The Legislature finds and declares as follows:

(a) By an urgency act (Stats. 1933, Ch. 59), the Legislature at the 1933 General Session established reasonable minimum standards for the design and construction of new school buildings, as now defined in Section 17283. Although it was not required that then existing school buildings incorporate these standards, it was intended by the Legislature that in the intervening years continuous progress would be made in the repair, reconstruction or replacement of such school buildings.

(b) Progress toward this end has been outstanding since 1971 as a result of state funds being made available for rehabilitating or replacing structurally unsafe school facilities.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 277, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative January 1, 1998.)