AB 167

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) 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 at local educational agencies, defined as school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools. Existing law appropriates $300,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for allocation to local educational agencies for grants for the 2021–22 fiscal year. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate $200,000,000 of that amount to local educational agencies as base grants, enrollment grants, and supplemental grants for specified purposes. This bill would revise the methodology for allocating base grants, enrollment grants, and supplemental grants to local educational agencies under the program. (2) 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 the Controller to provide in each warrant a portion of the total amount certified by the Superintendent as apportioned for specified programs during the fiscal year from the State School Fund to the school districts and charter schools under the jurisdiction of the county superintendent of schools of that county, to the county school service fund of that county, and to the county school tuition fund of that county. This bill would add the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, specified mental health-related services, and the special education early intervention preschool grant to the list of programs for which the Controller is required to provide in each warrant a portion of the total amount certified by the Superintendent during the fiscal year. (3) Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to develop and submit to the State Board of Education, on or before December 31, 2022, and the state board to adopt, modify, revise, or reject, as prescribed, on or before March 31, 2023, model curricula relative to (A) the Vietnamese American refugee experience, (B) the Cambodian genocide, and (C) Hmong history and cultural studies, as specified, for use in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Existing law requires the commission to develop and submit to the state board, on or before December 31, 2021, and the state board to adopt, modify, revise, or reject, as prescribed, on before March 31, 2022, a model curriculum in Native American studies to ensure quality courses of study in Native American studies. Existing law, contingent upon the enactment of legislation during the 2021–22 Regular Session prescribing the process for the development of model curricula for Native American studies, the Vietnamese American refugee experience, the Cambodian genocide, and Hmong history and cultural studies, appropriates $1,200,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to support the development of those model curricula. This bill would replace the requirement that the commission develop, and that the state board adopt, modify, revise, or reject, the model curricula with a requirement that the department use the $1,200,000 in appropriated funds to enter into a contract with a county office of education or a consortium of county offices of education for the purpose of developing model curricula related to (A) the Vietnamese American refugee experience, (B) the Cambodian genocide, (C) Hmong history and cultural studies, and (D) Native American studies, as provided. The bill would impose different 2022 deadlines for the department, in collaboration with, and subject to the approval of, the executive director of the state board, to enter into the contracts for developing the model curricula, as provided. The bill would require the model curricula related to the Vietnamese American refugee experience, the Cambodian genocide, and Hmong history and cultural studies to be developed by September 1, 2024, and the model curriculum related to Native American studies to be developed by September 1, 2025. This bill would also revise and recast other provisions related to the model curricula, including the subject matter, curricula accessibility and implementation, and the process for developing the curricula. The bill would authorize the contracted county office of education or consortium of county offices of education to subcontract, as provided, to develop the model curricula. The bill would require the contracted county office of education or consortium of county offices of education to submit a report annually, until the completion of the model curricula, on its progress in the development of the model curricula, to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature and to the state board. This bill would appropriate $1,031,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to support the development of the model curricula, as provided. The bill would allocate $750,000 to the California History-Social Science Project to develop, establish, and maintain a centrally located platform for hosting the model curricula, and would allocate $281,000 for the Superintendent to, in consultation with and subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, contract with a nongovernmental research institution for the purpose of convening a Statewide Model Curriculum Coordinating Council to help ensure alignment and coordination in the development of the model curricula, as provided. (4) Existing law requires a charter school to transmit a copy of its annual, independent financial audit report for the preceding fiscal year to specified entities by December 15 of each year. This bill would extend the due date of the independent financial audit report for the 2020–21 fiscal year to January 31, 2022. (5) Existing law requires that a school district, county office of education, or charter school that was prevented, due to certain reasons, including, but not limited to, prescribed natural disasters, the inability to secure or hold a teacher, or the illness of the teacher, from maintaining its schools during a fiscal year for at least 175 days, to receive the same apportionments as if it had not been prevented from maintaining 175 full-length days, as provided. This bill would require a school district or county office of education to only be prevented from maintaining 180 full-length days instead of 175 full-length days for that provision to apply. The bill, from September 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, inclusive, would prohibit a school district, county office of education, or charter school from receiving the benefit of that provision if the school closure was due to impacts from COVID-19, except as provided. (6) Existing law appropriates $547,513,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for purposes of the A–G Completion Improvement Grant Program, to provide additional supports to local educational agencies to help increase the number of California high school pupils, particularly unduplicated pupils, who graduate high school meeting the A–G subject matter requirements for admission to the University of California and the California State University. Existing law requires local educational agencies that are otherwise eligible and receiving concentration grant funding during the 2020–21 fiscal year to receive allocations, as specified. Existing law requires grant recipients to develop a plan on or before January 1, 2022, describing how allocated funds will increase or improve services for unduplicated pupils to improve A–G eligibility. This bill would clarify that the unduplicated pupil count is based on data as reported in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System for the 2020–21 fiscal year Fall 1 Submission. The bill would establish the receipt of concentration grant funding during the 2nd principal apportionment for the 2020–21 fiscal year as the relevant time window for determining if otherwise eligible local educational agencies will receive allocations under the program. The bill would extend the deadline for grant recipients to develop their plan to April 1, 2022. (7) Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, 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, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district, or charter school. Under existing law, the local control funding formula uses the numbers of pupils enrolled in a school district or a charter school who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals as part of the calculation of the apportionment of state funds to be received by that school district or charter school pursuant to the formula. Existing law authorizes schools participating in a special assistance alternative authorized under the federal National School Lunch Program to establish a base year for purposes of the local control funding formula for determining pupils eligible for free or reduced-price meals, including by carrying over the number of pupils at the school who were eligible for free or reduced-price meals from the school year in which the school applied to use a federal universal school meal provision, and using each pupil's eligibility status in the base year to report eligibility for up to each of the following 3 school years. This bill instead would authorize schools to establish a base year for purposes of the local control funding formula by carrying forward eligibility for pupils eligible for free or reduced-price meals from the school year in which the school applied to use a federal universal school meal provision, and using each pupil's eligibility status from the application year to report eligibility for up to each of the following 3 school years. (8) Existing law appropriates $4,542,003,000 from the General Fund and $2,015,440,000 from the Federal Trust Fund to the Superintendent for certain activities, including offering supplemental instruction and support. This bill would reduce the appropriation from the General Fund by $890,000 and would appropriate an additional $890,000 from the Federal Trust Fund. (9) Existing law authorizes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to provide to the Office of the Chancellor of the California State University or the department nonpersonally identifiable educator identification numbers and any other student identifiers necessary for purposes of ongoing evaluation of teacher preparation programs. This bill would require the commission to directly collect voluntary demographic data on the ancestry or ethnic origin of California credential applicants, and voluntary self-identification information pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity, as provided. (10) Existing law requires the commission to establish standards and procedures for the issuance and renewal of credentials, certificates, and permits. Existing law prohibits the commission from issuing initially a credential, permit, certificate, or renewal of an emergency credential to a person to serve in the public schools unless the person has demonstrated proficiency in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills in the English language by passing the state basic skills proficiency test. Existing law exempts specified applicants from this basic skills proficiency test requirement, including applicants who earn at least a letter grade of B in qualifying coursework determined by a credential preparation program or the commission, as specified, to sufficiently serve as an indicator of proficiency in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills in the English language. Existing law allows a credential preparation program to determine that an applicant has demonstrated proficiency in the basic skills through a combination of qualifying coursework, passage of components of the state basic skills proficiency test, and scores on certain tests. This bill would also authorize the commission to determine that an applicant has demonstrated proficiency in the basic skills through a combination of qualifying coursework, passage of components of the state basic skills proficiency test, and scores on certain tests. The bill, until July 1, 2022, would authorize any holder of a credential or permit issued by the commission that authorizes the holder to substitute teach in a general, special, or career technical education assignment to serve in a substitute teaching assignment aligned with their authorization, including for staff vacancies, for up to 60 cumulative days for any one assignment. (11) Existing law authorizes the commission to issue a multiple or single subject teaching credential with a specified concentration in a particular subject. Existing law prohibits the authorization of a credential with a specified concentration from being more restrictive than the authorization of the same credential without the specified concentration, with the exception of the single subject credential in science with a specified concentration in a particular subject. This bill would authorize the commission to issue the single subject teaching credential in mathematics, with concentrations in advanced mathematics and foundational mathematics. The bill would authorize the holder of a single subject credential in mathematics to be qualified and authorized to teach courses in numbers and quantity, algebra, geometry, probability, and statistics in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would exempt the single subject teaching credential in mathematics from the prohibition that the authorization of a credential with a specified concentration not be more restrictive than the authorization of the same credential without the specified concentration. (12) Existing law establishes the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and appropriates $753,131,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to school districts and certain charter schools under the program. Existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate moneys appropriated for purposes of the program to school districts and charter schools on a per unit basis of the school district or charter school's prior year reported kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, classroom-based average daily attendance attributable to unduplicated pupils, as specified. Existing law requires, as a condition of receipt of these funds, school districts and charter schools to offer to at least all unduplicated pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and to provide to at least 50% of unduplicated pupils enrolled in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, classroom-based instructional programs with expanded learning opportunity programs that provide access to no less than 9 hours of combined in-person instructional time and expanded learning opportunities, as defined, per instructional day on schooldays, and no less than 9 hours of expanded learning opportunities per day for at least 30 nonschooldays during intersessional periods. This bill would appropriate an additional $890,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to school districts and certain charter schools under the program. The bill would make various changes to program conditions and funding methodologies, as provided. The bill would prohibit a local educational agency that does not meet certain funding criteria for 4 consecutive years from receiving specified program funds. The bill would remove the exclusion of nonclassroom-based charter schools for program funding eligibility and instead would exclude charter schools established pursuant to a petition submitted to the county board of education, as provided. The bill would require the Superintendent to proportionately reduce the amount of funding allocated to those charter schools in which school was actually taught on fewer than 175 calendar days during the school year, as provided. (13) 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, and the fact of which is established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by affidavits of the members of the governing board or body of the local educational agency, 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. This bill would prohibit, from September 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, inclusive, a school district, county office of education, or charter school from receiving average daily attendance credit under these provisions for pupils, except for certain pupils who are individuals with exceptional needs, that have been quarantined and are unable to attend in-person instruction due to exposure to, or infection with, COVID-19, pursuant to local or state public health guidance, except as provided for a material loss of attendance due to COVID-19 related staffing shortages. (14) Existing law requires a school district, county office of education, or charter school that submits an affidavit under certain provisions for an event occurring after September 1, 2021, to certify that it has a plan for which independent study will be offered to pupils that complies with certain requirements. This bill would narrow that requirement to events occurring after September 1, 2021, that resulted in a school closure or material decrease in attendance at the school district, county office of education, or charter school, would revise the plan requirements, and would require a copy of an applicable state or local public health or public safety order that required campus closure to accompany the plan and the affidavit provided to the Superintendent. (15) Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to prescribe regulations requiring the evaluation of a pupil's achievement for each marking period. When a teacher provides the pupil with a grade for a course, existing law requires the grade, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, to be final. Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district or the superintendent of the district from ordering a change in the pupil's grade unless the teacher who determined the grade is given an opportunity, to the extent practicable, to be included in all discussions relating to the grade change. Existing law authorizes the parent, guardian, or education rights holder of a pupil, or, for a pupil who is 18 years of age or older, the pupil, who was enrolled in high school and enrolled in a course during the 2020–21 school year to apply to the pupil's school district, county board of education, or charter school to change the letter grade for that course to a Pass or No Pass grade on the pupil's transcript. Existing law requires the school district, county office of education, or charter school to make the requested change, as specified, if the application is received within 15 calendar days of the local educational agency posting a certain notice on its internet website and providing written notice to its pupils and their parents or guardians. Absent a request to change a transcript pursuant to these provisions, existing law requires a letter grade earned in the 2020–21 school year to remain on the pupil's transcript. This bill instead would require a local educational agency to accept the application of a pupil under these provisions if the application is received by the pupil's local educational agency on or before October 1, 2021. The bill would authorize a local educational agency to accept an application for the 2020–21 school year under these provisions after October 1, 2021. The bill would remove the above-described requirement that a letter grade earned in the 2020–21 school year remain on the pupil's transcript absent a request to change a transcript pursuant to these provisions. By requiring local educational agencies to perform specified duties regarding the grade change option, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (16) Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services and appropriate stakeholders, to, on or before July 1, 2020, develop guidelines, as provided, for the use of telehealth technology in public schools, including charter schools, to provide mental health and behavioral health services to pupils on school campuses, and to post those guidelines on its internet website on or before July 1, 2020. This bill instead would require those telehealth guidelines to be developed and posted on or before December 31, 2022. (17) Existing law authorizes a school district, charter school, or county office of education to provide an independent study program for, and independent study courses to, pupils enrolled in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in accordance with prescribed conditions. Existing law prohibits a local educational agency from being eligible to receive apportionments for independent study by pupils unless the local educational agency has adopted written policies and implemented those policies in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the Superintendent, as specified, including a requirement that a current written agreement with specified content for each independent study pupil is maintained on file. For the 2021–22 school year only, existing law requires the governing board of a school district or a county office of education to offer independent study to meet the educational needs of pupils in accordance with specified requirements, unless waived as provided. This bill would revise and recast provisions relating to independent study programs and courses to, among other things, authorize independent study for a pupil who is unable to attend in-person instruction due to a quarantine due to exposure to, or infection with, COVID-19, pursuant to local or state public health guidance, impose additional requirements for the contents of the required written agreement, and impose certain audit requirements. (18) Existing law appropriates $355,227,000 from the Federal Trust Fund, $4,439,844,000 from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, and $539,926,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation in the 2020–21 fiscal year to eligible local educational agencies, as defined, in accordance with prescribed methodologies to be used for activities that directly support pupil academic achievement and mitigate learning loss related to COVID-19 school closures, as provided. This bill would require local educational agencies, as a condition of receiving specified funds, to report to the Superintendent, on or before May 31, 2021, the balance of any unexpended funds received from the General Fund. The bill would require local educational agencies to report funds that are not expended by June 30, 2021, to the Superintendent, and would also require the Superintendent to initiate collection proceedings. (19) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt a one-time supplemental template to the annual update to the 2021–22 local control and accountability plan, as provided. Existing law requires the template to include a description of how an additional concentration grant add-on was used by the local educational agency to increase the number of staff who provide direct services to pupils on school campuses, or the location of specified actions related to these additional concentration grant funds in its 2021–22 local control and accountability plan. This bill would require the template to also include a description of how an additional concentration grant add-on was used by the local educational agency to increase the number of staff who provide direct services to pupils on those school campuses with greater than 55% unduplicated pupil enrollment in the prior year as compared to the staff-to-pupil ratios at schools within the local educational agency with an unduplicated pupil enrollment in the prior year of 55% or less, if any. (20) Existing law appropriates $150,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to allocate to local educational agencies for kitchen infrastructure upgrades that will increase pupil access to, or improve the quality of, fresh and nutritious school meals, and for food service staff to receive training on promoting nutritious foods. This bill would limit the local educational agencies that are eligible to receive an allocation of those moneys to a school district, county office of education, or charter school participating in the federal National School Breakfast Program or the federal National School Lunch Program. The bill would revise provisions relating to the allocation, uses, and reporting of those moneys. (21) Existing law appropriates $10,500,000 from the Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund to the Superintendent to be allocated to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) to be used to support the expenses associated with either the CIF State or 10 CIF Section offices that have experienced significant revenue reductions in the 2020–21 fiscal year. This bill would change the source of the appropriated funds to the General Fund, thereby making an appropriation. (22) This bill would exempt certain funds provided under the Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools Program pursuant to the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 from certain contracting requirements. (23) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 42238.01 of the Education Code proposed by AB 1055 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1055 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (24) 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. (25) 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. (26) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.