Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate age-appropriate materials relating to, among other things, genocide and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of genocide and the Holocaust. Existing law, upon appropriation by the Legislature, establishes the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education to establish a statewide teacher professional development program on genocide, including the Holocaust, for school district, county office of education, and charter school teachers, and provides that the collaborative's mission is to ensure that genocide, including Holocaust, education is taught consistent with, among other things, content standards, curriculum frameworks, and instructional materials adopted by the State Board of Education, in ways that are interdisciplinary and age-appropriate to pupils of different grade levels. This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the Holocaust and Genocide Education Grant Program to provide direct allocations to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools for the purposes of providing Holocaust and genocide education and professional development on Holocaust and genocide education, as provided. The bill would establish the Holocaust and Genocide Education Grant Program Fund in the State Treasury, and would require moneys in the fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Superintendent for purposes of the grant program. The bill would require the department to issue a notice to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools serving pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, regarding genocide and Holocaust instruction, and would authorize the department to issue a survey to these local educational agencies on the status of Holocaust and genocide instruction at their schools, as provided.
(1) Existing law requires, by no later than September 30, 2026, the State Board of Education to approve, and the State Department of Education 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. This bill would require the department, before incurring substantial costs for the review of professional development programs, to require that a professional development program provider that intends to submit materials for review to first declare their intent to submit one or more professional development programs for review. After a professional development program provider has declared their intent to submit one or more professional development programs for review, and until September 30, 2026, the bill would authorize the department to assess a fee on the submitting professional development program provider in an amount that shall not exceed the reasonable costs to the department to conduct a review of the submitted materials, as provided. The bill would, among other things, limit the maximum amount of a reasonable fee to no more than $10,000 for each professional development program submitted for review and would require the department to take reasonable steps to limit costs of the review and to keep the fee modest. The bill would require the department to allocate specified funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2025 to the Marin County Office of Education to contract with a research organization or nonprofit organization with expertise in evidenced-based literacy instruction, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to support the implementation of these provisions, as provided. Existing law appropriates $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, to pupils in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive, using the professional development programs that meet the above-referenced criteria and guidance. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion those funds to local educational agencies in an equal amount per full-time equivalent certificated staff who teach pupils in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive. This bill would require the Superintendent to make those apportionments using the data submitted through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System as of October 2025. (2) 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 apply for the support of school districts and community college districts based on one of 3 tests in any given fiscal year. If the Director of Finance determines pursuant to the certification process for the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts that the state has applied moneys in an amount that exceeds the minimum funding obligation for the fiscal year being certified, existing law requires the excess moneys to be credited to the fiscal year being certified. Existing law provides that $5,442,143,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to school districts and charter schools, and $770,786,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to community college districts, are excess moneys credited to the 2022–23 fiscal year only for the purposes of determining the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the 2022–23 and 2023–24 fiscal years. Existing law requires 10 proportional shares of $544,214,000 and $77,079,000, respectively, of those amounts to be recognized annually, from the 2026–27 fiscal year through the 2035–36 fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the 2022–23 fiscal year, but prohibits those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes. This bill would reduce that allocation to schools districts and charters in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments by $20,000,000 to instead be $5,422,143,000. The bill would instead require 12 proportional shares of $437,769,000 and $62,231,000, respectively, of the revised $5,422,143,000 amount and the $770,786,000 amount, respectively, to be recognized annually from the 2027–28 fiscal year through the 2038–39 fiscal year, and shares of $168,915,000 and $24,014,000, respectively, of those amounts, to be recognized in the 2039–40 fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the 2022–23 fiscal year, and would continue to prohibit those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes. (3) Existing law requires the department, by July 1, 2026, to create a data collection system for salary and benefits data for represented certificated and classified nonmanagement employees and requires the data collected to include salary, benefits, and full-time equivalent employee counts for certificated employees and for specified classified bargaining unit classifications, which are required to be collected in the same manner as for certificated employees, as determined by the department. Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and direct-funded charter schools, by August 31, 2026, and by July 1 annually thereafter, to complete the data collection process and to report the data to the department. This bill would require the department to make the data submitted by school districts, county offices of education, and direct-funded charter schools publicly available in a downloadable open file data format, as specified. (4) Existing law establishes the Student Teacher Stipend Program to support prospective educators, as defined, during their completion of 500 or more hours of student teaching, as provided, and appropriates, 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. Existing law requires $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. This bill would instead require up to $6,000,000 of that amount to be made available to the Kern County Superintendent of Schools for those same specified purposes. By reallocating the amounts of authorized uses of an existing appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (5) Existing law establishes the Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program. Existing law authorizes school districts and county offices of education to elect to participate in the program, and authorizes a classified employee of a participating local educational agency who meets specified requirements to withhold an amount from the employee's monthly paycheck during the school year to be paid out during the summer recess period, as provided. The Budget Act of 2023, the Budget Act of 2024, and the Budget Act of 2025 appropriated $90,000,000, $99,000,000, and $90,000,000, respectively, for purposes of the program. Each annual Budget Act requires its appropriations to be available for encumbrance or expenditure for the use for the fiscal year in which the funds are appropriated, unless otherwise provided therein. This bill would, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, require appropriations made in the annual Budget Act for purposes of the Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program to instead be available for encumbrance during both the fiscal year in which the funds are appropriated and the immediately following fiscal year. By extending the time for which previously appropriated moneys are available, the bill would make an appropriation. (6) 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 prescribes general minimum daily instructional minute requirements on all local educational agencies, as provided, and specific schoolday and instructional minute requirements on county community schools, continuation high schools, juvenile court schools, and community day schools that are applicable to those settings, as provided. This bill would, for the purposes of computing average daily attendance for these attendance recovery programs for opportunity schools, instead apply the instructional minute requirements that are applicable to opportunity schools. (7) Existing law establishes the Golden State Teacher Grant Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. Existing law requires the commission, among other grants within the program, for California resident applications received under the program on July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, inclusive, to provide reduced one-time grants of up to $5,000 to each student enrolled in a professional preparation program leading to a preliminary teaching credential or a pupil personnel services credential if the student commits to working at a priority school or a California preschool program for 2 years within 4 years following the date the student completes the professional preparation program, as specified. The bill would extend the availability of those grant program funds to applications received under the program on July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, inclusive. By expanding the time in which applications can be received under the program, which is funded by an existing appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (8) 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. Notwithstanding any other law, for purposes of the local control funding formula for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 fiscal years only, existing law requires 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. This bill would instead require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to determine a proxy count of English learner pupils enrolled in a transitional kindergarten that is based upon the percentage of English learners enrolled in kindergarten who are either not eligible for free or reduced-price meals or not a foster youth. (9) 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 of Education 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, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, appropriates $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence for the digitization of the IEP template. Existing law requires 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. 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 require the contracted vendor to be a vendor that currently transmits federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act-compliant data to the department through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System and would require the vendor, upon the availability of the translated IEP template, as specified, to integrate those translations into the digitized IEP template in order to ensure that users can access the IEP template in the top 10 most commonly spoke languages used in California other than English. (10) Existing law appropriates, 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, existing law requires (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 particularly harmful ultraprocessed foods being offered in school meals in California, as provided. Existing law requires the Marin County Office of Education to contract with the University of California for purposes of the study and requires the department to provide a report to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2027, again on or before January 1, 2030, and finally on or before January 1, 2032, with the findings of the study. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by, among other things, (A) requiring the above-described $5,000,000 to instead be made available to the department for allocation to the Marin County Office of Education for a study of ultraprocessed foods of concern and restricted school foods instead of particularly harmful ultraprocessed foods, (B) specifying that the Marin County Office of Education is required to contract with the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources' Nutritional Policy Institute for those purposes, (C) requiring the department, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health, to approve the scope of work, timelines, and study elements, (D) changing all references for these purposes from particularly harmful ultraprocessed foods to ultraprocessed foods of concern, as defined, and restricted school foods, as defined, and (E) extending the reporting deadlines, as provided. By revising the purposes of an existing appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (11) The bill would update cross references and make nonsubstantive changes. (12) 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. (13) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 45500 of the Education Code proposed by AB 378 to be operative only if this bill and AB 378 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (14) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
Existing law, the California Healthy Youth Act, requires school districts, charter schools, county boards of education, county superintendents of schools, the California School for the Deaf, and the California School for the Blind to ensure that all pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, receive comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education, as specified. The act requires that instruction to include, among other things, information about the effectiveness and safety of all federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -approved contraceptive methods in preventing pregnancy, including, but not limited to, emergency contraception, and requires instruction on pregnancy to include an objective discussion of all legally available pregnancy outcomes, including, but not limited to, parenting, adoption, and abortion. This bill would require the discussion of adoption to include a comprehensive explanation of, and information on, the types of adoption, the rights of a placing birth parent, and specific local adoption resources and support. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, 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.
(1) Existing law requires that a pupil be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with the pupil's gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's records. This bill would require that a pupil's participation in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use of facilities, including bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and overnight accommodations instead be based upon the pupil's sex, as defined. (2) The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education and their respective institutions of higher education. A provision of the act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the provision applicable. A portion of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, known as the Equity in Higher Education Act, provides, among other things, that all students have the right to participate fully in the educational process, free from discrimination and harassment, and that California's postsecondary educational institutions have an affirmative obligation to combat racism, sexism, and other forms of bias, and a responsibility to provide equal educational opportunity. This bill, notwithstanding any other law, would require that a student's participation in sex-segregated athletic programs and activities and use of facilities, including bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, overnight accommodations, and student housing at a postsecondary institution be based upon the student's sex.
This measure would call on members of the United States Congress to oppose reductions to funding that negatively impact educational services for students with disabilities and would call on the President of the United States and Congress to ensure that services and funding for students with disabilities are uninterrupted.
Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to issue a clear multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential to an applicant who satisfies, among other requirements, the state requirements for teaching English learners. Existing law requires the commission to issue authorizations for a teacher to provide specific services to limited-English-proficient pupils, if certain minimum requirements are met, including, among other requirements, completion of at least 6 semester units, or 9 quarter units, of coursework in a 2nd language at a regionally accredited institution of higher education. Existing law authorizes the commission to approve any regionally accredited institution of higher education to recommend to the commission the issuance of credentials to a person who has successfully completed a teacher education program with the institution, if the program meets the standards approved by the commission. This bill would, notwithstanding any other law, authorize the commission to approve a teacher education program offered by a school district or county office of education administered for purposes of earning a cross-cultural language and academic development certificate or a bilingual authorization certificate, including a California Teacher of English Learners program. The bill would require the commission to apply the standards for approval of a program of professional preparation offered by a regionally accredited institution of higher education to a program of professional preparation offered by a school district or county office of education under these provisions.
This measure would recognize May 2025 as Head Start Month and call on the Congress and the President of the United States to protect and increase funding for Head Start.
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. The coursework requirements include, among others, the completion of one course in visual or performing arts, foreign language, or career technical education. Existing law eliminates the authorization for career technical education to count toward that graduation requirement on July 1, 2027, or upon the occurrence of a specified event relating to career technical education requirements of the University of California and the California State University, whichever occurs earlier, as specified. This bill would indefinitely extend the authorization for career technical education to count toward that graduation requirement. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill also would make conforming changes. 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.
(1) Existing law requires, by no later than September 30, 2026, the State Board of Education to approve, and the State Department of Education 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. This bill would require the department, before incurring substantial costs for the review of professional development programs, to require that a professional development program provider that intends to submit materials for review to first declare their intent to submit one or more professional development programs for review. After a professional development program provider has declared their intent to submit one or more professional development programs for review, and until September 30, 2026, the bill would authorize the department to assess a fee on the submitting professional development program provider in an amount that shall not exceed the reasonable costs to the department to conduct a review of the submitted materials, as provided. The bill would, among other things, limit the maximum amount of a reasonable fee to no more than $10,000 for each professional development program submitted for review and would require the department to take reasonable steps to limit costs of the review and to keep the fee modest. The bill would require the department to allocate specified funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2025 to the Marin County Office of Education to contract with a research organization or nonprofit organization with expertise in evidenced-based literacy instruction, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to support the implementation of these provisions, as provided. Existing law appropriates $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, to pupils in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive, using the professional development programs that meet the above-referenced criteria and guidance. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion those funds to local educational agencies in an equal amount per full-time equivalent certificated staff who teach pupils in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive. This bill would require the Superintendent to make those apportionments using the data submitted through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System as of October 2025. (2) 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 apply for the support of school districts and community college districts based on one of 3 tests in any given fiscal year. If the Director of Finance determines pursuant to the certification process for the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts that the state has applied moneys in an amount that exceeds the minimum funding obligation for the fiscal year being certified, existing law requires the excess moneys to be credited to the fiscal year being certified. Existing law provides that $5,442,143,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to school districts and charter schools, and $770,786,000 allocated in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments to community college districts, are excess moneys credited to the 2022–23 fiscal year only for the purposes of determining the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the 2022–23 and 2023–24 fiscal years. Existing law requires 10 proportional shares of $544,214,000 and $77,079,000, respectively, of those amounts to be recognized annually, from the 2026–27 fiscal year through the 2035–36 fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the 2022–23 fiscal year, but prohibits those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes. This bill would reduce that allocation to schools districts and charters in the 2022–23 fiscal year for specified apportionments by $20,000,000 to instead be $5,422,143,000. The bill would instead require 12 proportional shares of $437,769,000 and $62,231,000, respectively, of the revised $5,422,143,000 amount and the $770,786,000 amount, respectively, to be recognized annually from the 2027–28 fiscal year through the 2038–39 fiscal year, and shares of $168,915,000 and $24,014,000, respectively, of those amounts, to be recognized in the 2039–40 fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the 2022–23 fiscal year, and would continue to prohibit those amounts from being credited as allocations made to meet the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts in the fiscal year in which the amount is recognized for budgetary and financial reporting purposes. (3) Existing law requires the department, by July 1, 2026, to create a data collection system for salary and benefits data for represented certificated and classified nonmanagement employees and requires the data collected to include salary, benefits, and full-time equivalent employee counts for certificated employees and for specified classified bargaining unit classifications, which are required to be collected in the same manner as for certificated employees, as determined by the department. Existing law requires school districts, county offices of education, and direct-funded charter schools, by August 31, 2026, and by July 1 annually thereafter, to complete the data collection process and to report the data to the department. This bill would require the department to make the data submitted by school districts, county offices of education, and direct-funded charter schools publicly available in a downloadable open file data format, as specified. (4) Existing law establishes the Student Teacher Stipend Program to support prospective educators, as defined, during their completion of 500 or more hours of student teaching, as provided, and appropriates, 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. Existing law requires $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. This bill would instead require up to $6,000,000 of that amount to be made available to the Kern County Superintendent of Schools for those same specified purposes. By reallocating the amounts of authorized uses of an existing appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (5) Existing law establishes the Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program. Existing law authorizes school districts and county offices of education to elect to participate in the program, and authorizes a classified employee of a participating local educational agency who meets specified requirements to withhold an amount from the employee's monthly paycheck during the school year to be paid out during the summer recess period, as provided. The Budget Act of 2023, the Budget Act of 2024, and the Budget Act of 2025 appropriated $90,000,000, $99,000,000, and $90,000,000, respectively, for purposes of the program. Each annual Budget Act requires its appropriations to be available for encumbrance or expenditure for the use for the fiscal year in which the funds are appropriated, unless otherwise provided therein. This bill would, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, require appropriations made in the annual Budget Act for purposes of the Classified School Employee Summer Assistance Program to instead be available for encumbrance during both the fiscal year in which the funds are appropriated and the immediately following fiscal year. By extending the time for which previously appropriated moneys are available, the bill would make an appropriation. (6) 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 prescribes general minimum daily instructional minute requirements on all local educational agencies, as provided, and specific schoolday and instructional minute requirements on county community schools, continuation high schools, juvenile court schools, and community day schools that are applicable to those settings, as provided. This bill would, for the purposes of computing average daily attendance for these attendance recovery programs for opportunity schools, instead apply the instructional minute requirements that are applicable to opportunity schools. (7) Existing law establishes the Golden State Teacher Grant Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. Existing law requires the commission, among other grants within the program, for California resident applications received under the program on July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, inclusive, to provide reduced one-time grants of up to $5,000 to each student enrolled in a professional preparation program leading to a preliminary teaching credential or a pupil personnel services credential if the student commits to working at a priority school or a California preschool program for 2 years within 4 years following the date the student completes the professional preparation program, as specified. The bill would extend the availability of those grant program funds to applications received under the program on July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, inclusive. By expanding the time in which applications can be received under the program, which is funded by an existing appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (8) 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. Notwithstanding any other law, for purposes of the local control funding formula for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 fiscal years only, existing law requires 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. This bill would instead require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to determine a proxy count of English learner pupils enrolled in a transitional kindergarten that is based upon the percentage of English learners enrolled in kindergarten who are either not eligible for free or reduced-price meals or not a foster youth. (9) 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 of Education 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, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, appropriates $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to allocate to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence for the digitization of the IEP template. Existing law requires 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. 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 require the contracted vendor to be a vendor that currently transmits federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act-compliant data to the department through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System and would require the vendor, upon the availability of the translated IEP template, as specified, to integrate those translations into the digitized IEP template in order to ensure that users can access the IEP template in the top 10 most commonly spoke languages used in California other than English. (10) Existing law appropriates, 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, existing law requires (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 particularly harmful ultraprocessed foods being offered in school meals in California, as provided. Existing law requires the Marin County Office of Education to contract with the University of California for purposes of the study and requires the department to provide a report to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2027, again on or before January 1, 2030, and finally on or before January 1, 2032, with the findings of the study. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by, among other things, (A) requiring the above-described $5,000,000 to instead be made available to the department for allocation to the Marin County Office of Education for a study of ultraprocessed foods of concern and restricted school foods instead of particularly harmful ultraprocessed foods, (B) specifying that the Marin County Office of Education is required to contract with the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources' Nutritional Policy Institute for those purposes, (C) requiring the department, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health, to approve the scope of work, timelines, and study elements, (D) changing all references for these purposes from particularly harmful ultraprocessed foods to ultraprocessed foods of concern, as defined, and restricted school foods, as defined, and (E) extending the reporting deadlines, as provided. By revising the purposes of an existing appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (11) The bill would update cross references and make nonsubstantive changes. (12) 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. (13) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 45500 of the Education Code proposed by AB 378 to be operative only if this bill and AB 378 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (14) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
The California Constitution prohibits the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education and their respective institutions of higher education. A provision of the act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the provision applicable. This bill would state that the California State University, the University of California, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions may consider providing a preference in admissions to an applicant who is a descendant of slavery, as defined, to the extent it does not conflict with federal law.
