AB 526

Bill Subjects

Pupil Instruction Financial Literacy Instructional Materials Professional Development

Abstract

Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt basic instructional materials for use in kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, for governing boards of school districts in specified subjects and any other subject, discipline, or interdisciplinary area for which the state board determines the adoption of instructional materials to be necessary or desirable, and requires the governing board of each school district maintaining one or more high schools to adopt instructional materials for use in the high schools under its control, consistent with specified conditions. Existing law requires the adopted course of study for grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and for grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer instruction in specified areas of study, including social sciences. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the state board. Existing law requires the state board, concurrently with, but not before, the next revision of textbooks or curriculum frameworks in the social sciences, health, and mathematics curricula, to ensure that these academic areas integrate components of, among other things, financial literacy. Notwithstanding that requirement on the state board, existing law requires the commission, when the history-social science curriculum framework is revised after January 1, 2017, to consider including age-appropriate information for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, regarding certain topics on financial literacy. This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction, subject to an appropriation of one-time funds for this purpose in the annual Budget Act or another statute, to allocate funding for the purchase of standards-aligned instructional materials in financial literacy for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and for professional development in that content, as provided. The bill would require the Superintendent to allocate these funds to school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools on the basis of an equal amount per unit of average daily attendance, as those numbers were reported at the time of the first principal apportionment for the 2021–22 fiscal year. The bill would require a school district, county office of education, charter school, or state special school to expend allocated funds for professional development or instructional materials in financial literacy that is aligned to the history-social science curriculum framework adopted by the state board and the financial literacy subject matter recommended considered by the commission, as provided.