In October 1999, AB 300 (Corbett) was chaptered. (The text of the bill is included in the AB 300 report as Appendix A.) It added Section 17317 to the California Education Code.
The law required the Department of General Services (DGS) to survey the state's kindergarten through grade 12 school buildings. Community college buildings were not involved. The purpose of the report was to provide lawmakers with an overview of the scope of the seismic safety challenge these structures represented, and to quantify the problem so that informed, cost-effective decisions could be made to address the issue.
The survey focused on buildings constructed before the 1976 California Building Code (CBC) went into effect, since that edition of the CBC incorporated more stringent seismic safety standards. Also, the survey dealt only with buildings in use and occupied by students and teachers. Wood frame buildings were not surveyed since wood frame buildings are expected to do well in an earthquake. The survey divided the remaining buildings into two categories, depending on the structural system employed in their construction (these systems are explained in Appendix B of the final report):
- Category 1 - Building types that are likely to perform well and are expected (but not guaranteed) to achieve life-safety performance in an earthquake.
- Category 2 - Building types not expected to perform as well as Category 1 in an earthquake, which require detailed seismic evaluation to determine if they can achieve life-safety performance.
The law also required DGS to submit a report of its findings to the Legislature.
On November 15, 2002, the AB 300 Report, titled "Seismic Safety Inventory of California Public Schools" (PDF - 254 KB) was released, which presented and analyzed the findings of the survey.
The AB 300 List (PDF - 4.41 MB) includes information by District, then by School name, Application number and finally by building number. The list shows the status of each building, as currently known.
School District Action
Districts are able to determine the expected seismic safety performance of any buildings in their district by means of a detailed seismic evaluation.
Districts may submit a form DSA 300 (PDF - 42 KB) for any changed or added buildings. If the status of any building has changed, the district may submit a hard copy of the AB 300 list pages showing those buildings with a check in the appropriate box.