School employees: substitute employees: Substitute Educator Support Grant Program.

Existing law requires governing boards of school districts to classify as substitute employees persons employed in positions requiring certification qualifications, to fill positions of regularly employed persons absent from service, except as specified. Existing law permits the governing board of a school district to employ substitute employees of the school district as it deems necessary. This bill, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, would appropriate $100,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to establish and administer the Substitute Educator Support Grant Program, which would provide one-time competitive grants to local educational agencies to develop and implement new, or expand existing, locally identified solutions that address local substitute educator shortages or needs for professional development for substitute educators, as provided. The bill would require a grant recipient to report its professional development activities and substitute educator recruitment and retention outcomes to the department. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to evaluate whether grant recipients successfully addressed the substitute educator shortage through local recruitment, which allowable grant use was most successful in addressing that shortage, and the impact on neighboring local educational agencies. The bill would require the evaluation to be provided to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature and the Department of Finance by October 1, 2028. 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.