(a) It is a goal of the Legislature to eventually enhance pupil safety by equipping all elementary and secondary school classrooms with a telephone hook connected to a public switched network.

(b) The Legislature finds and declares that as of 1999, there are approximately 205,000 classrooms in California’s elementary and secondary schools and only a small, undetermined percentage of these classrooms have telephones. The Legislature finds and declares that in order to protect the safety of pupils, schools should be integrated into local emergency, information, and interagency health and safety, networks with up-to-date telecommunications systems. Connection to these systems would also facilitate community and parent interaction with teachers and schools, and thereby further enhance pupil safety.

(c) “School building” as used in this section means and includes any building used, or designed to be used, for elementary or secondary school purposes and constructed, reconstructed, altered, or added to, by the state or by any city or city and county, or by any political subdivision, or by any school district of any kind within the state, or by any regional occupational center or program, established by or authorized to act by any agreement under joint exercise of power, or by the United States government, or any agency thereof. This definition includes any fabrication, construction, or alteration of a relocatable school building.

(d) Commencing with applications submitted on or after January 1, 2000, any school district applying for funding pursuant to this chapter shall include in its plans and specifications for the construction or fabrication of a new or modernized school building, that includes the construction or fabrication of new or modernized classrooms, a hard-wired connection to a public switched telephone network in each new or modernized classroom. However, a school district may meet this requirement by utilizing wireless technology equal to a hard-wired connection to a public switched telephone network.

(Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 709, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2000.)