AB 4

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools of each county, among other specified duties, to make annual visits to each school in his or her county at reasonable intervals to observe its operation and to learn of its problems. Existing law requires that the priority objective of those visits be the determination of whether each school has sufficient textbooks, as defined. This bill would revise the definition of sufficient textbooks for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years and, during those fiscal years, would require a county superintendent of schools to use that revised definition to determine whether a school has sufficient textbooks. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2010, and repeal them on January 1, 2011. (2) Existing law requires a revenue limit to be calculated for each county superintendent of schools, adjusted for various factors, and reduced, as specified. Existing law reduces the revenue limit for each county superintendent of schools for the 2008–09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 4.396%. This bill would instead reduce the revenue limit for each county superintendent of schools for the 2008–09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 5.050% (3) The Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 requires the State Allocation Board to require school districts applying for funds under that act to deposit, into a specified account for ongoing and major maintenance of school buildings, an amount equal to or greater than 3% of the total general fund expenditures of the applicant school district. This bill, for the 2008–09 fiscal year, would reduce that deposit requirement to an amount equal to or greater than 1% of the total general fund expenditures of the applicant school district. (4) Existing law requires a governing board of a school district to discuss proposals and plans for expenditure of funds for the deferred maintenance of school district facilities at a regularly scheduled public hearing. Existing law requires the governing board to make a report on the district's spending priorities for the current fiscal year to the Legislature, with copies to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, the Department of Finance, and the State Allocation Board, by March 1 of any year that the school district does not set aside prescribed funds for the deferred maintenance of its facilities. This bill would render this report requirement inoperative for the 2008–09 fiscal year. (5) Existing law directs that an amount of moneys be transferred in the annual Budget Act from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account to the School Facilities Emergency Repair Account. The amount to be transferred is required to equal 50% of the unappropriated balance of the Proposition 98 Reversion Account or $100,000,000, whichever amount is greater. The moneys transferred be used for the purpose of addressing emergency facilities needs. This bill, for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years, would reduce the amount required to be transferred pursuant to the requirement above to zero, and would transfer the appropriation made in the Budget Act of 2008 for purposes of funding the School Facilities Emergency Repair Account to the State Department of Education, on a one-time basis, to backfill regional occupational centers and programs. The bill would prohibit funds provided to school districts from the School Facilities Emergency Repair Account for the purpose of emergency repair grants from being used either to supplant funds provided to local educational agencies for the deferred maintenance of school facilities pursuant to specified statutes or for deposit into a school district deferred maintenance fund for expenditure for specified purposes. (6) Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the state to apply a minimum amount of funding for each fiscal year for the support of school districts and community college districts. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Director of Finance, by January 1, 2006, to jointly determine the outstanding balance of the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts pursuant to the California Constitution for the 1995–96 to 2003–04 fiscal years, inclusive. Existing law, commencing with the 2006–07 fiscal year, annually appropriates the sum of $150,000,000 from the General Fund to the Controller for allocation to school districts and community college districts for the purpose of discharging in full the outstanding balance of the minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts pursuant to the California Constitution. Existing law cancels that annual appropriation for the 2008–09 fiscal year. This bill, in addition, would cancel that annual appropriation for the 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13 fiscal years. If the Superintendent and the Director of Finance jointly determine that, for the 2008–09 fiscal year, the state has applied moneys for the support of school districts and community college districts in an amount that exceeds the minimum amount required for that fiscal year pursuant to the California Constitution, the bill would deem $1,100,590,000, as of June 30 of that fiscal year, as a payment in satisfaction of the outstanding balance, as defined, of the minimum funding obligation under that section for the 2002–03 and 2003–04 fiscal years, as specified. (7) Existing law establishes a pupil retention block grant and, commencing with the 2005–06 fiscal year, requires the Superintendent to apportion funds to a school district in the same relative statewide proportion that the school district received in the 2003–04 fiscal year for those programs, adjusted for various factors, including changes in program participation, inflation, and for growth in average daily attendance, as specified. This bill, for the 2008–09 fiscal year, would require the Superintendent to apportion pupil retention block grant funds only to school districts operating continuation high schools. The bill would require that the share of funding for those fiscal years received by a school district equal its statewide share of total continuation high school funding received in the 2003–04 fiscal year, as specified. (8) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to determine a revenue limit for each school district in the county, and requires the amount of the revenue limit to be adjusted for various factors. Existing law reduces the revenue limit for each school district for the 2008–09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 4.713%. This bill would instead reduce the revenue limit for each school district for the 2008–09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 5.357%. (9) Existing law, for the 2007–08 fiscal year, requires the categorical block grant allocated by the Superintendent for charter schools to be $500 per unit of charter school average daily attendance, as determined at the second principal apportionment for the 2007–08 fiscal year. The per unit amount is required to be adjusted for each fiscal year thereafter for a cost-of-living adjustment, as determined pursuant to statute. This bill, for the 2008–09 fiscal year, would reduce the categorical block grant for charter schools to $400 per unit of charter school average daily attendance, as determined at the second principal apportionment for the 2008–09 fiscal year. (10) Existing law requires a pupil, while enrolled in kindergarten in a public school, or while enrolled in first grade in a public school if the pupil was not previously enrolled in kindergarten in a public school, to present, no later than May 31 of the school year, proof of having received an oral health assessment by a licensed dentist, or other licensed or registered dental health professional operating within his or her scope of practice, that was performed no earlier than 12 months prior to the date of the initial enrollment of the pupil. This bill would make that provision inoperative for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years. (11) The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires a local educational agency to identify an elementary or secondary school that fails, for 2 consecutive years, to make adequate yearly progress, as defined by the state, for program improvement. The act requires a school that continues to fail to make adequate yearly progress after being identified for program improvement to take additional corrective action or meet specified restructuring requirements. The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the State Department of Education to identify local educational agencies that are in danger of being identified for program improvement pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act, and to notify those local educational agencies, in writing, of that status. The department also is required to provide those agencies with research-based criteria to conduct that voluntary self-assessment. This bill, for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years, would exempt a school, school district, county office of education, or charter school that has been identified for program improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 from required participation in the Mathematics and Reading Professional Development Program or the Administrator Training Program. (12) The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 establishes the High Priority Schools Grant Program, under which funds are made available to eligible low-performing schools for implementation of a school action plan that includes specified components. Under the act, a school that achieves positive growth in each year of the last 3 years of program implementation and achieves growth targets in 2 of those years exits the program. The act requires a school participating in the High Priority Schools Grant Program that does not meet its growth targets 36 months after funding, but shows significant growth, to continue to be monitored by the Superintendent. The act requires a school participating in the High Priority Schools Grant Program that does not meet its growth targets 36 months after funding, and fails to show significant growth to be deemed a state-monitored school. As a consequence, either the school is required to enter into a contract with a school assistance and intervention team or the Superintendent is required to assume all the legal rights, duties, and powers of the governing board of the school district with respect to the school. This bill, for the 2008–09 fiscal year, would provide that a school participating in the High Priority Schools Grant Program is not subject to review by the state board, state monitoring, and sanctions. The bill, for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years, would exempt a state-monitored school from required participation in the Mathematics and Reading Professional Development Program or the Administrator Training Program. (13) Existing law establishes the Instructional Materials Funding Realignment Program that requires the State Department of Education to apportion funds to school districts and requires the governing board of a school district to use that funding to ensure that each pupil is provided with a standards-aligned textbook or basic instructional materials by the beginning of the first school term that commences no later than 24 months after those materials were adopted by the State Board of Education, except as specified. This bill, until July 1, 2010, would exempt school districts from that requirement. (14) Existing law appropriates $39,780,000 from the General Fund to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, in the Budget Act of 2008, for the purpose of providing a 0.68% cost-of-living adjustment to apportionments to community college districts, for expenditure during the 2008−09 fiscal year. This bill would repeal that provision. (15) Each annual Budget Act makes various appropriations for purposes of public education. This bill would reappropriate for the current fiscal year prescribed amounts or the unexpended balance of specified appropriations made in specified prior Budget Acts to the State Department of Education for allocation to regional occupational centers and programs and would reduce the appropriation made by the Budget Act of 2008 for purposes of regional occupational centers and programs by an amount equal to the reappropriation described above. The bill also would reappropriate $1,408,536 from the Proposition 98 Reversion Account to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, on a one-time basis, to backfill the Puente Project. (16) The Budget Act of 2008 makes various appropriations for purposes of public education. This bill would reduce or eliminate specified appropriations made in that Budget Act. (17) The Budget Act of 2008 makes various appropriations for purposes of child care and development programs. This bill would reduce specified appropriations made in that Budget Act for those purposes. (18) The Budget Act of 2008 authorizes a local educational agency to expend not more than 10% of the amount apportioned under specified programs funded in the Budget Act of 2008 that were funded in a specified item of the Budget Act of 1999 that is commonly known as the Mega-Item for the purposes of other specified programs for which the recipient is eligible for funding. Among the programs from which 10% could be expended is the Home-to-School Transportation Program. This bill would remove the Home-to-School Transportation Program from those programs from which the local educational agency could transfer 10% of funding, and would add that program to those programs into which funds could be transferred. (19) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Controller, and the Director of Finance to develop standards and criteria to be reviewed by the State Board of Education and to be used by local educational agencies in the development of annual budgets and the management of subsequent expenditures from those budgets. This bill, for the 2008–09 fiscal year only, would authorize the governing board of a school district or county office of education to use up to 100% of the balances, as of June 30, 2008, of restricted accounts in its general fund or cafeteria fund, excluding restricted reserves committed for capital outlay, bond funds, sinking funds, federal funds, funds from the Public Transportation Account, and balances in designated programs. The bill would require a governing board that elects to use balances in restricted accounts to report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in a manner determined by the Superintendent, regarding the programs and amounts of restricted balances used for specified purposes. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to report statewide information and information for each school district and county office of education to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee by October 31, 2009. (20) This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to reduce the principal apportionment for school districts and county offices of education for the 2008-09 fiscal year, as necessary, if, during that fiscal year, the Controller has disbursed funds from the appropriations reduced by the bill in amounts greater than the amounts remaining in those appropriations following the reductions and the Superintendent determines there is no other way to recover the funds that have been disbursed during the 2008-09 fiscal year. (21) This bill would provide that its provisions will become operative only if either AB 2 or SB 2 and either AB 9 or SB 9 of the 2009–10 1st Extraordinary Session of the Legislature are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2009. (22) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 1, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 1, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution.