Air pollution: schools.

(1) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for the construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding, and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition. This bill would authorize a grant for modernization under the act to be used to limit pupil exposure to harmful air pollutants by updating air filtration systems and would specify that this is declaratory of existing law. (2) The Air Toxics "Hot Spots" Information and Assessment Act of 1987 requires the State Air Resources Board to compile a list of substances that present a chronic or acute threat to public health when present in the ambient air, subjects certain facilities to the act according to a schedule, and requires the operator of a subject facility to prepare and submit to an air pollution control or air quality management district a proposed comprehensive emissions inventory plan, for approval by the air district. The act also requires the state board to prepare a statewide strategy to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants in communities identified as being affected by a high cumulative exposure burden, to select locations around the state for the preparation of community emissions reduction programs, and to provide grants to community-based organizations for technical assistance and to support community participation in the programs. The act requires an air district containing a selected location, within one year of the state board's selection, to adopt a community emissions reduction program. This bill would authorize schools and school districts located in communities with a high cumulative exposure burden, as identified as part of the statewide strategy to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants, to work with air districts to identify school sites in need of air quality improvements and to be eligible for a grant as part of a community emissions reduction program to implement air quality mitigation efforts, as specified.