AB 42

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 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. Existing law states for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years the intent of the Legislature that each pupil be provided with the same state-adopted standards-aligned text book or instructional material as is provided to every other pupil enrolled in the same grade and same course offered by the local educational agency. This bill for the 2008–09 to 2012–13 fiscal years, inclusive, would exclude supplemental materials as specified from the aforementioned statement of legislative intent. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that local educational agencies not be required to purchase the mathematics and English language arts instructional materials that are adopted in the same year or in consecutive years. (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 7.839% and for the 2009–10 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 13.360%. This bill would increase the deficit factor for each county superintendent of schools for the 2008–09 fiscal year to 11.183% and for the 2009–10 fiscal year to 17.313%. (3) Existing law makes child development appropriations, with the exception of funds appropriated for the After School Learning and Safe Neighborhoods Partnerships Program and for CalWORKs child care available for expenditure for 3 years, except that funds remaining unencumbered at the end of the first fiscal year are required to revert to the General Fund. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish criteria and procedures for the reallocation of unearned contract funds in the 2nd and 3rd years of availability, in accordance with specified priorities. This bill would repeal these provisions. (4) Existing law appropriates funds to the County of Los Angeles to address the retention of qualified child care employees in state-subsidized child care centers and to licensed child care programs that serve a majority of children who receive subsidized child care services, including family day care homes. To qualify for use in licensed child care programs that serve a majority of children who receive subsidized child care services, the funds are required to meet specified requirements, including that they be appropriated in specified schedules of an item in specified Budget Acts. This bill would change this requirement by instead requiring that the funds be appropriated in the annual Budget Act. (5) Existing law requires cost of state-funded child care services to be governed by regional market rates. Beginning March 1, 2009, the regional market rate ceilings are required to be established at the 85th percentile of the 2007 regional market rate survey for that region, and for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years, the 85th percentile ceilings of the 2007 regional market rate survey for that region are required to remain in effect. This bill would instead set the regional market rate ceiling at the 85th percentile of the 2005 regional market rate survey for that region and delete the ceilings set for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 fiscal years. (6) Existing law requires the Department of Finance, by March 1 of each year, to provide to the State Department of Education the state median income amount for a 4-person household in California based on the best available data. The State Department of Education is required to adjust its fee schedule for child care providers to reflect this updated state median income. This bill would prohibit changes from being implemented midyear. (7) Existing law establishes the School Age Community Child Care Services Program for the provision of extended day care services. This bill would make this program inoperative on September 1, 2009, or on the effective date of this bill, whichever is later, and would repeal it as of January 1, 2010. (8) Existing law requires that the funds from the sale of surplus school real property be used for capital outlay or for costs of maintenance of prescribed school district property.This bill until January 1, 2012, would authorize a school district to deposit from the sale of surplus school property, together with any personal property located on that property, purchased entirely with local funds, into the general fund of the school district and to use those proceeds for any one-time general fund purpose. The bill would make the district ineligible for hardship funding from the State School Deferred Maintenance Fund for 5 years after the date the proceeds are deposited into the district's general fund. The bill would require the State Allocation Board to reduce an apportionment of hardship assistance awarded to that district, as specified. Before exercising the authority granted by the bill, the governing board of the school district would be required to submit documents containing specified certifications to the State Allocation Board and, at a regularly scheduled meeting, present a plan for expending the proceeds of the sale. (9) Existing law, for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 fiscal years, sets the minimum state requirement for a local educational agency's reserve for economic uncertainties at12 of the percentage for a reserve adopted by the State Board of Education as of May 1, 2003, and restores that requirement, for the 2005–06 fiscal year, to the percentage adopted by the state board as of May 1, 2003.This bill would set that requirement for the 2009–10 fiscal year at 13 of the percentage for a reserve adopted by the state board as of May 1, 2009, and would require a school district to make progress in the 2011–12 fiscal year to returning to compliance with the specified standards and criteria adopted by the state board. The bill would restore the requirement, for the 2005–06 fiscal year, to the percentage adopted by the state board as of May 1, 2009.(10) The California Constitution requires the state to apply a minimum amount of funding for each fiscal year for the support of school districts and community college districts. The amount of that minimum funding obligation is required to be determined pursuant to 1 of 3 tests, depending on certain economic factors. The California Constitution requires, in a fiscal year when the 3rd of these tests is applied or when the minimum funding obligation is suspended, school districts and community college districts are entitled to a maintenance factor, that is required to be equal to an amount determined pursuant to a specified calculation.This bill would provide that a maintenance factor is required in any fiscal year in which the total amount of funding applied for the minimum funding obligation by the state for school districts and community college districts is less than the greater of the amounts computed pursuant to test 1 or test 2. The bill would provide that payment of the maintenance factor created in the 2008–09 fiscal year would not commence before July 1, 2011. The bill would require that any judicial action or proceeding to challenge, review, set aside, void, or annul these provision to proceed by application or complaint filed within 45 days of the effective date of this bill. (11) 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 7.844%, and for the 2009–10 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 13.094%. This bill would instead reduce the revenue limit for each school district for the 2008–09 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 11.187%, and for the 2009–10 fiscal year by a deficit factor of 17.048%, and would set forth a mechanism by which basic aid school districts would assume categorical funding reductions proportionate to the revenue limit reductions implemented for nonbasic aid school districts. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to fully fund the categorical block grant for charter schools and sets forth a mechanism to appropriate additional funding if needed for unanticipated increases in average daily attendance and counts of economic impact aid-eligible pupils. This bill would suspend until July 1, 2013, the statement of intent to fully fund the categorical block grant for charter schools and the mechanism for appropriating additional needed funding. (13) Existing law prescribes the minimum length of time for the instructional school year and the minimum number of instructional minutes per schoolday. Existing law imposes fiscal penalties on school districts and county offices of education that fail to maintain those minimum instructional times per school year or schoolday. This bill, commencing with the 2009–10 school year and continuing through the 2012–13 school year, would authorize a school district, county office of education, and charter school to reduce the equivalent of up to 5 days of instruction or the equivalent number of instructional minutes without incurring the fiscal penalties. (14) 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. Existing law exempts, until July 1, 2010, school districts from the 24-month requirement. This bill would extend that exemption until July 1, 2013, and would provide that the State Department of Education and the State Board of Education are prohibited from prohibiting a school, school district, county office of education, or charter school that has been identified for program improvement or corrective action under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 from implementing the exemption. Existing law requires each pupil completing grade 12 to successfully pass the exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school. Existing law requires that each pupil take the high school exit examination in grade 10 and allows each pupil to take the examination during each subsequent administration until each section of the examination has been passed. This bill, commencing with the 2009–10 school year until June 30, 2013, would suspend the requirement that each pupil completing grade 12 pass the high school exit examination as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation or a condition of graduation from high school and would continue requiring each pupil to take the high school exit examination in grade 10. The bill would redirect the expenditure of any remaining funds appropriated in the Budget Act of 2009 for the California high school exit examination to the STAR program, thereby making an appropriation. (15) Existing law, the Ortiz-Pacheco-Poochigian-Vasconcellos Cal Grant Program (Cal Grant Program) , establishes the Cal Grant A and B entitlement awards, the California Community College Transfer Cal Grant Entitlement awards, the Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards, the Cal Grant C awards, and the Cal Grant T awards under the administration of the Student Aid Commission, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards under these programs for participating students attending qualifying institutions. Existing law sets forth the maximum household income and asset levels for participants in the various grant programs under the act. These maximum levels are set forth as they were adopted by the commission for the 2001–02 academic year, but have been annually adjusted based on the percentage change in the cost of living as defined in a specified provision of the California Constitution. This bill would, with respect to the maximum household income and asset levels applicable to a Cal Grant A award, prohibit the commission from making the annual cost-of-living adjustment for the 2010–11 academic year. (16) Existing law establishes the long-term policy of the Cal Grant Program, which sets forth, among other things, the maximum amounts of Cal Grant A and Cal Grant B awards for students attending nonpublic postsecondary institutions. This bill would, commencing with the 2010–11 academic year, require the maximum Cal Grant A and Cal Grant B awards for students attending nonpublic institutions to be equal to $9,223, or the amount as adjusted in subsequent annual budget acts. (17) Existing law establishes community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at community college campuses throughout the state. Existing law requires the governing board of each community college district to charge each student, with specified exceptions, a fee of $20 per unit per semester, effective with the spring term of the 2006–07 academic year. This bill would increase that fee to $26 per unit per semester, effective with the fall term of the 2009–10 academic year. (18) Under existing law, the board of governors is required to develop criteria and standards for the purposes of making the annual budget request for the California Community Colleges to the Governor and the Legislature, pursuant to specified minimum requirements. Among those requirements, existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, that specified categorical programs providing direct services to students be funded separately through the annual Budget Act. This bill would, for the 2009–10 to 2012–13 fiscal years, inclusive, authorize a community college district to use funds apportioned to the district for specified categorical programs for purposes of a prescribed list of programs. The bill would prescribe public hearing and reporting requirements as a condition of receiving these funds. The bill would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to annually report these expenditures to the Department of Finance and the Legislature, as specified. (19) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove the adopted budget for each school district and requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to review and certify the budget approved by the county superintendent of schools. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to certify twice each fiscal year whether the district is able to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year and the subsequent fiscal year. The certification is required to be filed with the county superintendent of schools who is required to submit a qualified or negative certification to the Controller and Superintendent. This bill, for the 2009–10 fiscal year, would prohibit a county superintendent of schools and the Superintendent of Public Instruction from assigning a qualified or negative certification to a local education agency based substantially on a projected loss of federal funds provided through the federal State Fiscal Stabilization Fund of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the 2011–12 fiscal year. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to convene a standards and criteria committee to modify the budget and financial review criteria to incorporate this change for the 2009–10 fiscal year. (20) The bill would declare that the changes in law made by this bill would be operative commencing on July 1, 2009, and thus apply retroactively. (21) 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 19, 2009. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution.