(1) 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 of Public Instruction, 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, conditionally approve, or disapprove the budget, as specified. Under existing law, in the event of the conditional approval or 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, including any revisions to the adopted budget and other proposed actions to be taken, if any, as a result of those recommendations, as provided.
This bill would require the Superintendent to, in addition to examining the budget of a county office education, review and consider studies, reports, evaluations, or audits of the county office of education that were commissioned by specified entities that contain evidence that the county office of education is showing fiscal distress according to specified standards and criteria or that contain a finding by an external reviewer that the county office of education is at moderate or high risk of intervention, as provided. The bill would additionally authorize the Superintendent to conditionally approve or disapprove a budget that does not provide adequate assurance that the county office of education will meet its current and future obligations and resolve any problems identified in the studies, reports, evaluations, or audits, as specified.
(2) Existing law requires the Superintendent to notify the county board of education and the county superintendent of schools in writing if the Superintendent determines that a county office of education will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent fiscal year, as provided. If the Superintendent makes that determination or if the county office of education has a negative certification, existing law requires the Superintendent to, as necessary to enable the county office of education to meet its financial obligations, take one or more specified actions. Existing law requires a county office of education to pay 75% of fees charged by the Superintendent for administrative expenses incurred for undertaking the required actions or for costs associated with improving the county office of education's financial management practices and requires the other 25% to be covered by the Superintendent.
This bill would revise certain provisions related to the above-described requirements, including, among other things, by requiring the Superintendent to additionally notify the president of the State Board of Education, or the president's designee, if the Superintendent determines that a county office of education will be unable to meet its financial obligations, as provided, including if a county office of education experiences a significant fiscal event that is determined by the Superintendent to have an immediate severe fiscal impact that will cause a county office of education to be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent fiscal year. The bill would revise and recast the provision related to fees and costs to instead require a county office of education to pay 75% of, and the Superintendent to pay 25% of, specified administrative expenses incurred or costs associated with improving the county office of education's financial management practices.
(3) Existing law establishes the California Prekindergarten Planning and Implementation Grant Program as a state early learning initiative with the goal of expanding access to classroom-based prekindergarten programs. Existing law appropriates $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education in both the 2021–22 fiscal year and the 2022–23 fiscal year for allocation to local educational agencies as base grants, enrollment grants, and supplemental grants, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to allocate or prorate unexpended funds returned by or collected from a grant recipient for grants to local educational agencies for costs associated with the educational expenses of current and future California state preschool program, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten professionals that support their attainment of required credentials, permits, or professional development in early childhood instruction or child development, including developing competencies in serving inclusive classrooms and dual language learners, as provided.
This bill would extend the encumbrance, expenditure, and reversion periods for those grant funds, as specified, thereby making an appropriation.
(4) The Early Education Act establishes the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program with the goal of expanding access universally to preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-old children, as provided. The act requires the Superintendent to develop and administer a grant process and award grant funds to each county that applies for funding, as provided.
This bill would extend the expenditure and reversion periods for those grant funds, as specified, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would also extend the deadline by 3 years for a report to be submitted by the Superintendent to the Department of Finance and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on the expenditure of funds and relevant outcome data in order to evaluate the impact of the grants awarded under this program.
(5) Existing law establishes the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program for the purpose of increasing access to inclusive early care and education programs. Existing law appropriates $250,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to local educational agencies for purposes of this program. Existing law authorizes the Superintendent to allocate up to $50,000,000 of the $250,000,000 to address state-level systems building and align local practice with the research and practice-based strategies that best promote pupil outcomes and program quality.
This bill would instead reduce the above-described allocation to $10,000,000.
(6) 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, 2032. Existing law requires 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.
This bill would authorize funds initially made available for implementation grants that are returned to the State Department of Education to be available for extending implementation grants. By expanding the purposes for which previously appropriated moneys may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation.
(7) 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. Existing law requires 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 require the amount of the warrants scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2024–25 fiscal year to instead be $245,604,000, or the total June principal apportionment payment, whichever is less. The bill would require, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, warrants for the principal apportionments for the month of June in the amount of $1,874,781,000, or the total June principal apportionment payment, whichever is less, to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year, except as provided.
(8) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene State School Building Lease-Purchase Law of 1976, authorizes the State Allocation Board to apportion state funding to applicant school districts for designated school facilities construction purposes. Existing law creates a county school lease-purchase fund in the county treasury within each county for each school district project in the county. Existing law authorizes funds to be expended from the county school lease-purchase fund by the applicant school district only when specifically authorized by the board for either direct project costs or reimbursements, except as provided. Existing law prohibits the board from approving any projects pursuant to the Leroy F. Greene State School Building Lease-Purchase Law of 1976 and requires the board to only approve and fund school facilities construction projects pursuant to the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, except as provided.
This bill would provide that all funds, including any interest earned on funds, in a county school lease-purchase fund for a school district that remain in the fund on and after January 1, 2026, shall not be reported or returned to the state and would authorize the interest to be used by the school district for capital outlay expenditures for school construction. By authorizing those state funds to be expended by a school district, the bill would make an appropriation.
(9) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 provides for the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures, under the administration of the Director of General Services, for the allocation of state funds by the State Allocation Board for the construction and modernization of public school facilities. The act, among other things, provides that a school district is eligible for health and safety funding to replace, reconstruct, or construct new classrooms and related facilities if the school district demonstrates there is a threat to the health and safety of pupils, as provided.
This bill would separately authorize a school district to apply for hardship assistance in cases of extraordinary circumstances, as specified.
(10) 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 department 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, as provided.
This bill would appropriate an additional $378,650,000 from the General Fund to the department for transfer to the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund, to be allocated by the Superintendent to those local educational agencies operating in the 2025–26 fiscal year, as provided.
(11) Existing law establishes the department, under the administration of the Superintendent, and assigns to the department numerous duties relating to the financing, governance, and guidance of the public elementary and secondary schools in this state.
This bill would require, no later than September 30, 2026, the state board to approve and the department to post on its internet website criteria and guidance for the selection or development of inservice professional development programs for effective means of teaching literacy in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive, with a list of inservice professional development programs that have been deemed to meet those criteria. The bill would appropriate $200,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make available to local educational agencies to expend from the 2026–27 fiscal year to the 2029–30 fiscal year, inclusive, for purposes of training certificated and classified staff who provide literacy instruction, or who support any teacher who provides literacy instruction, using the professional development programs that meet the criteria and guidance, as provided. The bill would require recipient local educational agencies to report specified information to the department, and would require the department to submit a summary of this information to the Legislature and the Department of Finance, as provided.
(12) Existing law requires the accounting system used to record the financial affairs of a school district to be in accordance with the definitions, instructions, and procedures published in the California School Accounting Manual, as approved by the state board and furnished by the Superintendent.
This bill would require the accounting system used to record the financial affairs of any local educational agency, as defined, to be designed to provide a separate accounting of expenditures related to actual payments of legal settlements, judgments, or special assessments by a joint pooling arrangement, as a result of specified childhood sexual assault claims and a separate accounting of those expenditures as a result of all other civil claims, as provided. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(13) Existing law appropriates $50,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to apportion to the Orange County Department of Education to award no less than $30,000,000 as grants to local educational agencies for the purpose of funding schoolwide and districtwide implementation of services or practices aligned to the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework. Existing law requires the grants to be awarded on or before December 15, 2021, and any funds not awarded on or before December 15, 2021, to be available for the Orange County Department of Education, in consultation with the Superintendent and the executive director of the state board, to award as grants to local educational agencies on or before December 15, 2022.
This bill would require funds not awarded on or before December 15, 2022, to be available for the Orange County Department of Education to provide support to local educational agencies impacted by the fire-related state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor in January 2025, as provided. The bill would authorize the Orange County Department of Education to expend up to 15% of those funds for administrative costs. By expanding the purposes of a previous appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on the Orange County Department of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(14) Existing law requires, not later than May 1 of each fiscal year, the governing board of each local educational agency to provide for an audit of the books and accounts of the local educational agency, including an audit of income and expenditures by source of funds, or make arrangements with the county superintendent of schools having jurisdiction over the local educational agency to provide for that auditing. If the governing board of a school district has entered into a contract for an independent audit of its financial statements and the statements have not been filed according to specified due dates, existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to investigate the causes for the delay and initiate a specified action that will provide the required audited financial statements in the most effective manner, including, among other actions, granting an appropriate extension for the completion of the audit and the filing of the audited statements, as provided.
This bill would require an extension granted by a county superintendent of schools to be the shortest amount of time reasonable, be in increments of no longer than 45 calendar days, and, collectively, not exceed a total of 90 calendar days from the due date established, as provided.
(15) 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 2024–25 fiscal years, inclusive.
This bill would also make that provision inapplicable to the 2025–26 fiscal year.
(16) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to report to the Superintendent during each fiscal year the average daily attendance of the school district for all full school months, as provided. Existing law requires the average daily attendance to be determined by dividing the total number of days of attendance allowed in all full school months by the number of days the schools are actually taught in all full school months, excluding Saturdays or Sundays and excluding weekend makeup classes. Existing law also excludes from those calculations attendance generated through an attendance recovery program.
This bill, relative to attendance recovery programs, would instead exclude from those calculations only those weekend and intersession days that generated attendance for an attendance recovery program.
(17) Existing law prohibits the Superintendent from making an apportionment for the current fiscal year of state or federal moneys for a county office of education that neglects or refuses to make a county office of education budget or neglects to file specified interim reports, as provided.
This bill would additionally prohibit the Superintendent from making an apportionment for a county office of education if the county board of education or county superintendent of schools neglects or refuses to adopt a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to an LCAP, except as provided.
(18) Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine a revised budget, as specified, and, not later than November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget. If the Superintendent disapproves the revised budget, existing law requires the Superintendent to call for the formation of a budget review committee, and requires the budget review committee, on or before November 30, to review the proposed budget, as specified. If a county superintendent of schools disapproves the budget of a school district, existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to call for the formation of a budget review committee, and requires the budget review committee, on or before November 30, to review the proposed budget, as specified. Existing law requires the members of the budget review committee to be reimbursed for their services and associated expenses while on official business, at rates established by the state board.
This bill would revise and recast the provision requiring members of the budget committee to be reimbursed to instead require the reimbursement rates to be established by the Superintendent, subject to the approval of the director of the state board, and would prohibit employees of the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team from being eligible for reimbursement.
(19) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to notify various entities, in writing, if the county superintendent of schools determines that a school district will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent year, as provided.
This