Budget & Taxes (Audits & Accountability)

Existing law requires, within 7 months after the close of each fiscal year or within the time prescribed by the Controller, whichever is later, the officer of each local agency, as defined, who has charge of the financial records to furnish to the Controller a report of all the financial transactions of the local agency during the preceding fiscal year, as specified. Existing law requires the report to contain underlying data from audited financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, as specified, and to state certain information, including the aggregate income during the preceding fiscal year. Existing law requires the legislative body, upon completion of the report, to either post the report in a conspicuous location on its internet website or to cause copies of the report to be prepared and the clerk of the legislative body to furnish a copy to any person requesting it, as specified. This bill would require a local agency, as defined, that maintains an internet website to post its audited financial statements, or its annual comprehensive financial report, on its internet website within 30 days of the date that the statements or report are completed by the local agency, as specified. The bill would make its provisions operative on January 1, 2028. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would include findings and declarations related to these provisions. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. 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.

Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account in the California Advanced Services Fund and makes the moneys in the account available for grants to eligible consortia to facilitate the deployment of broadband services by assisting infrastructure applicants in the project development or grant application process. Existing law requires each consortium to conduct an annual audit of its expenditures for programs funded pursuant to those provisions and to submit to the commission an annual report that includes specified information. This bill would instead require moneys in the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Account to be available for grants to eligible consortia primarily to facilitate the deployment of broadband services by assisting infrastructure applicants in the project development or grant application process. In facilitating the deployment of broadband services, the bill would authorize the consortia to undertake activities that promote broadband adoption within specified areas, including all infrastructure project areas that received California Advanced Services Fund grants on or after January 1, 2020, as specified, neighborhoods and communities identified by jurisdictions receiving local agency technical assistance grants, or areas where construction of infrastructure deployment and upgrade investments are made pursuant to public benefit agreements by parties to corporate consolidations approved by the commission. The bill would require the commission to allocate sufficient funds to the account to provide multi-year grants to eligible consortia to engage and regularly convene specified representatives and to implement an approved regional work plan consistent with a standardized scope of work determined by the commission, which would be required to include specified strategies and infrastructure-related activities, as provided. The bill would require the annual base funding grant per consortium to be no less than $200,000, plus an increased amount based on the number of unserved and underserved locations, unconnected households, and the number of low-income households in the region, as provided. The bill would delete the requirement for each consortium to conduct an annual audit and would revise the information required to be included in the annual report to the commission, as specified. The bill would authorize the commission to engage experienced nonprofit organizations through an open, competitive process to assist the commission and support the consortia, as provided. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law creates the Commission on State Mandates and establishes procedures for implementing the requirement in the California Constitution that the state reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Existing law makes a reimbursement claim for actual costs filed by a local agency or school district subject to the initiation of an audit by the Controller and authorizes the Controller to make a field review of a claim after it has been submitted but before it has been reimbursed. Existing law requires the Controller to notify the claimant in writing within 30 days after issuance of a remittance advice of any adjustment to a claim for reimbursement that results from an audit or review. This bill would, instead, require the Controller to notify the claimant in writing within 30 days of any adjustment that results from an audit or review. The bill would also allow a local agency or school district, upon receipt of the notice, to elect, at its discretion, to have the Controller offset any reduced reimbursement, as prescribed, or to adjust the payment of claims.

Existing law requires the governing board of each local educational agency to either provide for an audit of the books and accounts of the local educational agency or make arrangements with the respective county superintendent of schools to provide for that auditing. Existing law requires the governing board of each local educational agency, by January 31 of each year, to review, at a public meeting as an item on the agenda, the annual audit of the local educational agency for the prior year, any audit exceptions identified in that audit, the recommendations or findings of any management letter issued by the auditor, and any description of correction or plans to correct any exceptions or management letter issue, as provided. This bill would change the date by which the governing board or body of each school district, educational joint powers authority, county superintendent of schools, or charter school is required to review the above-described annual audit of the local educational agency at a public meeting from January 31 of each year to instead be within 45 days after the issuance of an audit report. The bill would additionally require the governing board or body of the local educational agency, at the public meeting described above, to accept or reject the annual audit report. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies or other local entities or officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.

Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) under the direction of a chairperson. Existing law provides an annual salary for members and for the chairperson and prescribes a method by which those salaries may be increased. Existing law grants an additional salary increase of 5% in each of the 2023–24, 2024–25, and 2025–26 fiscal years for members of the Energy Commission. This bill would, similarly, grant the chairperson of the Energy Commission an additional salary increase of 5% for the 2025–26, 2026–27, and 2027–28 fiscal years. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to develop and implement the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program to award moneys for projects that will benefit electricity ratepayers, lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs, and result in a portfolio of projects that is strategically focused and sufficiently narrow to make advancement on the most significant technological challenges, as specified. Existing law, until July 1, 2025, authorizes the Energy Commission to award, through a noncompetitive method, follow-on funding for projects that meet specified criteria, including the EPIC program's eligibility requirements and that the projects have been funded, at least in part, through the EPIC program. This bill would extend the authorization to award follow-on funding for those projects until January 1, 2028. Existing law vests the Energy Commission with the exclusive jurisdiction to certify the construction of stationary or floating electrical generating facilities using a source of thermal energy with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more and prohibits a person from constructing those facilities unless that person obtains a certificate from the commission, as provided. Existing law establishes an opt-in certification process, as provided, for solar photovoltaic, terrestrial wind electrical generation powerplants, and thermal powerplants that do not use fossil or nuclear fuels, with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more, an energy storage system capable of storing 200 megawatthours or more of electricity, or projects associated with the manufacture, production, or assembly of energy storage systems, wind systems, solar photovoltaic energy systems, or specialized products, components, or systems integral to renewable energy or energy storage technologies, that authorizes a person proposing to construct those facilities to file an application for certification with the Energy Commission. Existing law requires a person submitting an application for certification to submit a fee of $250,000 plus $500 per megawatt of gross generating capacity or per megawatthour of gross energy storage capacity, or $0.70 per square foot of those manufacturing, production, or assembly facilities. Existing law prohibits the application fee from exceeding $750,000. Existing law requires a person receiving a certification from the Energy Commission to pay an annual fee of $25,000 for each year the facility retains its certification. Existing law requires a person submitting a petition to amend an existing project that previously received certification to submit with the petition a fee of $5,000. Existing law requires that those fees be adjusted annually, as provided. This bill would instead require a person submitting an application for certification to submit with the application a nonrefundable deposit of $750,000 and would require the applicant to pay all costs incurred by the Energy Commission in processing the application. The bill would require the Energy Commission to provide invoices for additional fees, at least annually, for the actual costs incurred by the Energy Commission in excess of the deposit. The bill would increase the annual fee to $70,000 for each year the facility retains its certification. The bill would specify that the petition fee is nonrefundable. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to implement and administer the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program to incentivize the construction of cleaner and more efficient distributed energy assets that would serve as on-call emergency supply or load reduction for the state's electrical grid during extreme events, and the Demand Side Grid Support Program to incentivize dispatchable customer load reduction and backup generation operation as on-call emergency supply and load reduction for the state's electrical grid during extreme events, as provided. Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources, in consultation with the Energy Commission, to implement those projects, purchases, and contracts to carry out the above-described purposes. Existing law requires facilities constructed by the department, or under a contract with the department, that use any form of fossil fuel to be operated as necessary to respond to extreme events and prohibits those facilities from being operated any other time, except as provided. This bill would instead require facilities constructed and owned by the department, rather than constructed by the department, or under a contract with the department, that use any form of fossil fuel to be operated as necessary to respond to extreme events and prohibit those facilities from being operated any other time, except as provided. Existing law, for the 2021–22 fiscal year, appropriates $200,000,000 to the Energy Commission to be used for a program to provide incentives for demand side grid support and associated mitigation costs and authorizes the expenditure of those moneys for the adoption of regulations, guidelines, or other standards for the program, third-party block grants or contracts with incentive program implementers for purposes of implementing the program, or advancing up to 25% of the awarded funds at a time to parties that are eligible for funding for purposes of the program. This bill would authorize the use of any additional funding appropriated by the Legislature to the Energy Commission for demand side grid support and associated mitigation costs for the above-specified uses. Existing law establishes the Clean Transportation Program, administered by the Energy Commission, to provide funding to certain entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. Existing law limits funding under the program to specified categories of programs and projects, including, among others, block grants or incentive programs administered by public entities or not-for-profit technology entities for multiple projects, education and program promotion within California, and development of zero-emission fuel and vehicle technology centers. This bill would revise that category of programs and projects eligible for this funding by eliminating the restriction that the block grants or incentive programs be administered by public entities or not-for-profit technology entities and by expanding the category to authorize this funding for block grants or incentive programs for zero-emission vehicle infrastructure. Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board (state board) to adopt and implement motor vehicle emission standards. Existing law provides that a person who violates specified vehicular air pollution statutes or specified orders, rules, or regulations of the state board is subject to a civil penalty, and requires those penalties to be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund. Existing law authorizes the state board to adopt a schedule of annual fees for the certification, audit, and compliance of motor vehicles and engines sold in the state to cover the state board's reasonable costs in implementing the certification, audit, and compliance programs, and requires those fees be deposited in the Certification and Compliance Fund. Existing law authorizes the state board to adopt a schedule of fees to cover all or a portion of the state board's reasonable costs for the certification, audit, and compliance of off-road or nonvehicular engines and equipment, aftermarket parts, and emissions control components sold in the state, and requires all moneys collected by the state board as part of that schedule of fees to be deposited in the Certification and Compliance Fund. This bill would also authorize the state board to adopt a schedule of annual fees for deficiencies of motor vehicles and engines sold in the state and a schedule of fees to cover all or a portion of the state board's reasonable costs for the deficiencies of off-road or nonvehicular engines and equipment, aftermarket parts, and emissions control components sold in the state. The bill would require the fees collected under both of those schedules to be deposited in the Certification and Compliance Fund. Existing law establishes the Charge Ahead California Initiative, administered by the state board, and with the goals of, among other things, placing in service at least 1,000,000 zero-emission and near-zero-emission vehicles by January 1, 2023, and increasing access for disadvantaged, low-income, and moderate-income communities and consumers to zero-emission and near-zero-emission vehicles. Existing law also establishes the Clean Cars 4 All Program, which is administered by the state board, to focus on achieving reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases, improvements in air quality, and benefits to low-income state residents through the replacement of high-polluter motor vehicles with cleaner and more efficient motor vehicles or a mobility option. Under existing law, the distribution of incentives under the program is implemented in air pollution control and air quality management districts that choose to participate in the program and through a statewide program. Existing law requires the state board, with respect to specified funds made available to the state board and that the state board allocated to the program, to maintain funding for each local air district participating in the program by requiring the state board to reallocate funds to local air districts under certain circumstances. This bill would expand the requirement to maintain funding to local air districts in that manner using other specified funds made available to the state board for the suite of equity transportation programs established under the Charge Ahead California Initiative, including the Clean Cars 4 All Program. This bill would appropriate the sum of $132,175,000 from the Air Pollution Control Fund to the State Air Resources Board for the 2025–26 fiscal year, when funds are available from a specified consent decree, to be administered through the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, as specified. The bill would make the funds available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2027, and available for liquidation until June 30, 2029. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

The California Prompt Payment Act requires a state agency that awards a grant or that acquires property or services pursuant to a contract to make timely payments pursuant to the grant or contract. If a state agency or the Controller fails to take certain timely actions and payment is not issued within 45 calendar days from the state agency receipt of an undisputed invoice, the act requires the state agency or the Controller, as applicable, to pay certain penalties. The act provides an exception to certain penalty provisions applicable to services or equipment under the Medi-Cal program if the grant or contract was awarded to a nonprofit organization in an amount less than $500,000. The act defines the term "grant" to mean a signed final agreement between any state agency and a local government agency or organization authorized to accept grant funding for victim services or prevention programs administered by any state agency or restoration activities performed by a resource conservation district. The act also defines "nonprofit service organization" to mean a nonprofit entity that is organized to provide services to the public, but the act does not use that term in its provisions. This bill would revise the definition of "grant" to also mean a signed final agreement between a state agency and a nonprofit organization and would delete the $500,000 exception described above. The bill would remove the definition of "nonprofit service organization," and instead would define "nonprofit organization" to mean an organization that qualifies as an exempt organization under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The act authorizes a state agency to dispute for reasonable cause an invoice, refund request, or claim for Medi-Cal reimbursement, as specified, and defines "reasonable cause" to mean a determination by a state agency that any of certain conditions exist, including that there is a discrepancy between the invoice or claimed amount and either the claimant's actual delivery of property or services to the state or the state's acceptance of those deliveries. This bill would revise the condition described above to require the discrepancy to be of an amount greater than $250 or 5% of the invoice or claimed amount, whichever is less, in order to qualify as a reasonable cause for the state agency to dispute it. Existing law establishes the Department of General Services in the Government Operations Agency for purposes of providing centralized services of state government. Existing law establishes various state grant programs. Existing federal law provides uniform administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements for federal grant awards to nonfederal entities and provides guidelines for determining direct and indirect costs, as defined, charged to federal awards. This bill would require a state agency administering a grant program to reimburse a grantee's indirect costs, as defined, at one of specified rates as requested by the grantee in their grant program application, not to exceed 35% of the total grant award, unless prohibited by any other state or federal law. The bill would authorize the establishment of indirect cost pools, as specified. The bill would make these provisions applicable to a grant program administered by a state agency, regardless of whether the funding source is state funds, federal funds, or a combination thereof.

(1) Existing law requires county superintendents of schools to provide for an audit of all funds under their jurisdiction and control, and requires the governing board of each local educational agency to either provide for an audit of the books and accounts of the local educational agency or make arrangements with county superintendents of schools to provide for that auditing. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district and each office of the county superintendent of schools to include specified provisions in their contracts for audits and requires financial and compliance audits to be performed in accordance with specified standards. If the governing board of a school district has entered into a contract for an independent audit of its financial statements and the audited financial statements have not been filed with the county superintendent of schools on or before a specified due date, existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to, among other things, investigate the causes for the delay, as provided. This bill would expressly apply the above-described provisions to educational joint powers authorities and charter schools. The bill, among other things, would require those financial and compliance audits of local educational agencies to be conducted in accordance with specified filing deadlines and would revise requirements regarding which entity is responsible for providing an audit if a local educational agency has not provided for an audit of their respective books and accounts to include the Controller or a chartering authority, as provided. The bill would require, instead of authorize, a county superintendent of schools to investigate the causes for an above-described delay. The bill would require a local educational agency to post the local educational agency's annual financial and compliance audits on its internet website. Existing law requires the Controller to, among other things, on an annual basis, review and monitor the audit reports performed by independent auditors, determine whether audit reports are in conformance with specified reporting provisions, and notify each local educational agency, the responsible county superintendent of schools, the Superintendent, the Department of Finance, and the auditor regarding each determination. Existing law authorizes the Controller to perform quality control reviews of audit working papers to determine whether audits are performed in conformity with those specified standards. Existing law requires the Controller to annually report to the State Department of Education to apprise the department of school districts and offices of county superintendents of schools that are not in compliance with applicable statutes and regulations related to audits and requires the Controller to make recommendations as to what action should be taken by the department. The bill would require the Controller to, if applicable, notify the responsible chartering authority of each determination made, as referenced above, and would require notification to applicable entities to be made within 6 months of the audit report due date or the audit report issue date, whichever is later. The bill would require the Controller to establish and publish as part of the audit guide a weighted risk-based criteria that considers auditor experience and quality factors in determining which audit engagements are required to undergo a quality control review, as provided. The bill would require the Controller to report and provide recommendations to the Superintendent, instead of the department, of entities not in compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and would include educational joint powers authorities and charter schools as reported entities. The bill, commencing with the 2027–28 fiscal year Guide for Annual Audits of K–12 Local Education Agencies and State Compliance Reporting, would require the Controller to include, among other things, instructions requiring specified supplemental information and schedules in audit report components for local educational agency audits and an appendix with the Controller's desk review checklist that is used to determine whether audit reports are in conformance with specified reporting requirements, as provided. Under existing law, once the Controller or county superintendent of schools makes a final determination that specified audits performed by a certified public accountant or public accountant were not performed in substantial conformity with provisions of an audit guide, or that the audit reports do not conform to the provisions of an audit guide, the certified public accountant or public accountant is ineligible to conduct specified audits for 3 years. Existing law requires audits to be made by a certified public accountant or a public accountant, licensed by the California Board of Accountancy, and selected by a local educational agency, as applicable, from a directory of certified public accountants and public accountants deemed by the Controller as qualified to conduct audits of local educational agencies. In order to be added to, or remain on, the Controller's directory of certified public accountants and public accountants as described above, the bill would require, commencing with the 2027–28 fiscal year, and every 2 years thereafter, audit engagement partners and certified public accountants or public accountants responsible for local educational agency audits to, among other things, complete 16 hours of continuing education, demonstrate specified experience, and maintain compliance with the California Board of Accountancy requirements to keep applicable licenses in active status and good standing, as provided. The bill would also apply the continuing education requirement to audit staff who perform audit procedures of local educational agencies. The bill would extend the above-described rules related to the ineligibility of the certified public accountant or public accountant to audits of charter schools, as provided, and would additionally require the Controller to notify charter schools of those certified public accountants or public accountants determined to be ineligible to conduct audits, as provided. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies or local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The bill, until January 1, 2034, would establish the Office of the Education Inspector General. The bill would provide for the appointment of the Education Inspector General by the Governor from a list of 3 qualified individuals nominated by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, subject to confirmation by a majority of the Senate. The bill would require the Office of the Education Inspector General to, among other things, (A) conduct and supervise forensic audits and investigations relating to the programs and operations of the department, local educational agencies, and entities managing a charter school related to fraud, misappropriation of funds, and other illegal practices and (B) annually report to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature on investigations and audits of the programs and operations of the department, local educational agencies, and entities managing a charter school. (3) Existing law requires the Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, to develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits, and with representatives of other entities, to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies, and to propose the content of an audit guide. Existing law requires the audit guide to include specified content, as provided. This bill would require the Controller to consult with representatives of 2 additional specified entities and would require the audit guide to include a variety of additional content relating to audits of a local educational agency, as provided. (4) Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law requires the commission and the department to enter into a data sharing agreement for the department to provide the commission with educator assignment data necessary to annually identify educator misassignments and vacant positions at local educational agencies, as provided, as part of the State Assignment Accountability System. Existing law requires the commission to annually use data it receives from the department to produce an initial data file of vacant positions and educator assignments that do not have a clear match of credential to assignment and requires the commission to notify local educational agencies and monitoring authorities of the opportunity to access and review the initial data file of potential misassignments, as defined, and vacant positions. Existing law grants the commission the authority to make a final determination for all potential misassignments. Existing law requires, commencing with the 2020–21 school year, the commission to make annual educator assignment, misassignment, and vacant position data publicly available on its internet website. This bill would require teachers employed by a local educational agency and offering certain courses to hold the certificate, permit, or other document required by the commission for that assignment and be monitored. To the extent that this provision would create new duties for county superintendents of schools and local educational agencies, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law requires state funding to be calculated and withheld from a school district or county office of education for any fiscal year in which a person renders service as a teacher in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, who does not have a valid certification document, as provided. This bill would apply the above-described provisions relating to the penalties for a person rendering services as a teacher who does not have a valid certification document to charter schools, as provided. (6) Existing law requires any entity that has a contract with a school district, county office of education, or charter school to ensure that any employee who interacts with pupils, outside of the immediate supervision and control of the pupil's parent or guardian or a school employee, has a valid criminal records summary, as specified. This bill would require an entity that has a contract with a local educational agency to instead ensure any employee who interacts with pupils has a valid criminal records summary without regard to whether the interaction takes place outside of the immediate supervision and control of the pupil's parent or guardian or a school employee. (7) The Charter Schools Act of 1992 requires each charter school to transmit a copy of its annual, independent financial audit report for the preceding fiscal year to the county office of education, the Controller, and the State Department of Education by December 15 of each year. The act authorizes the establishment, operation, and governance of charter schools. Existing law authorizes a charter school that has an approved charter to receive funding for nonclassroom-based instruction only if a determination for funding is made by the State Board of Education, as specified. The act prohibits, from January 1, 2020, to January 1, 2026, inclusive, the approval of a petition for the establishment of a new charter school offering nonclassroom-based instruction, as specified. This bill would extend that prohibition to instead continue through June 30, 2026. This bill would require the governing body of a charter school, by January 31, 2026, and by January 31 of each year thereafter, to review, at a public meeting as an item on the agenda, the annual audit of the charter school for the prior fiscal year, any audit exceptions identified in that audit, the recommendations or findings of any management letter issued by the auditor, and any description of correction or plans to correct any exceptions or management letter issue. By imposing additional requirements on charter schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would replace the term "nonclassroom-based instruction" with "flex-based instruction" and define a "flex-based charter school" as a charter school that receives a determination for funding from the state board, as described above. The bill would also make numerous nonsubstantive and conforming changes. (8) Existing law requires each chartering authority to, among other things, monitor the fiscal condition of each charter school under its authority. Existing law authorizes the state board to, based upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, take appropriate action when the state board finds, among other things, illegal or substantially improper use of charter school funds for the personal benefit of any officer, director, or fiduciary of the charter school, as provided. This bill would require that monitoring to also include a review of a sample of credit and debit card transactions of each charter school under its authority. The bill would require a chartering authority to provide the governing body of the charter school with feedback on any issues of concern identified in the review, as provided. If a chartering authority has reasonable suspicion that fraud, misappropriations of public funds, embezzlement, or other financial crimes, may be occurring, the bill would require the chartering authority to notify the State Department of Education and the county office of education. The bill would require the state board, or the state board's designee, to promptly investigate allegations of false claims or misappropriation of public funds by charter schools if there is probable cause to believe that those crimes have occurred. By imposing additional requirements on charter schools and local educational agencies acting as chartering authorities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (9) Existing law, until January 1, 2026, sets out performance standards and procedures for the renewal of charter schools. Existing law sets out revised standards and procedures that are operative on and after January 1, 2026. This bill would extend, until July 1, 2028, the operation of the performance standards and procedures for the renewal of charter schools that would otherwise be inoperative on January 1, 2026, and would delay the operation of the revised standards and procedures until July 1, 2028. (10) Existing law provides for the apportionment of state funding to a charter school based on the average daily attendance that is generated by pupils engaged in nonclassroom-based instruction, as defined, in accordance with prescribed criteria and procedures. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by, among other things, requiring the determination of funding to be on a percentage basis and require the Superintendent to implement the determination for funding by reducing the charter school's reported average daily attendance by the percentage specified by the state board, as specified, and, commencing with the 2027–28 fiscal year, requiring the state board's Advisory Commission on Charter Schools to recommend to the state board the approval of a funding determination request submitted by a charter school consistent with specified conditions. Beginning with the 2027–28 school year, the bill would require the State Department of Education to annually develop a list that identifies networks of flex-based charter schools, as defined, based on data from the prior school year. (11) Existing law authorizes a school district, county office of education, or charter school to offer independent study to meet the educational needs of pupils when certain requirements are met, including, among others, that the local educational agency has adopted written policies, and implemented those policies, in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the Superintendent, as specified. Existing law authorizes a local educational agency to claim apportionment credit for independent study only to the extent of the time value of pupil work products. This bill would require a local educational agency to maintain one complete pupil work product in each of 4 specified subjects for a pupil enrolled in independent study for each of 3 specified attendance periods, except as provided. (12) The bill would establish the Charter Authorizer Mentor Grant Program to be administered by the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence for the purpose of providing competitive grants to qualified applicants to provide technical assistance to eligible chartering authorities of charter schools, as defined. The bill would establish the Charter School Authorizer Grant Program within the department to provide grants to chartering authorities for certain increased costs associated with the responsibilities imposed by this bill, as provided. (13) The bill would require the governing board or body of a school district, educational joint powers authority, county office of education, or charter school, on or before July 1, 2027, to adopt a policy in order to evaluate and approve contractors. The bill would require the policy to include specified provisions, including, among other things, that a local educational agency is prohibited from (A) expending public funds for a contract unless the materials, programs, and activities are nonsectarian, (B) offering financial payments or gifts as an incentive for pupil enrollment, referral, or retention, and (C) purchasing or contracting for season passes or membership to amusement or theme parks, zoos, or family entertainment activities, except as provided. (14) Under the California Constitution, whenever the Legislature or a state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local agency, the state is required to provide a subvention of funds to reimburse the local agency, with specified exceptions. Existing law, for purposes of this reimbursement, defines "local agency" to include any city, county, special district, authority, or other political subdivision of the state. This bill, for purposes of the above-described state reimbursement, would explicitly add any charter school to the definition of local agency. (15) This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill are severable. (16) 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.

Existing law authorizes a local authority, by ordinance or resolution, to regulate the occupancy of a room or rooms, or other living space, in a hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, or other lodging for a period of less than 30 days. This bill would authorize a local agency, defined to mean a city, county, or city and county, to enact an ordinance to require a short-term rental facilitator, as defined, to report, in the form and manner prescribed by the local agency, the physical address, including 9-digit ZIP Code, of each short-term rental, as defined, during the reporting period. The bill would also authorize a local agency to request additional information, as provided, when the physical address is not sufficient for the local agency to identify a specific short-term rental. The bill would authorize the local agency to impose an administrative fine or penalty for failure to file the report, and would authorize the local agency to initiate an audit of a short-term rental facilitator, as described. The bill would require a short-term rental facilitator, in a jurisdiction that has adopted an ordinance, to include in the listing of a short-term rental any applicable local license number associated with the short-term rental and any transient occupancy tax certification issued by a local agency. The bill would state these provisions do not preempt a local agency from adopting an ordinance that regulates short-term rentals, short-term rental facilitators, or the payment and collection of transient occupancy taxes in a manner that differs from those described in the bill.

Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the trustees to establish an internal audit staff with prescribed duties, including auditing, reviewing, cost and systems analysis, analyzing, and recommending operating procedures for the university. Existing law also requires the university's internal audit staff to perform audits, at least once every 5 years, of the activities of the university, as provided. This bill would require an external financial audit of each campus of the California State University to be conducted at least once every 3 years. The bill would also require all audits of the California State University or any of its campuses, including audits conducted by the university's internal audit staff, to be available to the public.

(1) Existing law requires a county board of education, on or before July 1 of each fiscal year, to adopt an annual budget for the budget year and file the budget with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the county board of supervisors, and the county auditor. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the budget and, on or before September 15, approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove the budget, as specified. Under existing law, in the event of the conditional approval or disapproval of the budget of a county office of education, the county superintendent of schools and the county board of education are required, on or before October 8, to review and respond to the Superintendent's recommendations, including any revisions to the adopted budget and other proposed actions to be taken, if any, as a result of those recommendations, as provided. This bill would require the Superintendent to, in addition to examining the budget of a county office education, review and consider studies, reports, evaluations, or audits of the county office of education that were commissioned by specified entities that contain evidence that the county office of education is showing fiscal distress according to specified standards and criteria or that contain a finding by an external reviewer that the county office of education is at moderate or high risk of intervention, as provided. The bill would additionally authorize the Superintendent to conditionally approve or disapprove a budget that does not provide adequate assurance that the county office of education will meet its current and future obligations and resolve any problems identified in the studies, reports, evaluations, or audits, as specified. (2) Existing law requires the Superintendent to notify the county board of education and the county superintendent of schools in writing if the Superintendent determines that a county office of education will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent fiscal year, as provided. If the Superintendent makes that determination or if the county office of education has a negative certification, existing law requires the Superintendent to, as necessary to enable the county office of education to meet its financial obligations, take one or more specified actions. Existing law requires a county office of education to pay 75% of fees charged by the Superintendent for administrative expenses incurred for undertaking the required actions or for costs associated with improving the county office of education's financial management practices and requires the other 25% to be covered by the Superintendent. This bill would revise certain provisions related to the above-described requirements, including, among other things, by requiring the Superintendent to additionally notify the president of the State Board of Education, or the president's designee, if the Superintendent determines that a county office of education will be unable to meet its financial obligations, as provided, including if a county office of education experiences a significant fiscal event that is determined by the Superintendent to have an immediate severe fiscal impact that will cause a county office of education to be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent fiscal year. The bill would revise and recast the provision related to fees and costs to instead require a county office of education to pay 75% of, and the Superintendent to pay 25% of, specified administrative expenses incurred or costs associated with improving the county office of education's financial management practices. (3) 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. Existing law appropriates $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education in both the 2021–22 fiscal year and the 2022–23 fiscal year for allocation to local educational agencies as base grants, enrollment grants, and supplemental grants, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to allocate or prorate unexpended funds returned by or collected from a grant recipient for grants to local educational agencies for costs associated with the educational expenses of current and future California state preschool program, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten professionals that support their attainment of required credentials, permits, or professional development in early childhood instruction or child development, including developing competencies in serving inclusive classrooms and dual language learners, as provided. This bill would extend the encumbrance, expenditure, and reversion periods for those grant funds, as specified, thereby making an appropriation. (4) The Early Education Act 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, as provided. The act requires the Superintendent to develop and administer a grant process and award grant funds to each county that applies for funding, as provided. This bill would extend the expenditure and reversion periods for those grant funds, as specified, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would also extend the deadline by 3 years for a report to be submitted by the Superintendent to the Department of Finance and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on the expenditure of funds and relevant outcome data in order to evaluate the impact of the grants awarded under this program. (5) Existing law establishes the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program for the purpose of increasing access to inclusive early care and education programs. Existing law appropriates $250,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to local educational agencies for purposes of this program. Existing law authorizes the Superintendent to allocate up to $50,000,000 of the $250,000,000 to address state-level systems building and align local practice with the research and practice-based strategies that best promote pupil outcomes and program quality. This bill would instead reduce the above-described allocation to $10,000,000. (6) Existing law appropriates $2,836,660,000 in the 2021–22 fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to administer the California Community Schools Partnership Program and requires those funds to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2032. Existing law requires up to 72% of the funds to be available for implementation grants and at least 18% to be available for extending implementation grants, as provided. This bill would authorize funds initially made available for implementation grants that are returned to the State Department of Education to be available for extending implementation grants. By expanding the purposes for which previously appropriated moneys may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation. (7) Existing law requires the Controller to draw warrants on the State Treasury throughout each year in specified amounts for purposes of apportioning funding to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. Existing law requires warrants in the amount of $245,604,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2024–25 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year, except as provided. This bill would require the amount of the warrants scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2024–25 fiscal year to instead be $245,604,000, or the total June principal apportionment payment, whichever is less. The bill would require, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, warrants for the principal apportionments for the month of June in the amount of $1,874,781,000, or the total June principal apportionment payment, whichever is less, to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year, except as provided. (8) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene State School Building Lease-Purchase Law of 1976, authorizes the State Allocation Board to apportion state funding to applicant school districts for designated school facilities construction purposes. Existing law creates a county school lease-purchase fund in the county treasury within each county for each school district project in the county. Existing law authorizes funds to be expended from the county school lease-purchase fund by the applicant school district only when specifically authorized by the board for either direct project costs or reimbursements, except as provided. Existing law prohibits the board from approving any projects pursuant to the Leroy F. Greene State School Building Lease-Purchase Law of 1976 and requires the board to only approve and fund school facilities construction projects pursuant to the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, except as provided. This bill would provide that all funds, including any interest earned on funds, in a county school lease-purchase fund for a school district that remain in the fund on and after January 1, 2026, shall not be reported or returned to the state and would authorize the interest to be used by the school district for capital outlay expenditures for school construction. By authorizing those state funds to be expended by a school district, the bill would make an appropriation. (9) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 provides for the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures, under the administration of the Director of General Services, for the allocation of state funds by the State Allocation Board for the construction and modernization of public school facilities. The act, among other things, provides that a school district is eligible for health and safety funding to replace, reconstruct, or construct new classrooms and related facilities if the school district demonstrates there is a threat to the health and safety of pupils, as provided. This bill would separately authorize a school district to apply for hardship assistance in cases of extraordinary circumstances, as specified. (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 $6,345,405,000 from the General Fund to the department 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. This bill would appropriate an additional $378,650,000 from the General Fund to the department for transfer to the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund, to be allocated by the Superintendent to those local educational agencies operating in the 2025–26 fiscal year, as provided. (11) Existing law establishes the department, under the administration of the Superintendent, and assigns to the department numerous duties relating to the financing, governance, and guidance of the public elementary and secondary schools in this state. This bill would require, no later than September 30, 2026, the state board to approve and the department to post on its internet website criteria and guidance for the selection or development of inservice professional development programs for effective means of teaching literacy in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive, with a list of inservice professional development programs that have been deemed to meet those criteria. The bill would appropriate $200,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to make available to local educational agencies to expend from the 2026–27 fiscal year to the 2029–30 fiscal year, inclusive, for purposes of training certificated and classified staff who provide literacy instruction, or who support any teacher who provides literacy instruction, using the professional development programs that meet the criteria and guidance, as provided. The bill would require recipient local educational agencies to report specified information to the department, and would require the department to submit a summary of this information to the Legislature and the Department of Finance, as provided. (12) Existing law requires the accounting system used to record the financial affairs of a school district to be in accordance with the definitions, instructions, and procedures published in the California School Accounting Manual, as approved by the state board and furnished by the Superintendent. This bill would require the accounting system used to record the financial affairs of any local educational agency, as defined, to be designed to provide a separate accounting of expenditures related to actual payments of legal settlements, judgments, or special assessments by a joint pooling arrangement, as a result of specified childhood sexual assault claims and a separate accounting of those expenditures as a result of all other civil claims, as provided. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (13) Existing law appropriates $50,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to apportion to the Orange County Department of Education to award no less than $30,000,000 as grants to local educational agencies for the purpose of funding schoolwide and districtwide implementation of services or practices aligned to the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework. Existing law requires the grants to be awarded on or before December 15, 2021, and any funds not awarded on or before December 15, 2021, to be available for the Orange County Department of Education, in consultation with the Superintendent and the executive director of the state board, to award as grants to local educational agencies on or before December 15, 2022. This bill would require funds not awarded on or before December 15, 2022, to be available for the Orange County Department of Education to provide support to local educational agencies impacted by the fire-related state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor in January 2025, as provided. The bill would authorize the Orange County Department of Education to expend up to 15% of those funds for administrative costs. By expanding the purposes of a previous appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on the Orange County Department of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (14) Existing law requires, not later than May 1 of each fiscal year, the governing board of each local educational agency to provide for an audit of the books and accounts of the local educational agency, including an audit of income and expenditures by source of funds, or make arrangements with the county superintendent of schools having jurisdiction over the local educational agency to provide for that auditing. If the governing board of a school district has entered into a contract for an independent audit of its financial statements and the statements have not been filed according to specified due dates, existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to investigate the causes for the delay and initiate a specified action that will provide the required audited financial statements in the most effective manner, including, among other actions, granting an appropriate extension for the completion of the audit and the filing of the audited statements, as provided. This bill would require an extension granted by a county superintendent of schools to be the shortest amount of time reasonable, be in increments of no longer than 45 calendar days, and, collectively, not exceed a total of 90 calendar days from the due date established, as provided. (15) For the 1990–91 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, existing law requires that moneys to be applied by the state for the support of school districts, community college districts, and direct elementary and secondary level instructional services provided by the state be distributed in accordance with certain calculations governing the proration of those moneys among the 3 segments of public education. Existing law makes that provision inapplicable to the 1992–93 to 2024–25 fiscal years, inclusive. This bill would also make that provision inapplicable to the 2025–26 fiscal year. (16) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to report to the Superintendent during each fiscal year the average daily attendance of the school district for all full school months, as provided. Existing law requires the average daily attendance to be determined by dividing the total number of days of attendance allowed in all full school months by the number of days the schools are actually taught in all full school months, excluding Saturdays or Sundays and excluding weekend makeup classes. Existing law also excludes from those calculations attendance generated through an attendance recovery program. This bill, relative to attendance recovery programs, would instead exclude from those calculations only those weekend and intersession days that generated attendance for an attendance recovery program. (17) Existing law prohibits the Superintendent from making an apportionment for the current fiscal year of state or federal moneys for a county office of education that neglects or refuses to make a county office of education budget or neglects to file specified interim reports, as provided. This bill would additionally prohibit the Superintendent from making an apportionment for a county office of education if the county board of education or county superintendent of schools neglects or refuses to adopt a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to an LCAP, except as provided. (18) Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine a revised budget, as specified, and, not later than November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget. If the Superintendent disapproves the revised budget, existing law requires the Superintendent to call for the formation of a budget review committee, and requires the budget review committee, on or before November 30, to review the proposed budget, as specified. If a county superintendent of schools disapproves the budget of a school district, existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to call for the formation of a budget review committee, and requires the budget review committee, on or before November 30, to review the proposed budget, as specified. Existing law requires the members of the budget review committee to be reimbursed for their services and associated expenses while on official business, at rates established by the state board. This bill would revise and recast the provision requiring members of the budget committee to be reimbursed to instead require the reimbursement rates to be established by the Superintendent, subject to the approval of the director of the state board, and would prohibit employees of the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team from being eligible for reimbursement. (19) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to notify various entities, in writing, if the county superintendent of schools determines that a school district will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent year, as provided. This bill would require the county superintendent of schools to also provide the above-described notification if a school district experiences a significant fiscal event that the county superintendent of schools determines will have an immediate severe fiscal impact that will cause a school district to be unable to meet its financial obligations for the current or subsequent fiscal year. To the extent that this bill would impose additional duties on local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (20) Existing law prohibits a county superintendent of schools from making an apportionment for the current school year of state or county moneys for a school district if the governing board of the school district neglects or refuses to make a school district budget or neglects to file specified interim reports, as provided. This bill would revise and recast those provisions to, among other things, prohibit a county superintendent of schools from making an apportionment of state, local, or county moneys for a school district if the governing board of the school district or the school district neglects or refuses to adopt an LCAP or an annual update to an LCAP, except as provided. The bill would also apply these provisions to a charter school, as provided. To the extent that this bill would impose additional duties on local officials or local educational entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (21) Existing law requires school districts and county offices of education to transmit to the State Department of Education, on a timely basis, various reports. If those reports are not submitted to the Superintendent within 14 days after the submission date specified for each report, existing law authorizes the Superintendent to direct the county auditor to withhold payment of any stipend, expenses, or salaries of the district superintendent, county superintendent of schools, or members of the governing board, as appropriate, until the delinquent reports have been submitted, as provided. This bill would additionally require school districts and county offices of education to transmit LCAPs and annual updates to the LCAPs, as provided. The bill would extend those provisions to charter schools. The bill would require schools districts and charter schools to also transmit those reports, plans, and annual updates to the county superintendent of schools on a timely basis, and would authorize the county superintendent of schools to withhold payment of any stipend, expenses, benefits, or salaries and wages of the district superintendent, charter school administrator, or members of the governing board, as appropriate, until the delinquent reports have been submitted, except as provided. To the extent that this bill would impose additional duties on local officials or local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (22) Existing law requires the department, by July 1, 2025, to update a salary and benefit schedule form, as described, to include salary data collection for classified school staff assigned to a schoolsite or sites in the same manner as that data is collected for certificated staff assigned to a schoolsite or sites, and to call this updated form the Salary and Benefit Schedule for the Bargaining Units (Form J–90) . Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and direct-funded charter schools, by January 31, 2026, and annually thereafter, to complete the Form J–90 for specified classified and certificated staff assigned to a schoolsite or sites and report the Form J–90 to the department, and authorizes those local educational agencies to complete and report the Form J–90 for prior fiscal years, as provided. Existing law requires the department, by August 31, 2026, and annually thereafter, to report to the Legislature on the progress of school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools in increasing salaries for classified and certificated staff assigned to a schoolsite or sites, as provided. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by instead requiring the department, by July 1, 2026, to create a data collection system for salary and benefits data for represented certificated and classified nonmanagement employees. The bill would require the data collected to include salary, benefits, and full-time equivalent employee counts for certificated employees and for specified classified bargaining unit classifications, which the bill would require to be collected in the same manner as for certificated employees, as determined by the department. The bill would require, by August 31, 2026, and by July 1 annually thereafter, school districts, county offices of education, and direct-funded charter schools to complete the data collection process and to report the data to the department. The bill would require the department, by January 31, 2027, and by November 30 annually thereafter, to report to the Legislature on the progress of school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools in increasing salaries for classified and certificated employees, as provided. By imposing new duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (23) Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for school districts and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, among other things, a base grant that in each fiscal year is adjusted for inflation by the percentage change in the annual average value of the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services for the United States, as specified. Existing law, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, requires the Superintendent to compute an additional add-on for school districts and charter schools of $2,813 for transitional kindergarten, as specified, and requires the add-on to be annually adjusted for inflation commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, as specified. This bill, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, would increase that transitional kindergarten add-on to instead be $5,545, and would require that increased add-on to be annually adjusted for inflation commencing with the 2026–27 fiscal year, as specified. Existing law requires the local control funding formula to include, in addition to the base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are unduplicated pupils, as defined to include English learners, pupils eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and foster youth, as specified. Existing law requires school districts and charter schools to annually report their enrollment of unduplicated pupils to the Superintendent, as specified, and requires county superintendents of schools to review and validate that pupil data, as provided. Existing law defines "pupils eligible for free or reduced-price meals" to mean pupils determined to meet federal income eligibility criteria, either through completing an application for the federal National School Lunch Program or through an alternative household income data collection form, or deemed to be categorically eligible for free or reduced-price meals under the federal National School Lunch Program. This bill would revise that definition to also include pupils determined to meet federal income eligibility criteria through a federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) - compliant Universal Benefit Application. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools related to reporting unduplicated pupils, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Notwithstanding any other law, for purposes of the local control funding formula for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 fiscal years only, the bill would require the count of English learner pupils enrolled in transitional kindergarten to be equal to the count of English learner pupils enrolled in kindergarten, as specified. For purposes of state apportionments, if the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school during a fiscal year has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of an emergency, existing law requires the Superintendent to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school the total average daily attendance that would have been credited had the emergency not occurred, as provided. This bill, notwithstanding any other law, for specified charter schools that were damaged, destroyed, or directly impacted as a result of a state of emergency that was declared by the Governor in January 2025, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, would require the Superintendent to calculate the difference between the charter school's certified local control funding formula entitlement in the 2025–26 fiscal year and the 2024–25 fiscal year, as specified, and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the charter school. (24) The Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012, an initiative measure approved by the voters at the November 6, 2012, statewide general election, among other things, increased certain tax rates for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2012, and before January 1, 2017, and deposited the revenues from those increases in tax into the Education Protection Account. The act provides that all moneys in the Education Protection Account are continuously appropriated for the support of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and community college districts. These provisions were extended for taxable years before January 1, 2031, by Proposition 55, an initiative measure approved by the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election. This bill would require, in any fiscal year, if a decline in Education Protection Account revenue results in a nontransfer of funds into the Education Protection Account fourth-quarter payment, the Superintendent to recover a local educational agency's overpayment of Education Protection Account funds from the current year's second principal apportionment payment, as provided. (25) Existing law establishes the Public School System Stabilization Account to provide a reserve for public school funding. Existing law requires, pursuant to specified calculations, the Controller to transfer certain moneys from the General Fund into the Public School System Stabilization Account for subsequent allocation to school districts and community college districts, as specified. Existing law requires, in any fiscal year in which the amount required to be applied by the state for the support of school districts and community college districts for that fiscal year is less than the total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated and allocated local proceeds of taxes in the prior fiscal year, as adjusted pursuant to specified calculations, the amount of the deficiency to be appropriated and allocated by the state from the Public School System Stabilization Account for the support of school districts and community college districts. This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $405,291,000 from the Public School System Stabilization Account to the Superintendent for allocation for the local control funding formula, as provided. (26) Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to administer a State Assignment Accountability System to provide local educational agencies with a data system for assignment monitoring. Existing law requires the commission to annually use data it receives from the department to produce an initial data file of vacant positions and assignments that do not have a clear match of credential to assignment. Existing law requires a monitoring authority, as defined, to review and determine any potential misassignments and vacant positions, as defined, reported in and identified through the system for local educational agencies within its authority, as provided. This bill would, among other things, rename the system as the California Statewide Assignment Accountability System and would require the commission to also identify instances of a teacher shortage, as specified, in each instance where, as of Census Day, either (A) a course or class assignment is permanently filled by an employee who is not fully credentialed or who is not appropriately assigned or (B) the local educational agency identifies a vacant position or an unfilled position, as provided. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, including in their capacity as monitoring authorities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (27) Existing law requires the commission to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law requires the commission to develop, adopt, and administer a reading instruction competence assessment consisting of one or more instruments to measure an individual's knowledge, skill, and ability relative to effective reading instruction, as provided. Under existing law, the passage of one of specified components of the reading instruction competence assessment is a requirement for the issuance of the preliminary multiple subject teaching credential or the preliminary education specialist credential, until the commission ensures that an approved teaching performance assessment assesses candidates for competence in instruction in literacy. Existing law requires the commission to ensure that these teaching performance assessments assess competence in instruction in literacy by July 1, 2025. This bill would additionally authorize the commission to adopt an off-the-shelf assessment that otherwise meets the specified requirements for the reading instruction competence assessment. The bill would authorize credential candidates that are required to pass the reading instruction competence assessment in order to earn the clear credential to take and pass the reading instruction competence assessment on or before October 31, 2025, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to exempt specified preliminary multiple subject credential candidates and preliminary single subject credential candidates who complete specified induction program and service requirements on or before June 30, 2025, from the requirement, and any accompanying regulations, to complete a teaching performance assessment. This bill would require the commission to additionally exempt the above-described credential candidates from the requirement, and any accompanying regulations, to complete a reading instruction competence assessment, as provided. The bill would extend, for purposes of the exemption, the date by which the credential candidates are required to complete the induction program and service requirements by one year. (28) Under existing regulations adopted by the commission, applicants who seek to satisfy a credential, certificate, permit, or waiver requirement by examination are required to meet the passing score requirements established by the commission that were in effect at the time the examination was taken. These regulations also limit the time between the date the score was earned and the issuance date of the applicable credential, certificate, permit, or waiver to 10 years, as provided. This bill would instead establish that an applicant for a preliminary multiple subject teaching credential or a preliminary education specialist instruction credential holds a passing reading instruction competence assessment score prospectively if, within the 10 calendar years following the date the score was earned, the applicant has achieved specified reading instruction competence assessment examination scores, as provided. (29) Existing law establishes the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification Incentive Program under the administration of the State Department of Education to award grants to teachers who have, among other things, attained certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, as provided. This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $30,000,000 from the General Fund to the department for purposes of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification Incentive Program and for covering National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification fees, as provided. The bill would make those funds available for encumbrance until June 30, 2030, and available for liquidation until June 30, 2034. Existing law appropriates $250,000,000 from the General Fund to the department in the 2021–22 fiscal year for purposes of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification Incentive Program and for covering National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification fees, as provided. Existing law requires those moneys to be available for encumbrance until June 30, 2026, as provided. This bill would instead make those moneys available for encumbrance until June 30, 2030, and available for liquidation until June 30, 2034, thereby making an appropriation. The bill, commencing July 1, 2027, would transfer the administrative duties of the program from the department to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing and would require the department to transfer all unencumbered funds available for the program to the commission to award grants for the program. (30) Existing law requires the commission to adopt standards for the accreditation of postsecondary teacher preparation programs. Existing law prescribes "clinical practice" as one of the commission-adopted standards and requires that teaching credential candidates perform 600 hours of clinical practice throughout the candidate's teacher preparation program, including, as a component of those hours, unpaid student teaching. This bill would establish the Student Teacher Stipend Program under the administration of the commission to support prospective educators, as defined, during their completion 500 or more hours of student teaching, as provided. The bill would require local educational agencies awarded funding pursuant to the program to provide stipends of $10,000 to be paid during the school year in which the credential candidates are completing their student teaching. The bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2027, and every year thereafter, to provide a report to the Department of Finance and the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature regarding the status of the program. The bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the commission for allocation to support the Student Teacher Stipend Program, and would require $5,000,000 of that amount to be made available to the Kern County Superintendent of Schools for specified purposes, including conducting a related multimedia campaign and the establishment of a grants management system, as specified. Commencing July 1, 2026, to the extent funds are available, the bill would require up to $100,000,000 to be made available annually for the commission to award stipends under the program. (31) Existing law establishes the Teacher Residency Grant Program and appropriates funds from the General Fund to the commission to make one-time grants to develop new, or expand, strengthen, or improve access to existing, teacher residency programs, as provided. This bill would appropriate $70,000,000 from the General Fund to the commission to augment the Teacher Residency Grant Program to support teacher residency programs that recruit and support the preparation of teachers, as provided. (32) Existing law establishes the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and requires the Superintendent 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, as a condition of receiving that funding, to offer access to expanded learning opportunity programs to all pupils and to provide access to any pupil whose parent or guardian requests their placement in a program. Existing law subjects local educational agencies to an audit, as specified, to determine compliance with those requirements. Existing law prohibits a local educational agency with prior year classroom-based average daily attendance in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, from receiving less than $50,000 under the program in a fiscal year. The bill, commencing with the 2025–26 school year, would (A) lower the unduplicated pupil percentage requirement for funding availability, and its associated funding conditions, from 75% to 55%, (B) revise auditing requirements for certain local educational agencies, as specified, and (C) double the minimum funding for local educational agencies under the program to $100,000 in a fiscal year. The bill would, for the 2025–26 fiscal year only, require the Superintendent to calculate the difference between the prior fiscal year average daily attendance from the first period reported kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and the second period reported kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and, if there is a difference, allocate to the applicable local educational agency the amount of that difference attributable to specified local educational agencies, as provided. (33) Existing law authorizes a school district, county office of education, or charter school, beginning July 1, 2025, to implement attendance recovery programs for pupils to make up lost instructional time and offset absences, as specified. For the purposes of computing average daily attendance for these attendance recovery programs, existing law requires certain minimum daily instructional minute requirements on all local educational agencies, as provided. This bill, for the above-described purpose, would apply different schoolday and instructional minute requirements to county community schools, continuation high schools, juvenile court schools, and community day schools that are applicable to those settings, as provided. (34) Existing law requires each school district that has one or more pupils who are English learners, and, to the extent required by federal law, each county office of education and each charter school, to assess the English language development of each pupil in order to determine the pupil's level of proficiency, as specified. Existing law requires the assessment for initial identification to be conducted upon the initial enrollment of a pupil, excluding enrollment in a transitional kindergarten program, as provided. Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to maintain a transitional kindergarten program. This bill would require the Superintendent, by no later than March 31, 2026, to select, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, a list of screening instruments that meet specified requirements to support the identification of multilingual learners, as defined, enrolled in transitional kindergarten, as provided. The bill would appropriate $10,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to acquire the selected screening instruments and any training materials, as specified, and to support field tests of the screening instruments. Commencing with the 2027–28 school year, the bill would require a local educational agency that serves pupils in transitional kindergarten to screen those pupils whose primary language is a language other than English, as indicated on a home language survey administered upon the pupil's enrollment, to identify them as multilingual learners using a screening instrument selected by the Superintendent, as provided. (35) Existing law requires a school district or charter school, as a condition of receipt of apportionment for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program, to, among other things, commencing with the 2022–23 school year, maintain an average of at least one adult for every 12 pupils for transitional kindergarten classrooms at each schoolsite and commencing with the 2025–26 school year, maintain an average of at least one adult for every 10 pupils, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to, commencing with the 2022–23 school year, withhold a portion of a school district's or charter school's local control funding formula entitlement if the school district or charter school fails to comply with maintaining an average of at least one adult for every 12 pupils for transitional kindergarten classrooms at each schoolsite, as provided. This bill would, for the 2025–26 school year, and for each school year thereafter, require the Superintendent to withhold a portion of a school district's or charter school's local control funding formula entitlement if the school district or charter school fails to comply with maintaining an average of at least one adult for every 10 pupils for transitional kindergarten classrooms at each schoolsite, as provided. (36) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. Existing law requires, pursuant to specified funding appropriated in the Budget Act of 2024, the State Department of Education to allocate up to $2,500,000 to up to 3 county offices of education to sustain and enhance the operations of technical assistance centers to foster relationships between community partners and local educational agencies in each region. Existing law requires the technical assistance centers to prioritize providing regional support, resources, and expertise to homeless education liaisons to ensure that local educational agencies meet all requirements under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as provided. Existing law requires the technical assistance centers to be operative only for the duration of the availability of certain federal grant funds. This bill would require, pursuant to specified funding appropriated in the annual Budget Act, commencing in the 2025–26 fiscal year, the department to allocate those funds to the above-described technical assistance centers. The bill would eliminate the requirement that the technical assistance centers be operative only for the duration of the availability of those federal grant funds. (37) Existing law requires a pupil to complete designated coursework while in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in order to receive a diploma of graduation from high school. These graduation requirements include, among others, the completion of 3 courses in social studies, including a one-semester course in economics. Commencing with pupils graduating in the 2030–31 school year, including for pupils enrolled in a charter school, existing law requires the completion of a separate, stand-alone one-semester course in personal finance, that is prohibited from being combined with any other course. Existing law authorizes a pupil who completes a separate, stand-alone one-semester course in personal finance, that is not combined with any other course, to elect to be exempt from the graduation requirement to complete a one-semester course in economics. This bill instead would authorize a local educational agency to exempt a pupil who completes a separate, stand-alone one-semester course in personal finance, that is not combined with any other course, from the graduation requirement to complete a one-semester course in economics. (38) Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the state board and consider including, when revising the history-social science curriculum framework, age-appropriate information on financial literacy for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, including, among other things, identifying means to finance college, workforce education, low-cost community college options, and other career technical educational pathways or apprenticeships. Existing law specifies that the financing options covered may include scholarships, merit aid, and student loans. This bill would additionally include the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program to the list of covered financing options that may be included. (39) Existing law requires the governing board of each school district and county board of education to adopt an LCAP and to update its LCAP before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires the governing body of a charter school to, on or before July 1 each year, hold a public hearing to adopt an LCAP and to update the goals and annual actions to achieve specified goals, as provided. If a school district, county office of education, or charter school is identified as not having adopted an LCAP or an update to an LCAP by July 1, this bill would require the local educational agency to be assessed a financial penalty equal to 20% of the local educational agency's 2nd principal apportionment local control funding formula entitlement, as specified. The bill would provide that for each additional business day that the local educational agency does not adopt an LCAP or an update to an LCAP, the 20% penalty increases by 1%, except that the penalty may not exceed 80%, as provided. The bill would require a financial penalty applied pursuant to these provisions to be modified, as applicable, if the delay is due to a specified event. (40) Existing law requires the state board to adopt specified evaluation rubrics for local educational agencies, and requires, as part of these evaluation rubrics, the state board to adopt performance criteria for local educational agency assistance and intervention, as provided. Existing law appropriates $400,000 from the General Fund to the state board for the 2021–22 fiscal year to solicit and evaluate proposals and contract for an independent evaluation of technical assistance, including an examination of the state's current accountability structures for technical assistance and intervention, as provided. This bill would require the state board to update the performance criteria, no later than July 15, 2026, taking into consideration the findings and recommendations from the above-described evaluation of the state's technical assistance system and its implementation, and the need to appropriately focus resources and supports where the demonstrated needs are greatest. (41) The Budget Acts of 2023 and 2024 each appropriated $2,000,000 to be allocated to 11 regional county offices of education to provide technical assistance to local educational agencies on federal requirements related to English learners, and recommendations for best practices, instructional strategies, and improvement in English language proficiency and state academic standards, as provided. The Budget Act of 2023 requires the department, in consultation with and subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to identify metrics to assess the performance of the regional county offices of education in performing the specified duties. This bill, contingent upon specified federal funding appropriated in the Budget Act of 2025 not being available, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, would appropriate $2,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to award to county offices of education serving as regional English learner lead agencies, as provided. Commencing with the 2026–27 fiscal year, the bill would annually appropriate $2,000,000 from the General Fund each fiscal year to the Superintendent for those same purposes. The bill would require the department, for purposes of the 2025–26 fiscal year appropriation, to allocate the funds to the above-described 11 county offices of education serving as regional county office of education English learner specialists, assess their performance education in performing the duties specified according to the metrics approved by the executive director of the state board, and provide a final report to the Department of Finance and the executive director of the state board, no later than December 30, 2026, on the regional county offices of education's performance on these metrics. The bill would require the State Department of Education, on or before July 1, 2026, to select, in consultation with and subject to approval by the executive director of the state board, county offices of education to serve as regional English learner lead agencies, pursuant to a process that ensures that no fewer than 5 and no more than 7 regional English learner lead agencies are selected in a manner that ensures statewide coverage. The bill would require the regional English learner lead agencies to be selected for a term not to exceed 4 years, and would authorize the department, subject to approval by the executive director of the state board, to either renew the selection of the existing regional English learner lead agency or reopen the selection process, as provided. (42) Existing federal law provides for the permanent and nationwide Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) program, under which pupils who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals receive $40 per month during summer months for grocery benefits. Existing state law requires the State Department of Education to work with the State Department of Social Services to maximize participation in the federal Summer EBT program, as provided. This bill would require schools that participate in the federal School Breakfast Program or National School Lunch Program to establish a pupil's Summer EBT eligibility status through a specified application, as provided. (43) Existing law requires the Superintendent, for the 2021–22 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, to calculate, and the State Department of Education to apportion, certain amounts of funding generated by foster youth, short-term residential therapeutic program placements, and children and youth residing in specified facilities. This bill would instead require, for the 2024–25 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, the Superintendent to calculate the amount of funding generated by short-term residential therapeutic program placements, as well as community treatment facility placements, as defined, based on the average daily population at both short-term residential therapeutic program placements and community treatment facility placements, as provided. The bill would also make conforming changes. (44) Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from adopting or approving the use of any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or curriculum if its use would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination, as specified. Existing authorizes any person to file a complaint of an alleged violation with the local educational agency using the uniform complaint process or directly with the Superintendent, as provided. If the Superintendent determines that a local educational agency has violated that prohibition and has not taken corrective action within 60 days, existing law authorizes the department to use any means authorized to effect compliance, and requires the assessment of a specified financial penalty on a local educational agency found by the Superintendent to have violated the prohibition, as provided. This bill would revise the financial penalty calculation, as specified. (45) Existing law establishes the California Center for Inclusive College (the center) and annually appropriates, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, $2,000,000 each fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to, in consultation with the executive director of the state board, allocate to a county office of education selected to administer the center, working in partnership with specified entities. Existing law requires, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, up to $500,000 to be available for the center to convene an advisory workgroup consisting of representatives from at least 2, but not more than 5, existing inclusive college programs throughout the state to consult with the center, as specified. This bill would instead require the Superintendent to select one or more county offices of education to administer the center. The bill would require the center to instead convene an advisory workgroup consisting of representatives from at least 2, but not more than 6, existing inclusive college programs throughout the state to consult with the center, as specified. To the extent that the bill would create new duties for a county office of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (46) Existing law requires certain funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act for reimbursement for the cost of a new program or increased level of service of an existing program mandated by statute or executive order to be available as a block grant to school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education, to support specified state-mandated local programs. Existing law provides that a school district, charter school, or county office of education that submits a letter requesting funding to the Superintendent and receives this block grant funding is not eligible to submit a claim for reimbursement for those specified mandated programs for the fiscal year in which the block grant funding is received. This bill would add to the list of programs that are authorized for block grant funding in lieu of program-specific reimbursement to include requirements relating to ensuring pupil compliance with completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or a form for purposes of the California Dream Act, as provided. (47) Existing law, for designated residential development projects, as defined, prohibits a local agency from requiring payment of fees or charges on the residential development for the construction of public improvements or facilities until the date the first certificate of occupancy or first temporary certificate of occupancy is issued, as specified. Existing law authorizes the local agency to require the payment of those fees or charges at an earlier time if certain conditions are met, including, among other things, that the local agency determines that the fees or charges will be collected for public improvements or facilities including, among other things, the construction and rehabilitation of school facilities, if a school district has a 5-year plan, as specified. This bill would instead require, for the construction and rehabilitation of school facilities, the school district governing board to have approved a 5-year school facilities master plan, as provided. (48) The Budget Act of 2017 appropriates $376,200,000 from the Clean Energy Job Creation Fund for allocation by the Superintendent to school districts, county offices of education, state special schools, and charter schools for specified purposes. The act provides that those funds shall be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2019. This bill would extend that deadline to June 30, 2026, if either or both of two specified conditions is met, thereby making an appropriation. (49) The Budget Act of 2021, among other things, appropriates $107,069,000 to the department and provides $160,000 of that amount on a one-time basis for the department to contract with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) organization to serve as the lead partner to the department in the development of an online LGBTQ+ cultural competency training platform and $275,000 of that amount on a one-time basis for the Superintendent and the selected lead partner to establish an advisory committee to inform the development and content of the LGBTQ+ cultural competency training curriculum to assure that it is culturally competent, comprehensive, and meets the needs of LGBTQ+ students, families, and teachers, as provided. This bill would extend the period that those latter amounts are available for encumbrance to instead be through June 30, 2025, thereby making an appropriation. (50) The Budget Act of 2021, among other things appropriates $50,000,000 to the Superintendent to allocate to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence to administer evidence-based professional education for educators that can support learning acceleration for California's diverse pupil population, particularly in mathematics, literacy, and language development, as provided, and authorizes those moneys to be available for specified purposes only through the 2025–26 fiscal year. This bill would extend the time the funds appropriated for the purpose described above, including any interest earned by the administrative agent on those funds, are available to be used to instead be until January 1, 2028, thereby making an appropriation. (51) The Budget Act of 2021, among other things, appropriates $253,000,000 to the Department of General Services, and requires $250,000,000 of that amount to be available for a competitive grant program to support regional K–16 education collaboratives that create streamlined pathways from high school to postsecondary education and into the workforce and makes those funds available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2026. To qualify to receive a grant under the program, existing law requires a regional K–16 education collaborative to meet specified criteria, including, among others, committing to implement at least 4 of 7 recommendations from the February 2021 Recovery with Equity report to promote student success, and committing to creating occupational pathways, including accelerated degree or credential programs that incorporate work-based learning, in at least 2 of 4 specified sectors, based on regional needs. Existing law specifies a June 30, 2026, deadline for those 2 criteria. This bill would, relative to that latter specific criteria, require a regional K–16 education collaborative to commit instead to creating 2 occupational pathways, including either accelerated degree or credential programs that incorporate work-based learning, based on the identification of primary priority sectors in collaboration with the California Jobs First Council. The bill would also delay the deadline for both criteria by 2 years to instead be June 30, 2028. The bill would extend the period that those moneys are available for encumbrance or expenditure to instead be until June 30, 2030, thereby making an appropriation. (52) Existing law appropriates $15,000,000 to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the Reading and Literacy Supplementary Authorization Incentive Grant Program to support the preparation of credentialed teachers to earn a supplementary authorization in reading and literacy, as specified. Existing law requires these funds to be available for encumbrance until June 20, 2027. This bill would revise and recast the program by renaming it as the Mathematics Instructional Added Authorization and Reading and Literacy Supplementary Authorization Incentive Grant Program, including mathematics authorizations in the program, as specified, increasing the award amount a participating teacher is eligible to receive and reducing the local match requirements of the program, as provided, and making conforming changes to reporting requirements related to the program. The bill would extend the date the funds are available for encumbrance to instead be June 30, 2030, thereby making an appropriation. (53) Existing law appropriates $600,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for allocation to certain school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to expend on kitchen infrastructure upgrades that will increase a school's capacity to prepare meals served through a federal school meal program, as defined, including for freshly prepared onsite meals, to serve fresh and nutritious school meals using minimally processed, locally grown, and sustainable food, or for expanding meal options for pupils with restricted diets, as specified. Existing law requires, as a condition of receiving funding, each local educational agency to report to the department, on or before June 30, 2025, on how it used the funding. Existing law makes funds allocated to eligible local educational agencies available for encumbrance until June 30, 2025. This bill would extend the reporting deadline and the time those funds are available for encumbrance by one year, thereby making an appropriation. (54) The Budget Act of 2024, among other things, appropriates $130,339,000 to the State Department of Education and makes $770,000 of that amount available on a one-time basis to support costs associated with developing an online training delivery platform and curriculum to support LGBTQ+ cultural competencies for teachers and other certificated employees in grades 7 through 12 by July 1, 2025. This bill would extend the period that the latter amount is available for encumbrance or expenditure to instead be through June 30, 2030, thereby making an appropriation. (55) The Budget Act of 2022 appropriates $4,000,000,000 for the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and makes those funds available for encumbrance until June 30, 2023, and for liquidation until June 30, 2025. This bill would instead make those funds available for liquidation until July 31, 2025. By extending the period of time in which funds encumbered under existing appropriations may be liquidated, the bill would make an appropriation. (56) Existing law appropriates $4,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to select a county office of education to research models of hybrid and remote learning at public schools across the state and provide guidance, support, and resources to local educational agencies to build their own hybrid and remote learning programs to support innovative learning opportunities and instructional continuity, as specified. This bill would repeal that appropriation. (57) This bill would require, on or before January 31, 2026, the Superintendent, in consultation with the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges, as applicable, to examine and determine the feasibility of streamlining specified career technical education grant application and reporting processes into a single universal application and collecting program reports and data in a consolidated process, and to provide the chairs of the relevant policy committees and budget subcommittees of the Legislature, the executive director of the state board, and the Director of Finance with information, in writing, relating to that streamlining, as provided. The bill would require the Superintendent and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, on or before October 15, 2025, to each provide related information, as specified. The bill would require the Chancellor, in consultation with the Superintendent, on or before January 31, 2026, to provide information, in writing, with an update on steps that the Chancellor is taking to better align the timelines, application components, and reporting requirements of the K–12 Strong Workforce Program with the identified streamlined application and reporting processes, as specified. (58) The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, amended the California Constitution to, among other things, set forth a formula for computing the minimum amount of revenues that the state is required to appropriate for the support of school districts and community college districts in any given fiscal year. This bill would require The Director of Finance, as part of the budget submitted to the Legislature by January 10, 2026, to (A) provide an updated estimate of the Proposition 98 funding requirement for the 2024–25 fiscal year and the sum of all previous appropriations counting toward that requirement, (B) identify the additional amount required to meet the Proposition 98 funding requirement in 2024–25 and propose a plan for appropriating that amount, as specified, and (C) account for that amount that is available to support school programs before making any reduction otherwise allowed by law. (59) This bill would put into statute and extend for the 2025–26 school year, certain provisions of executive orders issued by the Governor as a result of a state of emergency that was declared by the Governor in January 2025, including provisions relating to the use by school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools in the County of Los Angeles of temporary facilities located outside of district boundaries, the collection of average daily attendance for those pupils served outside of district boundaries, the suspension of provisions relating to the leasing of local educational agency property to impacted local educational agencies in the County of Los Angeles, the authorization of a site-based charter school within the County of Los Angeles whose schoolsite was damaged or is inaccessible due to the emergency to establish an alternative site anywhere within the County of Los Angeles, and the suspension of any requirement that a classroom-based charter school that provides independent study programs due to facility inaccessibility, damage, or destruction, or pupil displacement, as a result of the emergency, submit a funding determination, pursuant to specified law, and any requirement to obtain a material revision from the chartering authority of the charter school to offer nonclassroom-based instruction. (60) The Budget Act of 2020, among other things, allocates $350,000 of specified appropriated funds to a county office of education selected by the executive director of the state board for the purpose of convening a workgroup that will design a state standardized individualized education program (IEP) template. The Budget Act of 2022, among other things, allocates $200,000 of specified appropriated funds to be available on a one-time basis for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence to convene a panel to continue refining the IEP template for usability, as provided. Existing law requires the department, by January 1, 2027, or no later than 18 months after the IEP template is converted to a digital platform, whichever date comes first, to translate the IEP template into the top 10 most commonly spoken languages used across the state other than English and, among other things, to make those templates available on its internet website, as provided. This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence for the digitization of the above-described IEP template. The bill would require the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, in consultation with the executive director of the state board, to enter into a contract with a California special education student information system vendor to convert the IEP template into a user-dynamic software platform, develop an interactive digital version of the IEP template that is accessible to the public at no cost, and make those digitized templates available to local educational agencies and to the public, respectively, on or before June 30, 2026. The bill would appropriate, contingent upon federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2025 for the translations of the digitized state standardized individualized education program template not being available due to a reduction in California's receipt of federal funds, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate up to $1,000,000 to a county office of education, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, for the translation of the digitized IEP template into the top 10 most commonly spoken languages in California other than English. (61) This bill would require a basic aid school district, as defined, that experiences a decrease in local property tax revenues as a result of the Eaton and Palisades Fires in the County of Los Angeles in January 2025 to be reimbursed from the General Fund by the Controller for losses experienced in the 2024–25 and 2025–26 fiscal years, as provided, thereby making an appropriation. (62) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $160,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to establish the Universal School Meals Support Grant, as provided. Of that amount, the bill would require (A) $145,000,000 to be made available to award to local educational agencies to expend for specified purposes for the continued implementation of universal school meals, (B) $10,000,000 to be provided to local educational agencies to support the retention and recruitment of food service workers, as specified, and (C) $5,000,000 to be made available to the department to contract with the Marin County Office of Education for a study of, and report on, particularly harmful ultra-processed foods being offered in school meals in California, as provided. (63) This bill would, on or before June 30, 2026, appropriate an amount to be determined by the Director of Finance from the General Fund to the Superintendent in augmentation of a certain item in the Budget Act of 2025. The bill would make these funds available only to the extent that revenues distributed to local educational agencies for special education programs from successor agencies are less than the estimated amount determined by the Director of Finance. The bill would require, on or before June 30, 2026, the Director of Finance to determine if the revenues distributed to local educational agencies for special education programs from successor agencies exceed the estimated amount reflected in the Budget Act of 2025 and, if so, would require the Director of Finance to reduce the specified appropriation in the Budget Act of 2025 by the amount of that excess. (64) This bill would appropriate $1,696,718,000 from the General Fund to the department to establish the Student Support and Professional Development Discretionary Block Grant, for allocation to county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and the state special schools for discretionary purposes, including, among other things, providing standards-aligned professional development for teachers on the English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework, the Literacy Roadmap, and the Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools and addressing rising costs, as provided. (65) 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, among other things, support (A) a list of designated shortage fields, or (B) local efforts to recruit, develop support systems for, provide outreach and communication strategies to, and retain a diverse teacher workforce that reflects a local educational agency community's diversity. For the 2022–23 fiscal year, 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. The Budget Act of 2022 also reappropriates $66,000,000 from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account to the Superintendent for transfer to the commission for these purposes. This bill would extend the period that the latter funds are available for encumbrance to instead be until June 30, 2027, and are available for liquidation to instead be until June 30, 2032, thereby making an appropriation, and, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, would make those funds available in reimbursement authority for the commission to receive that funding to augment the Teacher Residency Grant Program, as provided. (66) This bill would establish the Secondary School Redesign Pilot Program to develop and identify effective models of middle and high school redesign, as provided. The bill would appropriate $10,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for the program for allocation to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence as the lead agency to administer the program. The bill would specify the duties of the lead agency, including, among others, selecting and managing a network of grantees and submitting an evaluation of the pilot program to the Legislature on or before September 1, 2029. The bill would authorize up to $1,000,000 of the appropriated funds to be used by the lead agency for program administration and evaluation, as provided, and would require up to $300,000 of the appropriated funds to be made available to reimburse the Marin County Office of Education, the administrative agent of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, for costs associated with the administration of these provisions. The bill would require participating schools and local educational agencies to participate in the pilot program for 2 years, develop and implement programs to redesign middle and high schools to better serve the needs of all pupils, and collect and report data and resources, as provided. (67) Existing law makes specified funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2023 for the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, education for adults in correctional facilities, and special education available for encumbrance until June 30, 2024, and for liquidation until June 30, 2026. This bill would instead make those funds appropriated for those purposes in the Budget Act of 2023 available for liquidation until July 31, 2026. By extending the period of time in which funds encumbered under existing appropriations may be liquidated, the bill would make an appropriation. (68) This bill would appropriate $30,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to the Riverside County Office of Education for allocation to the Special Olympics of Northern and Southern California for specified purposes, as provided, and would require the Riverside County Office of Education to be the fiscal agent for those funds for the Special Olympics of Northern and Southern California. By imposing additional duties on the Riverside County Office of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (69) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to a county office of education to contract with one or more research or nonprofit organizations to study the processes by which other states develop curriculum guidance and to make recommendations about how to improve and streamline California's processes, as provided. (70) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year $40,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to local educational agencies that administer literacy screenings to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 for risk of reading difficulties and would require those local educational agencies to expend those funds for the procurement of screening instruments, screening administration, and training for school employees to administer pupil screenings in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, but excluding transitional kindergarten, in order to assess for risk of reading difficulties using certain approved screening instruments, as provided. (71) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $250,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate to the administrative agent for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence to partner with one or more research organizations, institutions of higher education, or other nonprofit organizations with expertise in evidenced-based literacy instruction to develop guidance for the state board to adopt on or before January 31, 2026, to support the follow-up adoption and subsequent implementation of English Language Arts/English Language Development instructional materials by the Instructional Quality Commission and the state board, as provided. (72) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $215,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to augment the previously established Literacy Coaches and Reading Specialists Grant Program. Of that amount, the bill would require (A) $200,000,000 to be allocated by the Superintendent to local educational agencies for eligible schoolsites, as defined, to develop school literacy programs, employ and develop literacy coaches and specialists, and develop and implement interventions for pupils in need of targeted literacy support, as provided, (B) $15,000,000 to be available for the Superintendent, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to select a county office of education or a consortium of county offices of education with expertise in both literacy instruction and multilingual education, through a competitive process, to provide training for educators to become literacy coaches and provide credentialing opportunities for educators to become reading and literacy and bilingual specialists, as provided. (73) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $15,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence to (A) make $7,500,000 available to convene a Statewide Literacy Network to support statewide implementation of evidence-based practices aligned to the English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework, the English Learner Roadmap, the Literacy Roadmap, and the use of data to support effective instruction, as provided, and (B) make $7,500,000 available to convene a Statewide Mathematics Network to support statewide implementation of evidence-based practices aligned to the Mathematics Framework and the use of data to support effective instruction. (74) This bill would appropriate $10,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate to the county office of education selected to administer the California Dyslexia Initiative to contract with the University of California, San Francisco Dyslexia Center to continue to expand the capacity of a certain reading difficulties screening tool for California's diverse pupil population and to support its use. The bill would make that funding contingent on the maintenance of a reading difficulties screening tool that remains accessible to local educational agencies at no cost to California public schools to be administered to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2. The bill would prescribe annual summary reporting requirements for the University of California, San Francisco Dyslexia Center, through the designated county office of education, to submit to the department, the Department of Finance, the state board, and the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. (75) This bill would appropriate, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, $150,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education, subject to pending legislation. The bill would require the department, upon the signing of that legislation, to transfer the funds to the administering entity identified in the legislation, if applicable, by no later than May 1, 2026. If that legislation is not enacted by January 1, 2026, the bill would instead require the appropriated funds, on or after January 1, 2026, to be used for the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, as provided. (76) Existing law appropriates $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to one or more county offices of education, or consortia of county offices of education, to partner with the California Mathematics Project and other specified entities to develop and deliver educator training, including the training of mathematics coaches, and provide resources to educators on delivering high-quality mathematics instruction to pupils throughout the state pursuant to the curriculum framework for mathematics adopted by the state board, as specified. This bill would appropriate $30,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to the Kern County Superintendent of Schools for the Mathematics Professional Learning Partnership to support educator training, including mathematics coaches, teachers, and school administrators for implementation of the new mathematics curriculum framework in local educational agencies. The bill would require the Mathematics Professional Learning Partnership to, among other things, continue to support the California Mathematics Project along with its other existing partners, as specified. The bill would require the Kern County Superintendent of Schools to submit an expenditure plans on behalf of the Mathematics Professional Learning Partnership for to those to the Department of Finance for approval by January 31, 2026. By imposing additional duties on the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (77) Existing law establishes the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, administered by the California Health and Human Services Agency and its departments, with the purpose of transforming the state's behavioral health system into an innovative ecosystem in which all children and youth 25 years of age and younger, regardless of payer, are screened, supported, and served for emerging and existing behavioral health needs. Existing law requires, subject to an appropriation, that the initiative include, among other things, school-linked partnership, capacity, and infrastructure grants to qualified entities to support implementation of the initiative for behavioral health services in schools and school-linked settings, as provided. This bill would appropriate $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to allocate to the Sacramento County Office of Education to, in partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education, award competitive grants to local educational agencies participating in specified cohorts of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative that are determined to be qualified, as provided. The bill would require the Sacramento County Office of Education to, on or before March 1, 2026, and in partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education, provide a report to the state board, the Department of Finance, the State Department of Health Care Services, the California Health and Human Services Agency, and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature that includes specified data, including, among other things, the number and amounts of awards granted, as provided. (78) This bill would appropriate $1,200,000 from the General Fund to the Office of Public School Construction to be available for allocation to the West Side Union Elementary School District for capital improvements at West Side Elementary School in the City of Healdsburg. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the West Side Union Elementary School District. (79) Existing law provides for emergency apportionments to school districts subject to specified conditions, including, in certain circumstances, the repayment of an emergency loan over a period of no more than 20 years and the appointment by the county superintendent of schools of an administrator who would exercise the powers and responsibilities of the governing board of the school district, as provided. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to provide emergency apportionment assistance to the Plumas Unified School District, and would require the Plumas County Superintendent of Schools to assume all the rights, duties, and powers of the governing board of the Plumas Unified School District and to appoint, in concurrence with the Superintendent and the president of the state board or their designee, a state administrator to act on behalf of the county superintendent of schools in exercising their authority over the school district, consistent with existing provisions of law applicable to all emergency apportionments, except as otherwise provided. The bill would continue the authority of the county superintendent of schools and the state administrator over the Plumas Unified School District until certain enumerated conditions are met, including the completion of specified recovery plans for the school district. The bill would require the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) to, among other things, provide specified assistance relating to the development of a multiyear financial recovery plan, the preparation of budget reports, and the recommendation of activities that could enhance revenue or achieve cost savings. The bill would authorize the Plumas Unified School District, through the Superintendent, to request emergency apportionments in the form of cashflow loans from the General Fund for a total of up to $20,000,000. The bill would require the Controller, upon order of the Director of Finance, to draw warrants against the General Fund to the Plumas Unified School District once a loan is approved by the Director of Finance, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would specify conditions to be followed by the school district in receiving the funds and repaying the loans. The bill would authorize the school district to sell property owned by the school district from September 1, 2025, to June 30, 2028, inclusive, and use the proceeds from the sale to reduce or retire the emergency loan, and would prohibit the school district from being eligible for financial hardship assistance under the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 from September 1, 2025, to June 30, 2028, inclusive. By imposing additional duties on local agencies and officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Plumas Unified School District. (80) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (81) Certain 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. (82) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.