(1) The Early Education Act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide an inclusive and cost-effective preschool program. Existing law requires the Superintendent to develop standards for the implementation of high-quality preschool programs.
This bill would require the Superintendent, in consultation with the Director of Social Services and the executive director of the State Board of Education, to convene a statewide interest holder workgroup, as provided, to provide recommendations on best practices for increasing access to high-quality universal preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-old children offered through a mixed-delivery model that provides equitable learning experiences across a variety of settings and recommendations to update preschool standards, as provided.
(2) The Early Education Act prescribes the eligibility requirements for 3- or 4-year-old children and families where a child has exceptional needs for part-day and full-day California state preschool programs, as provided, and requires each state preschool program applicant or contracting agency to give priority for part-day and full-day programs according to a specified priority ranking.
This bill would, among other things, revise those eligibility requirements and rankings, as provided.
(3) Existing law requires the Superintendent to authorize California state preschool program contracting agencies to offer up to 3 hours each instructional day of wraparound childcare services within a part-day California state preschool program for children enrolled in an education program as a transitional kindergarten or kindergarten pupil, if their families meet specified requirements.
This bill would require the Superintendent to instead authorize those agencies to offer those services for less than 4 hours each instructional day, and would, among other things, require the Superintendent to authorize California state preschool programs operating on a local education agency campus to operate a part-day California state preschool program that allows flexibility in the operational hours and enrollment cutoff dates to better align with the enrollment for the new school year.
(4) The Early Education Act requires the Superintendent to develop procedures for state preschool contractors to identify and report data on dual language learners enrolled in specified preschool programs, and requires those procedures to include, among other things, criteria for state preschool contractors to use to accurately identify dual language learners enrolled in their preschool programs based on the information collected from the family language instrument and family language and interest interview.
This bill would, among other things, require those procedures to also include criteria for the family language and interest interview.
(5) Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with the State Department of Social Services, to implement a reimbursement system plan that establishes reasonable standards and assigned reimbursement rates, which vary with the length of the program year and the hours of service, for purposes of the Early Education Act. Commencing January 1, 2022, contractors who, as of December 31, 2021, received the established standard reimbursement rate are required under existing law to be reimbursed at the greater of the 75th percentile of the 2018 regional market rate survey or the contract per-child reimbursement amount as of December 31, 2021.
This bill would require those contractors who, as of December 31, 2021, received the established standard reimbursement rate to instead be reimbursed at the greater of the 75th percentile of the 2018 regional market rate survey or the contract per-child reimbursement amount as of December 31, 2021, as increased by a specified cost-of-living adjustment.
(6) 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 at local educational agencies, defined as school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. Existing law appropriates $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for allocation to local educational agencies for grants for the 2021–22 fiscal year. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate $200,000,000 of that amount to local educational agencies as base grants, enrollment grants, and supplemental grants for specified purposes. Existing law requires local educational agencies that receive grants to do certain things, including, among other things, provide specified data to the department and develop a plan for consideration by the governing board or body at a public meeting on or before June 30, 2022, for how all children in the attendance area of the local educational agency will have access to full-day learning programs the year before kindergarten that meet the needs of parents, as provided. Existing law requires the department to initiate collection proceedings for certain grant funds that are unexpended by local educational agencies by June 30, 2026, and for grant funds that are used by local educational agencies in a manner inconsistent with the program or that fail to provide required data. For the 2022–23 fiscal year, the bill would appropriate $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the department for allocation to local educational agencies for purposes of the program, as specified.
This bill would, among other things, apply substantially similar provisions to the 2022-23 appropriation, as provided.
(7) Existing law 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 across the state through a mixed-delivery system, as defined. Existing law, pursuant to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, for each of the 2022–23, 2023–24, and 2024–25 fiscal years, requires the Superintendent to consult with the State Department of Social Services to develop and administer a grant process and award grant funds to each county, as specified.
This bill would revise and recast the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program by, among other things, requiring each county to submit a single planning grant application that contains a signed agreement from the resource and referral agencies in the county and the local planning council and requiring a grantee to form a single working group with specified members.
This bill would authorize the State Department of Education to enter into exclusive or nonexclusive contracts with nongovernmental entities on a bid or negotiated basis for the purposes of the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program and the statewide interest holder workgroup described in paragraph (1) above, as provided, and would authorize these entities to subcontract as necessary, subject to approval of the Superintendent. The bill would appropriate $3,966,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to administer the California Universal Preschool Planning Grant Program and the statewide interest holder workgroup described in paragraph (1) above, as provided.
(8) Existing law establishes the Cradle-to-Career Data System for the purpose of connecting individuals and organizations to trusted information and resources, as a source for actionable data and research on education, economic, and health outcomes for individuals, families, and communities, and to provide for expanded access to tools and services that support the education-to-employment pipeline, as specified. Existing law requires the Office of Cradle-to-Career Data, also known as the "managing entity," to submit to the Department of Justice fingerprint images and related information required by the Department of Justice of all employees, prospective employees, contractors, subcontractors, volunteers, and vendors whose duties include or would include access to nonanonymized confidential information, personally identifiable information, personal health information, or financial information contained in the information systems and devices of the managing entity provided by the data providers for the purposes of creating longitudinal datasets in service of the data system.
This bill would remove vendors from that requirement.
(9) Until January 1, 2025, existing law authorizes a school district, with the approval of the governing board of the school district, to procure design-build contracts for public works projects in excess of $1,000,000, awarding the contract to either the low bid or the best value, as provided.
This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2029, a school district, with the approval of its governing board, to procure alternative design-build contracts for public works projects in excess of $5,000,000, awarding the contract to either the low bid or the best value, as provided. The bill would define "alternative design-build" as a project delivery process in which both the design and construction of a project are procured from a single design-build entity based on its proposed design cost, general conditions, overhead, and profit as a component of the project price. The bill would require specified information to be verified under penalty of perjury. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2023, these provisions to govern a project using an alternative design-build contract entered into on or after January 1, 2023.
(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 $7,936,000,000 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, as provided, and requires local educational agencies receiving apportionments to report interim expenditures of those apportioned funds to the department by December 1, 2024, and December 1, 2027, and a final report on expenditures no later than December 1, 2029.
This bill would, among other things, require recipients to make those reports using a template developed by the department, which the bill would require the department to develop, and would require recipients to make those reports publicly available on their internet websites, as provided.
(11) Existing law requires the Superintendent, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, to apportion to each school district and county superintendent of schools that provides pupil transportation services, a transportation allowance equal to 60 percent of the home-to-school transportation expenditures reported by the school district or county superintendent of schools, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent to adopt regulations for purposes of making those apportionments.
This bill would expand the recipients of the above-described transportation allowance to also include school districts and county offices of education that provide transportation services by means of a joint powers agreement, a cooperative pupil transportation program, or a consortium, and would specify home-to-school transportation expenditure allocations for component and reorganized school districts, as provided. The bill would repeal the requirement for the Superintendent to adopt regulations.
(12) Existing law authorizes a local educational agency, for pupils enrolled in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to provide independent study courses pursuant to specified conditions.
This bill would, among other things, exempt from some of those conditions pupils that participate in an independent study program for fewer than 15 schooldays in a school year and pupils enrolled in a comprehensive school for classroom-based instruction who, under the care of appropriately licensed professionals, participate in independent study due to necessary medical treatments or inpatient treatment for mental health care or substance abuse, as specified. The bill would require local educational agencies to obtain evidence from appropriately licensed professionals of the need for those pupils to participate in independent study.
(13) Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law includes average daily attendance as a component of the calculation under the local control funding formula. Existing law requires the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a grade span-adjusted base grant, a 10.4% adjustment to the kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, base grant for school districts that maintain an average class enrollment of not more than 24 pupils for those grades unless a collective bargained alternative is agreed to by the school district. Existing law, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, requires the Superintendent to increase the base grants for transitional kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, by an additional 6.28%, as specified.
This bill would require the Superintendent, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, to increase the base grants for transitional kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, by an additional 6.7% instead of the additional 6.28%, as specified.
(14) For the 2021–22 fiscal year for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that meet specified requirements relating to independent study, existing law requires the Superintendent to calculate an attendance yield for the 2019–20 and 2021–22 fiscal years, as specified, and to adjust the 2021–22 fiscal year average daily attendance for purposes of apportionments under the local control funding formula for these local educational agencies, as provided.
This bill would, among other things, revise those requirements relating to independent study, as specified.
(15) As part of the local control funding formula, existing law prescribes funding provisions, requirements, and potential penalties for school districts and charter schools relating to the provision of transitional kindergarten, as specified.
This bill would revise and recast those provisions, as specified.
(16) Existing law provides for the funding of necessary small schools and high schools, as specified. Existing law requires, among other things, that funding to include various specified amounts per pupil and teacher for different tiers of numbers of pupils and teachers.
This bill would revise the funding for necessary small schools and high schools by increasing some of those specified amounts.
(17) Existing law creates and regulates various educational entities for purposes of providing and supporting instruction, including school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education. Existing law prescribes personnel requirements for these entities. Existing law prescribes a process for recovering payments from employees when the state determines an overpayment has been made.
This bill would require a school employer, as defined, to notify an employee when a wage overpayment has been made to the employee and afford the employee an opportunity to respond before commencing recoupment actions, and would require reimbursement to be made through one of three specified methods mutually agreed to by the employee and the employer. The bill would require installment amounts deducted from payment of salary or wages pursuant to these provisions to not exceed 25% of the employee's net disposable earnings, except as specified. The bill would prohibit an administrative action taken by the employer to recover an overpayment unless the action is initiated within 3 years from the date of overpayment. The bill would provide that if these provisions conflict with a memorandum of understanding, the memorandum of understanding controls without further legislative action, except as provided.
(18) Existing law establishes the Teacher Residency Grant Program and appropriates funds from the General Fund to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to make one-time grants to develop new, or expand, strengthen, or improve access to existing, teacher residency programs that support, among other things, a list of designated shortage fields. Existing law appropriates $184,000,000 from the General Fund to the commission to augment the Teacher Residency Grant Program to support teacher and school counselor residency programs that recruit and support the preparation of teachers and school counselors, as provided.
This bill would authorize the commission to allocate, as specified, up to $10,000,000 of the $184,000,000 appropriation to capacity grants that would be required to be awarded on a competitive basis to local educational agencies or consortia partnering with regionally accredited institutions of higher education to create school counselor residency programs that lead to more credentialed school counselors that reflect a local educational agency community's diversity.
(19) Existing law authorizes a classified employee of a school district or community college district to request a hearing to determine if there is cause for not reemploying the employee for the ensuing year, as provided.
This bill would authorize an employee who has requested a hearing to be represented at the hearing by an attorney or by a nonattorney representative of the employee organization designated as the exclusive representative of the employees in the employee's classification, if any.
(20) Existing law establishes the Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program. Existing law authorizes school districts and county offices of education to elect to participate in the program, and authorizes a classified employee of a participating local educational agency who meets specified requirements to withhold an amount from the employee's monthly paycheck during the school year to be paid out during the summer recess period, as provided. Existing law authorizes a classified employee to be eligible to participate in the program if the classified employee is employed by the local educational agency in the employee's regular assignment for 11 months or fewer out of a 12-month period.
This bill would define "month," for purposes of these provisions, as 20 days or 4 weeks of 5 days each, including legal holidays.
(21) Existing law establishes the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and requires the Superintendent, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, to allocate $2,750 per unit of average daily attendance, as specified, to local educational agencies with a prior fiscal year unduplicated pupil percentage of 75% or more, and requires those local educational agencies to offer to at least all unduplicated pupils in classroom-based instructional programs in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and to provide access to expanded learning opportunity programs to at least 50 percent of those pupils. Commencing with the 2023–24 school year, as a condition of specified funding, existing law requires those local educational agencies to offer access to expanded learning opportunit