bullying behavior, and should
create a school environment where pupils know that reports of
bullying will be properly handled and that the confidentiality of
their statements will be respected. The bill would also express the
intent of the Legislature that training include school administrators
and teachers, parents, pupils, and anyone else who is in frequent
contact with children, and cultivate positive behaviors that can
create a bully-free learning community in each school.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Article 1.4 (commencing with Section 32204) is added to
Chapter 2 of Part 19 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code,
to read:

      Article 1.4.  Bullying


   32204.  It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage school
districts to establish programs, to be implemented throughout the
year and integrated either into the regular curriculum or through
separate instruction, to reduce bullying through training and best
practice methodologies involving collaboration among pupils, parents,
and school staff, in accordance with all of the following:
   (a) Training should educate pupils to increase their awareness of
bullying and to create a school environment that empowers parents,
school staff and administration, and pupils to prevent and manage
bullying at their schools. This training should have three main
goals:
   (1) To help pupils identify different forms of bullying behavior,
which include physical, verbal, psychological, and electronic
bullying.
   (2) To create a school environment where pupils know that reports
of bullying will be properly handled, so that pupils who are either
targets of bullying or bystanders will freely report incidents of
bullying when it is necessary.
   (3) To build trust so that pupils will feel that the
confidentiality of statements they intend to keep private will be
respected.
   (b) Training should include school administrators and teachers,
parents, and pupils, and anyone else who is in frequent contact with
children. The training should promote awareness of bullying, as well
as kindness, communication, cooperation, and friendship while
stressing empathy for all pupils. Each school district may develop a
training curriculum that fits its specific needs.
   (c) Training should essentially foster key educational building
blocks to build a positive school climate, address and prevent
bullying behavior in California schools, create an awareness and
encourage discussion of the bullying problem as a school community,
and cultivate the positive behaviors that can create a bully-free
learning community in each school.