(1) Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on specified protected characteristics.
This bill would require the department to assess whether the local educational agency has provided certificated schoolsite employees who serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, information on existing schoolsite and community resources related to the support of pupils who may face bias or bullying on the basis of those characteristics. The bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has prominently and conspicuously displayed the policy at each schoolsite and local educational agency office and on the local educational agency's internet website, as provided.
(2) Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from refusing to approve or prohibiting the use of any textbook, instructional material, or other curriculum or any book or other resource in a school library on the basis that it includes a study of the role and contributions of culturally and racially diverse groups.
This bill would prohibit the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from adopting or approving the use of any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or curriculum if its use would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination, as specified. The bill would authorize any person to file a complaint of an alleged violation with the local educational agency using the uniform complaint process or directly with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. If the Superintendent determines that a local educational agency has violated that prohibition and has not taken corrective action within 60 days, the bill would authorize the department to use any means authorized to effect compliance. The bill would require the assessment of a specified financial penalty on a local educational agency found by the Superintendent to have violated the prohibition, as provided.
(3) Existing law requires a county board of education, on or before July 1 of each fiscal year, to adopt an annual budget for the budget year and file the budget with the Superintendent, the county board of supervisors, and the county auditor. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the budget and, on or before September 15, approve or disapprove the budget, as specified, and in the event of a disapproval, transmit to the county office of education in writing the Superintendent's recommendations regarding revision of the budget and the reasons for those recommendations. Existing law requires the Superintendent to disapprove a budget if either the Superintendent has not approved a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to the LCAP filed by a county board of education, or if the Superintendent determines that the budget does not include the expenditures necessary to implement the LCAP or annual update to the LCAP. Under existing law, in the event of the disapproval of the budget of a county office of education, the county superintendent of schools and the county board of education are required, on or before October 8, to review and respond to the Superintendent's recommendations, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the revised budget to determine if it complies with the standards and criteria adopted by the State Board of Education for application to final local educational agency budgets and, on or before November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget.
This bill would revise and recast these provisions by, among other things, additionally authorizing the Superintendent to conditionally approve the budget, and in the case of a conditional approval, requiring the Superintendent, county superintendent of schools, and county board of education to comply with the above-described processes related to budget revision recommendations, as provided. To the extent the bill imposes new duties on county offices of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would additionally require the Superintendent to examine the revised budget to determine if it allows the county office of education to meet its financial obligations during the fiscal year, satisfies all conditions established by the Superintendent in the case of a conditionally approved budget, and is consistent with a financial plan that will enable the county office of education to satisfy its multiyear financial commitments, and, not later than November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget.
(4) Existing law appropriates $2,836,660,000 in the 2021–22 fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to administer the California Community Schools Partnership Program and requires those funds to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2031.
This bill would extend the time those funds are available for encumbrance or expenditure by one year, thereby making an appropriation.
Existing law requires $2,694,827,000 of those funds to be allocated to establish new, and expand existing, community schools, as provided. Existing law requires up to 70% of that allocation to be available for implementation grants, as provided. Existing law requires at least 20% of that allocation to be available for extending implementation grants from 5 years to 7 years and requires those funds to be allocated beginning with the 2025–26 fiscal year, through the 2030–31 fiscal year, as provided.
This bill, among other things, would delay the allocation for extending implementation grants by one fiscal year. The bill would revise those provisions to instead require up to 72% of the funds to be available for implementation grants and at least 18% to be available for extending implementation grants, as provided. By revising the terms of a required allocation of previously appropriated moneys, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law requires the Superintendent to reserve adequate funding received for the program to preserve capacity for qualifying entities receiving planning grants to receive implementation grants, as provided.
This bill would expressly require those planning grantee applicants to also meet the implementation grant eligibility requirements, and beginning July 1, 2024, would require the Superintendent to prioritize awarding implementation grants to planning grantees, as provided.
(5) Existing law requires the Controller to draw warrants on the State Treasury throughout each year in specified amounts for purposes of apportioning funding to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools.
This bill would require warrants in the amount of $3,570,108,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2023–24 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year and warrants in the amount of $245,604,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2024–25 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year, except as provided. This bill would extend the deadline to encumber those funds from June 30, 2025, to July 31, 2025, thereby making an appropriation.
(6) Existing law requires the Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, to develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits, and, with representatives of other entities, to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies and to propose the content of an audit guide.
Existing law establishes the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) to, among other things, review the fiscal and administrative condition of any county office of education, school district, or charter school, as provided.
This bill would require the Controller to also consult with representatives from FCMAT to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies and to propose the content of an audit guide.
Existing law provides that there is no time limit for the commencement of actions for the recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault, as specified.
This bill would require FCMAT, on or before February 1, 2025, in consultation with appropriate subject matter experts, including, but not limited to, subject matter experts in risk management, public finance, labor, and bond financing, to provide recommendations, as specified, to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature and the Department of Finance on new, existing, or strengthened funding and financing mechanisms to finance judgments or settlements arising from claims of childhood sexual abuse, to be utilized by local agencies, as defined.
(7) Existing law requires FCMAT to, among other things, provide fiscal management assistance at the request of any school district, charter school, or county office of education, and requires each school district, charter school, or county office of education receiving that assistance to pay the onsite personnel costs and travel costs incurred by the unit for that purpose, as specified.
This bill would require each school district, charter school, or county office of education receiving that assistance to instead pay the personnel costs, regardless of whether they are onsite, and the travel costs incurred by the unit for that purpose, as specified.
(8) Existing law requires each school district and county office of education to develop a comprehensive school safety plan for each of its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires that the plan assess the current status of school crime and identify appropriate strategies and programs that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety, as specified.
This bill would additionally require the comprehensive school safety plan of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to include, beginning July 1, 2025, an instructional continuity plan to establish communication with pupils and their families and provide instruction to pupils when in-person instruction is disrupted due to an emergency, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent to develop and post on the department's website instructional continuity plan guidance on or before March 1, 2025.
(9) Existing law creates the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund in the State Treasury for the purpose of receiving appropriations for school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and community college districts related to the state of emergency declared by the Governor on March 4, 2020, relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing law appropriates $6,345,405,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for transfer to the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund. Existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate these appropriated funds to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, for, among other things, specified actions and pupil and learning supports, and to accelerate progress to close learning gaps through the implementation, expansion, or enhancement of learning supports, as provided. Under existing law, these allocations are known as Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grants. Existing law requires local educational agencies that do not submit a final report on the expenditure of these funds on or before December 15, 2029, to forfeit those apportioned funds.
This bill would, among other things, specify that local educational agencies are required to use Learning Recovery Emergency Funds for evidence-based supports and actions, as provided, and would expressly specify that these funds may be used to provide professional development and coaching on specified curriculum frameworks. The bill would also require a local educational agency that has received or will receive a Learning Recovery Emergency Fund Block Grant to develop a needs assessment regarding the use and expenditure of grant funds for the 2025–26, 2026–27, and 2027–28 school years, as provided. The bill would require the department to provide written technical assistance for schools and local educational agencies related to these needs assessments, as provided. The bill would delete the requirement that local educational agencies that do not submit a final report on the expenditure of apportioned funds forfeit those funds.
(10) Existing law establishes the State Board of Education consisting of 11 members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of 23 of the Senate, as provided. Existing law requires the state board to adopt policies and establish rules and regulations to govern the public elementary and secondary schools of the state.
This bill would authorize the Governor to appoint a total of 6 deputies to the executive director of the state board.
(11) For the 1990–91 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, existing law requires that moneys to be applied by the state for the support of school districts, community college districts, and direct elementary and secondary level instructional services provided by the state be distributed in accordance with certain calculations governing the proration of those moneys among the 3 segments of public education. Existing law makes that provision inapplicable to the 1992–93 to 2023–24 fiscal years, inclusive.
This bill would also make that provision inapplicable to the 2024–25 fiscal year.
(12) The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, amended the California Constitution to, among other things, set forth a formula for computing the minimum amount of revenues that the state is required to apply for the support of school districts and community college districts based on one of 3 tests in any given fiscal year.
If the Director of Finance determines pursuant to the certification process for the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts that the state has applied moneys in an amount that exceeds the minimum funding obligation for the fiscal year being certified, existing law requires the excess moneys to be credited to the fiscal year being certified.
This bill would provide that $5,442,143,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to school districts and charter schools, and $770,786,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to community college districts, are excess moneys credited to the 2022–23 fiscal year only for the purposes of determining the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the 2022–23 and 2023–24 fiscal years. The bill would require 10 proportional shares of those amounts to be recognized annually, from the 2026–27 fiscal year through the 2035–36 fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the 2022–23 fiscal year, but would prohibit those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes.
The bill, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year and in each fiscal year thereafter, would also require the Director of Finance, if California personal and corporate income tax filing deadlines are extended, as provided, to calculate the difference between the total appropriations made to meet the minimum funding obligation in the impacted fiscal year and the minimum funding obligation calculated with actual tax revenue data for that fiscal year. The bill would provide that, if the amount calculated by the Department of Finance is negative, the amount of the difference is not an allocation provided in satisfaction of the minimum funding obligation in the impacted fiscal year or excess moneys credited to the impacted fiscal year. The bill would require 10 proportional shares of those amounts to be recognized annually, for 10 consecutive fiscal years beginning with the 3rd fiscal year after the impacted fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the impacted fiscal year, but would prohibit those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes.
(13) Existing law requires the Director of Finance to certify the amount of the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts for each fiscal year, as specified. Existing law requires the Director of Finance to calculate the minimum funding obligation for the prior fiscal year and publish those calculations by May 14 following the end of the prior fiscal year. Existing law requires interested parties to submit any comments on those calculations by June 6.
This bill would extend those deadlines for the certification of the minimum funding obligation for the 2022–23 fiscal year, as provided.
(14) Existing law appropriates $547,513,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for purposes of the A–G Completion Improvement Grant Program to provide additional supports to local educational agencies to help increase the number of California high school pupils, particularly unduplicated pupils, who graduate high school meeting the A–G subject matter requirements for admission to the University of California and the California State University. For the 2021–22 fiscal year, existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate $300,000,000 as A–G Access Grants, and $100,000,000 as A–G Success Grants, to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools meeting certain requirements to be used for activities that directly support pupil access to, and successful completion of, the A–G course requirements, as prescribed. For the 2021–22 fiscal year, existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate $147,513,000 as A–G Learning Loss Mitigation Grants to be used to allow pupils who receive a grade of "D," "F," or "Fail" in an A–G approved course in the spring semester of 2020 or the 2020–21 school year to retake those A–G courses or to offer credit recovery opportunities to all pupils to ensure pupils are able to graduate high school on time, as prescribed.
This bill would, for each of those specific grants, require each local educational agency receiving a grant to report its final expenditure to the department on or before September 30, 2026, and would require the department to initiate collection of any unexpended funds. The bill would require any local educational agency that does not submit the final expenditure report to forfeit all funds allocated to it pursuant to the applicable grant.
(15) Existing law, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, appropriates $300,000,000 each fiscal year from the Gener