AB 2570: School facilities: Clean and Healthy Schools Act: environmentally preferable cleaning and cleaning maintenance products.

Existing law requires the governing board of any school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in cooperation with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations, to formulate a listing of chemical compounds used in school programs that includes the potential hazards and estimated shelf life of each compound.

This bill would create the Clean and Healthy Schools Act, and would make findings and declarations regarding indoor air quality and cleaning products. The bill would require school districts and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools with 50 or more pupils, local educational agencies, defined as school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, with more than 2,500 units of average daily attendance, by the 202122 school year, or when it is economically feasible, to purchase exclusively environmentally preferable cleaning and cleaning maintenance products, as specified. The bill would require local educational agencies with 2,500 or fewer units of average daily attendance to comply with this requirement by the 202324 school year, or when it is economically feasible. The bill would exempt from its requirements schools of a school district or county office of education, and charter schools, with fewer than 250 pupils. The bill would require a school district or school local educational agency that determines that it is not economically feasible to purchase those products to submit a letter indicating that it will not purchase those products to the State Department of Education and the governing board or body of the school district or governing body of the nonpublic elementary or secondary school, local educational agency, annually, until it determines that it is economically feasible to comply with the requirements described above. The bill would also require the department to post on its Internet Web site any letter or explanation submitted to it pursuant to that requirement and information to assist school districts and schools local educational agencies in complying with these provisions. Because this bill would require school districts local educational agencies to perform new duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.