(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) The educational mission of schools may be thwarted when school campuses are not safe, secure, and peaceful.

(2) Effective school management can improve school safety and decrease violence and criminal behavior.

(3) In many school districts and neighborhoods, violence and criminal behavior are increasingly frequent.

(4) Teachers and other educators who are well prepared in principles of school safety may be able to mitigate, to some degree, the detrimental behavior of pupils and others on school campuses.

(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature that a comprehensive school safety plan be established pursuant to Section 35294.1 in order to achieve safe, secure, and peaceful school campuses. It is the further intent of the Legislature that the Commission on Teacher Credentialing adopt standards that address the principles of school safety in the preparation of future classroom teachers, school administrators, school counselors, and other pupil personnel service providers as a condition for licensing these prospective practitioners.

(c) Standards adopted by the commission pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 44259, and pursuant to Sections 44266, 44270, 44277, and 44372, shall include the effective preparation of prospective classroom teachers, school administrators, school counselors, and other pupil personnel service providers in principles of school safety. In developing these standards, the commission shall consider, but is not limited to considering, the following principles of school safety:

(1) School management skills that emphasize crisis intervention and conflict resolution.

(2) Developing and maintaining a positive and safe school climate, including methods to prevent the possession of weapons on school campuses.

(3) Developing school safety plans.

(4) Developing ways to identify and defuse situations that may lead to conflict or violence.

(d) In developing standards relating to school safety, the commission shall consider the findings and recommendations of an advisory panel of experts on school violence.

(e) The commission shall allow an institution of postsecondary education to meet the standards developed by the commission relating to school safety by incorporating the principles of school safety in the program required by paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 44259.

(f) Implementation of subdivision (b) of this section as it applies to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 44259 shall occur in conjunction with the review of requirements for earning and renewing multiple and single subject teaching credentials, as required by Section 44259.3.

(g) Instruction in principles of school safety shall be required of all candidates for credentials specified in Sections 44259, 44266, and 44270.

(h) A credential that was issued prior to January 1, 1994, shall remain in force as long as it is valid under the laws and regulations that were in effect on the date it was issued. The commission may not, by regulation, invalidate an otherwise valid credential, unless it issues to the holder of the credential, in substitution, a new credential authorized by another provision in this chapter that is no less restrictive than the credential for which it was substituted with respect to the kind of service authorized and the grades, classes, or types of schools in which it authorizes service.

(i) Notwithstanding this section, persons who were performing teaching, administrative, counseling, or other pupil personnel services as of January 1, 1994, pursuant to the language of this chapter that was in effect prior to that date, may continue to perform those services without complying with any requirements added by the amendments adding this section.

(j) The commission shall grant credentials based on the requirements for those credentials as of December 31, 1993, to candidates who, prior to the effective date of the commission’s adoption of standards pursuant to this section, were in the process of meeting those credential requirements.

(Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 423, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2004.)