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Health Care Reform Implementation

AB 516 (V.M. Perez)

Sponsor:

PolicyLink, TransForm, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation

Description:

AB 516, Safe Routes to School, requires Caltrans to prioritize disadvantaged communities and applicants to use a public process for selecting projects that apply for SR2S grants.

Since 1999, California has awarded $267.7 million in SR2S grants, helping provide the necessary infrastructure to encourage children to walk and bicycle to school. This has reduced the risks of childhood obesity while simultaneously it has created safer streets for pedestrians.

Last year, a report by the Technical Assistance and Resource Center (TARC), contracted by the Department of Transportation, found that low-income communities have received 44 percent of SR2S grants.  TARC further recommended that SR2S take steps to increase that number to 50 percent. 

AB 516 supports that goal by requiring the use of public participation processes that help to promote greater inclusion of community voices in the development of funding proposals.  It also safeguards disadvantaged communities by ensuring their needs are met when addressing the predominant health and safety concerns of that community.

CPEHN Position: Support

Status: Signed into Law!