Emergency apportionments: closure and consolidation requirements.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district, if it determines during a fiscal year that its revenues are less than the amount necessary to meet its current year expenditure obligations, to request an emergency apportionment through the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. Existing law imposes certain conditions and requirements on a school district that accepts an emergency apportionment, including, among others, that the governing board of the school district prepare a report on the financial condition of the school district. Existing law requires the report to include, among other things, specific actions taken to reduce expenditures or increase income, and the cost savings and increased income resulting from those actions. This bill would require a school district under financial distress, as defined, before approving the closure or consolidation of a school, to conduct an equity impact analysis in its consideration of school closures or consolidations, as provided. The bill would require the governing board of the school district to develop a set of metrics, as specified, for the development of the equity impact analysis, and to make those metrics public at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district so that the public can provide input regarding the metrics being used to conduct the analysis, as provided. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that its provisions do not apply to a school district's closure of a school due solely to the unsafe condition of the school's facilities. The bill would make these provisions inoperative as of July 1, 2028. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.