The After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002, an initiative statute approved by the voters as Proposition 49 at the November 5, 2002, statewide general election, establishes the After School Education and Safety Program under which participating public schools receive grants to operate before and after school programs serving pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 9, inclusive. The act provides that each school establishing a program pursuant to the act is eligible to receive a renewable 3-year grant for before or after school programs, as provided, and a grant for operating a program beyond 180 regular schooldays or during summer, weekend, intersession, or vacation periods, as provided. The act specifies maximum grant amounts and daily per-pupil funding rates for determining a school's total annual grant amount. The act requires an amount not to exceed $550,000,000 to be continuously appropriated to the State Department of Education from the General Fund in each fiscal year for purposes of the program, and provides that nothing prohibits the Legislature from appropriating funds in excess of that amount for the program.
This bill would declare that its implementation is subject to the enactment of an appropriation for its purposes in the Budget Act or another statute. The bill would, commencing with increases to the minimum wage implemented during the 2020–21 fiscal year, require the Department of Finance to increase the total funding amount for the program by adding an amount necessary to fund an increase in the daily per-pupil rate equal to the higher of either 50% of specified increases to the minimum wage or the percentage increase to the California Consumer Price Index. The bill would require the State Department of Education to increase the maximum grant amounts and daily per-pupil funding rates in accordance with the total amount appropriated for the program in the 2019–20 fiscal year, and in each fiscal year thereafter.