Education finance: home-to-school transportation.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to provide for the transportation of pupils to and from school whenever, in the judgment of the governing board, the transportation is advisable and good reasons exist therefor. Existing law also authorizes school district governing boards to provide for the transportation of certain pupils who have reached 3 years and 9 months of age and are enrolled in specified special education classes. Existing law provides for the state reimbursement of the costs of this transportation through the apportionment of transportation allowances that are calculated in accordance with designated data. This bill would require that, commencing with the 2014–15 fiscal year, school districts would receive state reimbursement for the full cost of the home-to-school transportation of pupils. The bill would specify that, for its purposes, "school districts" would include charter schools and county offices of education. The bill would require the State Department of Education to develop and implement procedures for the submission by school districts of information regarding their costs of home-to-school transportation of pupils, and would further require that these costs would be reimbursed through an appropriation included in the annual Budget Act. The bill would render the current system of apportioning transportation allowances to local educational agencies inoperative as of July 1, 2014. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.