Education finance: education omnibus budget trailer bill.

(1) Existing law establishes the Early Learning and Care Infrastructure Grant Program under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to expand access to early learning and care opportunities for children up to 5 years of age by providing resources to build new facilities or retrofit, renovate, or expand existing facilities, as provided. Existing law appropriates $142,705,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for these purposes, as provided. This bill would appropriate an additional $102,295,000 to the department for the Early Learning and Care Infrastructure Grant Program. (2) Existing law establishes the Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grants Program under the administration of the Superintendent to expand the number of qualified early learning and care professionals and increase the educational credentials of existing early learning and care professionals across the state, as provided. Existing law appropriates $195,000,000 from the General Fund to the department for these purposes, as provided. This bill would reduce the appropriation to the department for the Early Learning and Care Workforce Development Grants Program by $45,000,000. (3) The Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Education, requires the Superintendent to administer childcare and development programs that offer a full range of services to eligible children from infancy to 13 years of age, inclusive. Existing law establishes a 27-member Early Childhood Policy Council with specified duties relating to statewide early learning and care policy. Existing law requires members of the council to serve 3-year terms and a maximum of 2 terms. Existing law requires the council to maintain at least 2 ongoing standing committees: a parent advisory committee and a workforce advisory committee. This bill would instead require members of the council to serve no longer than 6 years. The bill would revise and recast the membership of the parent advisory committee and the workforce advisory committee, as provided. (4) Existing law appropriates $282,237,000 from the General Fund to the Controller in the 2019–20 fiscal year for allocation to school districts and community college districts for the purpose of reducing the outstanding balance of the minimum funding obligation in the 2009–10, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2014–15, and 2016–17 fiscal years, as specified. Existing law requires $750,000 of that $282,237,000 appropriation to be allocated by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to Norco College to support the improvement of workforce development programs at the college. This bill would reduce the allocation to Norco College for that purpose by $250,000, and instead would require the Chancellor to allocate an additional $250,000 to Norco College to support the expansion of veteran resource centers at the college. By requiring previously appropriated funds to be used for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. (5) Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to develop, and the State Board of Education to adopt, modify, or revise, a model curriculum in ethnic studies. Existing law requires the commission, on or before December 31, 2019, to submit the model curriculum to the state board for adoption, and requires the state board, on or before March 31, 2020, to adopt the model curriculum. This bill would extend those deadlines by one year to December 31, 2020, and March 31, 2021, respectively. (6) Existing law provides for the calculation of apportionments to fund the provision of special education instruction and services for pupils who qualify for these programs. This bill would revise certain special education apportionment calculations for the 2019–20 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter. (7) Existing law establishes the special education early intervention preschool grant, which requires the Superintendent, in any year moneys are appropriated for this purpose, to allocate grant funding to school districts for preschool children with exceptional needs, as provided. This bill, for purposes of the special education early intervention preschool grant, would require the total number of preschool children with exceptional needs to be calculated using prior year December special education data. (8) Existing law establishes the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program, under the administration of the Scholarshare Investment Board, for the purposes of expanding access to higher education through savings. Subject to available moneys in a specified fund, existing law requires the board to establish one or more Scholarshare 529 accounts and make a seed deposit of moneys into subaccounts designated for each California resident child born on or after July 1, 2020, who is a California resident at the time of birth and is a member of a low-income household, as defined, except for children whose parents or legal guardians have opted out, as specified. This bill would delete the requirement that a child be a member of a low-income household to be eligible for the program. (9) Existing law establishes the Educator Workforce Investment Grant Program to support one or more competitive grants for professional learning opportunities for teachers and paraprofessionals across the state, as provided. This bill would subject the funding under the program to a maximum of 8% indirect cost rate for the competitive grant awardees under the program. (10) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 establishes a program in which the State Allocation Board is required to provide state per-pupil funding for new construction and modernization of school facilities. The act requires the board to require applicant school districts that receive funding under the act to establish a restricted account within the general fund of the school district for the exclusive purpose of providing moneys for ongoing and major maintenance of school buildings and to agree to deposit minimum amounts into the restricted account based on certain calculations. This bill would exclude certain moneys appropriated for the State Teachers' Retirement System and the Public Employees' Retirement System for the 2018–19 fiscal year from counting for purposes of those calculations. (11) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution. (12) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.