Manuel Pérez Bills Signed by Governor
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- Created on Friday, 21 September 2012 22:17
- Written by IVN
Sacramento, California - Two bills authored by Assemblymember V. Manuel Pérez (D-Coachella) were signed into law this week by Governor Brown.
AB 232, Regulatory Streamlining of the Community Development Block Grant program (Chapter 386, Statutes of 2012), scales back some of the state rules governing the small cities component of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Specifically, it removes state requirements that are more restrictive than those in federal law, enabling small and rural communities to access the broadest range of eligible projects under the federal program. In doing so, the new law will help facilitate access to funding for financially intensive activities to help small and rural communities tackle their most challenging community development problems and put people back to work.
“California's small and rural communities were on an uneven playing field, having to comply with less flexible program rules as compared to larger urban areas,” explained Pérez. “This new law broadens the range of eligible projects under which our small and rural communities may seek funding through the federal CDBG program to address unique job creation and community development challenges.”
The federal CDBG Program was established in 1974 within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the purpose providing community development resources to local governments.
AB 2537, Mandated Student Discipline Policies (Chapter 431, Statutes of 2012), helps keep students in school by making clarifications to the state’s mandated student discipline policies, providing some limited discretion to administrators to consider alternatives to suspension and expulsion for certain student offenses.
“Rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach, this new law empowers school administrators with some limited authority to consider the facts of certain student offenses and to use alternatives to expulsion and suspension if they would better address the situation,” said Pérez. “This new law will keep kids in school and learning, while ensuring a safe environment.”
In the 2009-2010 school year, more than 750,000 “zero tolerance”-based punishments were given. Studies have repeatedly shown that when a student is suspended or expelled from school for a low level offense he or she is more likely to drop out or enter the juvenile justice system.
Both bills will go into effect on January 1, 2013.