SB 153

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the Safe Place to Learn Act, requires the State Department of Education, as part of its regular monitoring and review of a local educational agency, to assess whether the local educational agency has, among other things, adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on specified protected characteristics. This bill would require the department to assess whether the local educational agency has provided certificated schoolsite employees who serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, information on existing schoolsite and community resources related to the support of pupils who may face bias or bullying on the basis of those characteristics. The bill would require the department to also assess whether the local educational agency has prominently and conspicuously displayed the policy at each schoolsite and local educational agency office and on the local educational agency's internet website, as provided. (2) Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from refusing to approve or prohibiting the use of any textbook, instructional material, or other curriculum or any book or other resource in a school library on the basis that it includes a study of the role and contributions of culturally and racially diverse groups. This bill would prohibit the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school from adopting or approving the use of any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or curriculum if its use would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination, as specified. The bill would authorize any person to file a complaint of an alleged violation with the local educational agency using the uniform complaint process or directly with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. If the Superintendent determines that a local educational agency has violated that prohibition and has not taken corrective action within 60 days, the bill would authorize the department to use any means authorized to effect compliance. The bill would require the assessment of a specified financial penalty on a local educational agency found by the Superintendent to have violated the prohibition, as provided. (3) Existing law requires a county board of education, on or before July 1 of each fiscal year, to adopt an annual budget for the budget year and file the budget with the Superintendent, the county board of supervisors, and the county auditor. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the budget and, on or before September 15, approve or disapprove the budget, as specified, and in the event of a disapproval, transmit to the county office of education in writing the Superintendent's recommendations regarding revision of the budget and the reasons for those recommendations. Existing law requires the Superintendent to disapprove a budget if either the Superintendent has not approved a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to the LCAP filed by a county board of education, or if the Superintendent determines that the budget does not include the expenditures necessary to implement the LCAP or annual update to the LCAP. Under existing law, in the event of the disapproval of the budget of a county office of education, the county superintendent of schools and the county board of education are required, on or before October 8, to review and respond to the Superintendent's recommendations, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to examine the revised budget to determine if it complies with the standards and criteria adopted by the State Board of Education for application to final local educational agency budgets and, on or before November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget. This bill would revise and recast these provisions by, among other things, additionally authorizing the Superintendent to conditionally approve the budget, and in the case of a conditional approval, requiring the Superintendent, county superintendent of schools, and county board of education to comply with the above-described processes related to budget revision recommendations, as provided. To the extent the bill imposes new duties on county offices of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would additionally require the Superintendent to examine the revised budget to determine if it allows the county office of education to meet its financial obligations during the fiscal year, satisfies all conditions established by the Superintendent in the case of a conditionally approved budget, and is consistent with a financial plan that will enable the county office of education to satisfy its multiyear financial commitments, and, not later than November 8, approve or disapprove the revised budget. (4) Existing law appropriates $2,836,660,000 in the 2021–22 fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to administer the California Community Schools Partnership Program and requires those funds to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2031. This bill would extend the time those funds are available for encumbrance or expenditure by one year, thereby making an appropriation. Existing law requires $2,694,827,000 of those funds to be allocated to establish new, and expand existing, community schools, as provided. Existing law requires up to 70% of that allocation to be available for implementation grants, as provided. Existing law requires at least 20% of that allocation to be available for extending implementation grants from 5 years to 7 years and requires those funds to be allocated beginning with the 2025–26 fiscal year, through the 2030–31 fiscal year, as provided. This bill, among other things, would delay the allocation for extending implementation grants by one fiscal year. The bill would revise those provisions to instead require up to 72% of the funds to be available for implementation grants and at least 18% to be available for extending implementation grants, as provided. By revising the terms of a required allocation of previously appropriated moneys, the bill would make an appropriation. Existing law requires the Superintendent to reserve adequate funding received for the program to preserve capacity for qualifying entities receiving planning grants to receive implementation grants, as provided. This bill would expressly require those planning grantee applicants to also meet the implementation grant eligibility requirements, and beginning July 1, 2024, would require the Superintendent to prioritize awarding implementation grants to planning grantees, as provided. (5) 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. This bill would require warrants in the amount of $3,570,108,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2023–24 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year and warrants in the amount of $245,604,000 scheduled to be drawn in June of the 2024–25 fiscal year to instead be drawn in July of the same calendar year, except as provided. This bill would extend the deadline to encumber those funds from June 30, 2025, to July 31, 2025, thereby making an appropriation. (6) Existing law requires the Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, to develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits, and, with representatives of other entities, to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies and to propose the content of an audit guide. Existing law establishes the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) to, among other things, review the fiscal and administrative condition of any county office of education, school district, or charter school, as provided. This bill would require the Controller to also consult with representatives from FCMAT to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies and to propose the content of an audit guide. Existing law provides that there is no time limit for the commencement of actions for the recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault, as specified. This bill would require FCMAT, on or before February 1, 2025, in consultation with appropriate subject matter experts, including, but not limited to, subject matter experts in risk management, public finance, labor, and bond financing, to provide recommendations, as specified, to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature and the Department of Finance on new, existing, or strengthened funding and financing mechanisms to finance judgments or settlements arising from claims of childhood sexual abuse, to be utilized by local agencies, as defined. (7) Existing law requires FCMAT to, among other things, provide fiscal management assistance at the request of any school district, charter school, or county office of education, and requires each school district, charter school, or county office of education receiving that assistance to pay the onsite personnel costs and travel costs incurred by the unit for that purpose, as specified. This bill would require each school district, charter school, or county office of education receiving that assistance to instead pay the personnel costs, regardless of whether they are onsite, and the travel costs incurred by the unit for that purpose, as specified. (8) Existing law requires each school district and county office of education to develop a comprehensive school safety plan for each of its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires that the plan assess the current status of school crime and identify appropriate strategies and programs that will provide or maintain a high level of school safety, as specified. This bill would additionally require the comprehensive school safety plan of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to include, beginning July 1, 2025, an instructional continuity plan to establish communication with pupils and their families and provide instruction to pupils when in-person instruction is disrupted due to an emergency, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Superintendent to develop and post on the department's website instructional continuity plan guidance on or before March 1, 2025. (9) Existing law creates the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund in the State Treasury for the purpose of receiving appropriations for school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and community college districts related to the state of emergency declared by the Governor on March 4, 2020, relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing law appropriates $6,345,405,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for transfer to the Learning Recovery Emergency Fund. Existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate these appropriated funds to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, for, among other things, specified actions and pupil and learning supports, and to accelerate progress to close learning gaps through the implementation, expansion, or enhancement of learning supports, as provided. Under existing law, these allocations are known as Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grants. Existing law requires local educational agencies that do not submit a final report on the expenditure of these funds on or before December 15, 2029, to forfeit those apportioned funds. This bill would, among other things, specify that local educational agencies are required to use Learning Recovery Emergency Funds for evidence-based supports and actions, as provided, and would expressly specify that these funds may be used to provide professional development and coaching on specified curriculum frameworks. The bill would also require a local educational agency that has received or will receive a Learning Recovery Emergency Fund Block Grant to develop a needs assessment regarding the use and expenditure of grant funds for the 2025–26, 2026–27, and 2027–28 school years, as provided. The bill would require the department to provide written technical assistance for schools and local educational agencies related to these needs assessments, as provided. The bill would delete the requirement that local educational agencies that do not submit a final report on the expenditure of apportioned funds forfeit those funds. (10) Existing law establishes the State Board of Education consisting of 11 members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of 23 of the Senate, as provided. Existing law requires the state board to adopt policies and establish rules and regulations to govern the public elementary and secondary schools of the state. This bill would authorize the Governor to appoint a total of 6 deputies to the executive director of the state board. (11) For the 1990–91 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, existing law requires that moneys to be applied by the state for the support of school districts, community college districts, and direct elementary and secondary level instructional services provided by the state be distributed in accordance with certain calculations governing the proration of those moneys among the 3 segments of public education. Existing law makes that provision inapplicable to the 1992–93 to 2023–24 fiscal years, inclusive. This bill would also make that provision inapplicable to the 2024–25 fiscal year. (12) 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. This bill would provide 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. The bill would require 10 proportional shares 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 would 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. The bill, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year and in each fiscal year thereafter, would also require the Director of Finance, if California personal and corporate income tax filing deadlines are extended, as provided, to calculate the difference between the total appropriations made to meet the minimum funding obligation in the impacted fiscal year and the minimum funding obligation calculated with actual tax revenue data for that fiscal year. The bill would provide that, if the amount calculated by the Department of Finance is negative, the amount of the difference is not an allocation provided in satisfaction of the minimum funding obligation in the impacted fiscal year or excess moneys credited to the impacted fiscal year. The bill would require 10 proportional shares of those amounts to be recognized annually, for 10 consecutive fiscal years beginning with the 3rd fiscal year after the impacted fiscal year, for budgetary and financial reporting purposes as allocations made in the impacted fiscal year, but would 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. (13) Existing law requires the Director of Finance to certify the amount of the state's minimum funding obligation to school districts and community college districts for each fiscal year, as specified. Existing law requires the Director of Finance to calculate the minimum funding obligation for the prior fiscal year and publish those calculations by May 14 following the end of the prior fiscal year. Existing law requires interested parties to submit any comments on those calculations by June 6. This bill would extend those deadlines for the certification of the minimum funding obligation for the 2022–23 fiscal year, as provided. (14) Existing law appropriates $547,513,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction 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. For the 2021–22 fiscal year, existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate $300,000,000 as A–G Access Grants, and $100,000,000 as A–G Success Grants, to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools meeting certain requirements to be used for activities that directly support pupil access to, and successful completion of, the A–G course requirements, as prescribed. For the 2021–22 fiscal year, existing law requires the Superintendent to allocate $147,513,000 as A–G Learning Loss Mitigation Grants to be used to allow pupils who receive a grade of "D," "F," or "Fail" in an A–G approved course in the spring semester of 2020 or the 2020–21 school year to retake those A–G courses or to offer credit recovery opportunities to all pupils to ensure pupils are able to graduate high school on time, as prescribed. This bill would, for each of those specific grants, require each local educational agency receiving a grant to report its final expenditure to the department on or before September 30, 2026, and would require the department to initiate collection of any unexpended funds. The bill would require any local educational agency that does not submit the final expenditure report to forfeit all funds allocated to it pursuant to the applicable grant. (15) Existing law, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, appropriates $300,000,000 each fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation for the Local Control Funding Formula Equity Multiplier apportionment, as provided. Existing law requires the funding to be allocated to eligible local educational agencies on a per-unit basis of a schoolsite's total prior year adjusted cumulative enrollment, as specified, and provides that an eligible schoolsite shall not receive funding of less than $50,000. This bill would, among other things, annually adjust that $50,000 minimum funding requirement by a specified cost-of-living adjustment, as specified. The bill would require an eligible schoolsite to instead be deemed ineligible if the schoolsite has been closed in the year in which the funds are to be allocated or, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, the local educational agency generated funding for a schoolsite for these purposes due to a pupil being enrolled in the school district office. The bill would require unspent funds from any fiscal year provided to a local educational agency with a schoolsite that has closed to be returned to the department, and would require local educational agencies to report the total amount of unspent funds in accordance with instructions and forms prescribed and furnished by the Superintendent. (16) Existing law establishes the Public School System Stabilization Account to provide a reserve for public school funding. Existing law requires, pursuant to specified calculations, the Controller to transfer certain moneys from the General Fund into the Public School System Stabilization Account for subsequent allocation to school districts and community college districts, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Legislature, upon the Governor's proclamation declaring a budget emergency to enact a statute that, among other things, appropriates funds in the Public School System Stabilization Account for the support of school districts and community college districts. This bill would appropriate specified amounts from the Public School System Stabilization Account for transfer by the Controller to Section A of the State School Fund for the support of school districts, as provided. (17) Existing law appropriates $6,557,443,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for the 2020–21 fiscal year, of which $4,557,443,000 is apportioned to school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and state special schools, as prescribed, and makes those funds available for expenditure until September 30, 2024, for certain activities, including offering supplemental instruction and support. Existing law requires local educational agencies receiving apportionments pursuant to these provisions to report final expenditures of those apportioned funds to the department by December 1, 2024, and authorizes a forfeiture of all funds if a local educational agency does not submit the required report. Existing law makes these provisions inoperative on June 30, 2025. This bill would require local educational agencies, as a condition of receiving those funds, to instead report final expenditures to the department over a span of multiple reports with respective due dates, as provided. The bill would authorize certain funds from the reporting period to be withheld if any of the reports are not submitted to the department and authorizes the Superintendent to withhold any forfeited amounts from the local educational agency's principal apportionment, as provided. The bill would extend the operation of these provisions by one year to June 30, 2026. (18) Existing law authorizes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, in order to expedite the application process for the benefit of applicants for credentials, certificates, permits, or other documents, to receive from, or transmit to, the agency that submitted the application, either electronically or by printed copy, the information set forth in that application. For purposes of these provisions, existing law defines "agency" to mean a school district, county office of education, or institution of higher education having a commission-approved program of professional preparation. This bill would add charter schools and nonpublic schools or agencies to the definition of "agency" for purposes of those provisions. (19) Existing law establishes the Test Development and Administration Account in the Teacher Credentials Fund, and, until June 30, 2023, requires all fees collected by the commission for tests, examinations, or assessments to be deposited in the account. Existing law, commencing July 1, 2023, requires all fees collected by the commission for tests, examinations, or assessments to be deposited in the Teacher Credentials Fund. This bill would abolish the Test Development and Administration Account on July 1, 2024, and would require all unencumbered moneys and authority in the fund to be transferred to the Teacher Credentials Fund. (20) Existing law requires the commission, among other duties, to establish standards 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, except for specified persons who are exempt from the basic skills proficiency test requirement. Existing law prohibits the governing board of a school district from initially hiring on a permanent, temporary, or substitute basis a certificated person seeking employment in the capacity designated in the certificated person's credential unless that person has demonstrated basic skills proficiency or is exempt from the basic skills requirement, as provided. This bill would, among other things, additionally exempt from the above-described basic skills proficiency test requirements a person who has obtained a baccalaureate degree or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education, and provide that an individual who possesses a baccalaureate degree or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education is required to be considered proficient in the skill of reading, writing, and mathematics, as provided. Existing law requires, as a condition of certain teaching credentials, the demonstration of skills proficiency in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills in the English language. Under existing law, the minimum requirements for the preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist credential, the 3-year preliminary designated subjects adult education teaching credential, and the preliminary services credential with a specialization in administrative services for an out-of-state trained administrator all include the demonstration of basic skills proficiency, as provided. This bill would delete the requirement to demonstrate basic skills proficiency as a condition of the above-described credentials, as provided. (21) Under existing law, one requirement for the preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential is the verification of subject matter competence, demonstrated by any of a range of methods, including completion of a subject matter program, passage of a subject matter examination, or completion of coursework that addresses each of the domains of the subject matter requirements adopted by the commission in the content area of the credential, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to ensure that subject matter standards and examinations are aligned with the academic content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the state board. This bill would additionally require the commission to maintain the subject matter domains that include both broad content areas to support coursework review, as provided, and specific content elements to delineate subject matter examination specifications, as provided. Existing law requires the commission to waive the subject matter examination requirement for graduates of a regionally accredited institution of higher education under specified circumstances, and authorizes the commission to require that the approved examination be taken by candidates, who are otherwise eligible for an examination waiver, for informational purposes only. This bill would delete the authorization for the commission to require that the approved examination be taken for informational purposes, as described above, and would require the commission to encourage through its accreditation system that programs of professional preparation provide candidates equitable access to all of the options for meeting subject matter competence, as provided. (22) Existing law requires the commission to administer a State Assignment Accountability System to provide local educational agencies with a data system for assignment monitoring. Existing law requires the commission to annually use data it receives from the department to produce an initial data file of vacant positions and assignments that do not have a clear match of credential to assignment. Existing law requires a monitoring authority to review and determine any potential misassignments, as defined, reported in and identified through the system for local educational agencies within its authority, as provided. Existing law defines a "monitoring authority" for these purposes to include, among others, the chartering authority for a charter school. This bill would revise the definition of monitoring authority, in cases where a charter school operates under the authority of a school district in which the charter school is the sole schoolsite in the school district, to be the commission instead of the chartering authority for the charter school. (23) Existing law requires an internship program to provide interns who meet entrance criteria and are accepted to a multiple subject teaching credential program, a single subject teaching credential program, or an education specialist credential program that provides instruction to individuals with mild to moderate disabilities the opportunity to choose an early program completion option, culminating in a 5-year preliminary teaching credential. Existing law requires that this early program completion option be made available to interns who meet specified requirements, including that the intern pass specified assessments. Existing law provides that an intern who passes those assessments and is recommended by the internship program to the commission is eligible for a 5-year preliminary teaching credential that authorizes instruction to individuals with mild to moderate disabilities, and requires the commission to issue the teaching credential to an applicant who holds the preliminary 5-year teaching credential and meets other specified requirements. This bill would also authorize an intern who is accepted into a PK-3 early childhood education specialist credential program that provides instruction to individuals with mild to moderate disabilities to choose the above-described early program completion option, culminating in a 5-year preliminary teaching credential, and would apply the above-described provisions to those applicants. (24) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to terminate the services of any permanent or probationary certificated employees of the school district, including employees holding a position that requires an administrative or supervisory credential, during the time period between 5 days after the enactment of an annual Budget Act and August 15 of the fiscal year to which the Budget Act applies if the governing board of the school district determines that its total revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance for the fiscal year of that Budget Act has not increased by at least 2%, and if the governing board of the school district determines it is therefore necessary to decrease the number of permanent employees in the school district. This bill would make that provision inoperative from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, inclusive. (25) Existing law requires any entity that has a contract with a school district, county office of education, or charter school to ensure that any employee who interacts with pupils, outside of the immediate supervision and control of the pupil's parent or guardian or a school employee, has a valid criminal records summary, as provided. Existing law exempts an employee of any entity that has a contract with a local educational agency, and that offers work experience opportunities for pupils or workplace placements as part of a pupil's individualized education program, from the requirement to have a valid criminal records summary if certain requirements are met, including that a staff representative of the local educational agency, among other things, makes at least one visitation every 3 weeks to consult with the pupil's liaison. This bill would, for purposes of the latter-described requirement for a staff representative of the local educational agency to make at least one visitation every 3 weeks to consult with the pupil's liaison in order to be exempt from having a valid criminal records summary, instead require that those visitations be made as specified in a pupil's individualized education program, or, if unspecified, at least once every 3 weeks. (26) Under existing law, a pupil's total days of attendance in the schools and classes maintained by a school district or county superintendent of schools during the fiscal year is the number of days that school was actually taught for not less than the minimum required number of minutes minus the sum of the pupil's absences. This bill, beginning July 1, 2025, would authorize a local educational agency to implement attendance recovery programs for pupils to make up lost instructional time and offset absences, as specified. The bill would authorize a local educational agency to operate an attendance recovery program before or after school, on weekends, or during intersessional periods. The bill would prohibit a pupil from being credited with more than the lesser of the equivalent of 10 days of attendance in a school year, or the number of absences the pupil accrued in that school year, for participation in an attendance recovery program. The bill would require an attendance recovery program, as a condition of generating average daily attendance for a local educational agency, to be composed of pupils engaged in educational activities that align to grade level standards and that are substantially equivalent to the pupils' regular instructional program, and under the immediate supervision and control of a certificated employee who possesses a valid certification document. The bill would require the department, when determining the chronic absenteeism rate of a school district or county office of education, to reduce a pupil's absences by participation in an attendance recovery program. (27) Existing law establishes the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program. Existing law requires local educational agencies, as a condition of receipt of specified funds, to offer to all pupils in classroom-based instructional programs in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, access to expanded learning opportunity programs. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funding appropriated for purposes of the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program in a specified manner, and requires those funds to be used to support pupil access to expanded learning opportunity programs. This bill would, among other things, authorize those funds also be used to support attendance recovery when attendance recovery is operated by a local educational agency in conjunction with, and on the same schoolsite as, its expanded learning opportunities program, and would require those funds, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, to be expended by June 30 of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the appropriation is made and would require any funds that are not expended by a local educational agency by the end of that period to be returned to the state, as provided. For the 2024–25 fiscal year, the bill would require those returned funds to be added to other specified remaining funds and expended, as specified. The bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year and annually thereafter, require local educational agencies to annually declare their operational intent to the department to run an expanded learning opportunity program, as provided. (28) Existing law includes, for purposes of computing the average daily attendance of a school district, the attendance of pupils in kindergarten or transitional kindergarten after they have completed one school year in that program only if one of specified conditions is met. This bill would apply that provision to charter schools. (29) If the average daily attendance of a local educational agency has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of an emergency and that fact has been established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by an affidavit submitted by the local educational agency, existing law requires the Superintendent to credit to the local educational agency the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to it had the emergency not occurred. Existing law requires a local educational agency that submits an affidavit for an emergency occurring after September 1, 2021, to certify that it has a plan to, among other things, offer independent study to pupils within 10 days, as specified. This bill would instead require a local educational agency that submits an affidavit for an emergency occurring after September 1, 2021, but on or before June 30, 2025, to certify that it has a plan to offer instruction to pupils within 10 instructional days. The bill would require a local educational agency that submits an affidavit for an emergency occurring on or after July 1, 2025, that results in a school closure or material decrease in attendance to certify that it has a comprehensive school safety plan, including an instructional continuity plan, in place and that it either offered pupil engagement and instruction consistent with the instructional continuity plan or that it did not do so due to extenuating circumstances, as provided. (30) Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to place 4-year-old children, as defined, enrolled in a California state preschool program into a transitional kindergarten program classroom and requires a school district or charter school that commingles children from both programs in the same classroom to meet specified requirements, including, among others, that an early childhood environment rating scale be completed for the classroom. This bill would delete the provision regarding the early childhood environment rating scale and instead would require that an observation using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool and CLASS Environmental tool be completed for the classroom. (31) Existing law authorizes any person 16 years of age or older and certain other persons to have their proficiency in basic skills taught in public high schools verified according to criteria established by the department. Existing law requires the state board to award a certificate of proficiency, equivalent to a high school diploma, to persons who demonstrate that proficiency. Existing law authorizes the department to charge a fee for each examination application in an amount sufficient to recover the costs of administration, as provided, and requires these levies and fees collected by the department to be deposited in the State Treasury for remittance to the current support appropriation of the department as reimbursement for the costs of administration. Existing law requires any reimbursement collected in excess of the actual costs of administration to be transferred to the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund by order of the Director of Finance. This bill instead would authorize a Special Deposit Fund Account in the State Treasury, composed of those fees that may be prescribed by the department for examination applications. The bill would require these fees to be appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, to support the department in administering the examinations, as provided. (32) Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to authorize a pupil who meets specified criteria to attend community college. Existing law requires a pupil to receive credit for community college courses that the pupil completes at the level determined appropriate by the governing boards of the school district and community college district. This bill would require the governing board of a community college district to report courses completed and grades received by pupils at the community college pursuant to these provisions through eTranscript California for purposes of enabling the uniform integration of completed courses and grades received into the pupil's universal and electronic high school transcript that is housed on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform. By imposing new duties on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (33) Existing federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, provides grants to states to carry out activities relating to the education of homeless children and youths, as defined, including, among others, providing services and activities to improve the identification of homeless children and youths and to enable them to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school. Existing law authorizes $1,500,000 to be allocated to up to 3 county offices of education in different regions throughout the state for purposes of establishing technical assistance centers to foster relationships with community partners and other local educational agencies in each region, as provided. Existing law requires the department to determine which county offices of education to allocate those funds to through a competitive process, as provided. Existing law requires the technical assistance centers to be operative only for the duration of a specified federal grant period. This bill instead would require, pursuant to specified funding appropriated in the Budget Act of 2024, up to $2,500,000 to be allocated to up to 3 county offices of education to sustain and enhance the above-described technical assistance centers, and would require those technical assistance centers to prioritize providing regional support, resources, and expertise to homeless education liaisons to ensure that local educational agencies meet all requirements under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as provided. The bill instead would require the technical assistance centers to be operative only for the duration of the availability of those certain federal grant funds. (34) Existing law requires, commencing with the 2024–25 school year, recess, as defined, that is provided by a public school to be at least 30 minutes on regular instructional days and at least 15 minutes on early release days, as provided. Existing law defines public school for these purposes to mean a school that is operated by a school district or county office of education, or that is a charter school. This bill would limit the applicability of the above-described provisions to recess that is instead provided by schools that are operated by a school district or county office of education, or charter schools, that maintain kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 6, inclusive, as provided. The bill would specify that for schools that also maintain a grade higher than grade 6, these provisions apply only to recess provided to those pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 6, inclusive. The bill would also specify that these provisions do not apply to pupils in grade 6 of a school that (A) maintains grade 6 as part of a middle school or that solely maintain some or all of grades 6 to 12, inclusive, and (B) provides those pupils with physical education, as provided. (35) Existing law establishes the California School Information Services to, among other things, build the capacity of local educational agencies to implement and maintain comparable, effective, and efficient pupil information systems, as specified. This bill would require the California School Information Services, in consultation with the department, to create and maintain a list of school information system vendors serving school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools educating pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as specified. The bill would require the list to include a state designation established by the California School Information Services for school information system vendors meeting certain requirements regarding the management of pupil data, as provided. The bill would require the California School Information Services to post the list on its internet website. (36) Existing law requires the department to develop model referral protocols for addressing pupil mental health concerns, contingent upon funds being appropriated or allocated for that purpose, within 2 years of the date those funds are received or allocated, as provided. This bill would, among other changes, delete the contingency language described above and instead require the department to develop model referral protocols for pupil behavioral health concerns on or before June 1, 2025. The bill would also make conforming changes. The bill would require a governing board or body of a local educational agency that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, before January 31, 2026, to adopt a policy on referral protocols for addressing pupil behavioral health concerns in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, as provided. The bill would require a local educational agency to certify to the department, on or before July 1, 2029, that 100% of its certificated employees and 40% of its classified employees, who have direct contact with pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, have received youth behavioral health training, as defined, at least one time, as provided. By creating new duties for local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (37) Existing law requires each school district, county superintendent of schools, and charter school to make available a nutritionally adequate breakfast, as defined, and a nutritionally adequate lunch, as defined, free of charge during each schoolday, as defined, to any pupil who requests a meal, without consideration of the pupil's eligibility for a federally funded free or reduced-price meal, as provided. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to provide state meal reimbursement to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that participate in, and meet the requirements of, the federal School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program, and any applicable state laws or regulations, for reduced-price and paid meals served to pupils, as provided. This bill would require a school district, county office of education, and charter school to, as a condition on the receipt of the above-described state meal reimbursement, conduct direct certification matching through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System on a monthly basis. (38) Existing law requires a school district or county superintendent of schools that has a high-poverty school, as defined, in its jurisdiction to, on or before June 30, 2022, apply to operate a federal universal meal service provision pursuant to specified federal law. This bill would limit the applicability of the above-described requirement to high-poverty schools that also have an identified student percentage of 40% or more. (39) Existing law requires a local educational agency to exempt an individual with exceptional needs who satisfies specified eligibility requirements, including that the pupil entered grade 9 in the 2022–23 school year or later, from all courses and other requirements adopted by the governing board or body of the local educational agency that are additional to the statewide course requirements and to award the pupil a diploma of graduation from high school, as provided. Until July 1, 2031, this bill would authorize a local educational agency to additionally exempt an individual with exceptional needs who was enrolled in grade 10 or higher in the 2022–23 school year, and who satisfies specified eligibility criteria, from all courses and other requirements adopted by the governing board or body of the local educational agency that are additional to the statewide course requirements and to award the pupil a diploma of graduation from high school, as provided. (40) Existing law requires the governing body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to confirm that a grade 12 pupil who has not opted out, as specified, completes and submits a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or, if the pupil is exempt from paying nonresident tuition under existing law, completes and submits a form for purposes of the California Dream Act, as provided. Existing law requires the governing board or body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to ensure that the school district, county office of education, or charter school directs each high school pupil and, if applicable, the pupil's parent or legal guardian to any support and assistance services necessary, to complete and submit a FAFSA or California Dream Act application, that may be available through outreach programs, as provided. This bill would require, among other things relating to ensuring that pupils complete and submit a FAFSA or California Dream Act application, commencing with participation of a local educational agency in the universal basic pupil accounts on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, and in furtherance of each pupil successfully completing and submitting a FAFSA or California Dream Act application, the governing boards of school districts and the governing bodies of charter schools to (A) ensure that each pupil in grade 11 is advised to complete the grade 11 financial aid lessons on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, as specified, and (B) that a representative of the school district or the charter school, as applicable, has a district administrator account registered on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform for purposes of this representative serving as the district administrator to support grade 11 pupils in completing the grade 11 financial aid lessons. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (41) Existing law requires a school district offering any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, to provide the parent or guardian of each minor pupil enrolled in any of those grades in the school district with written notification containing certain information, including information relating to A–G subject matter requirements and career technical education. This bill would require this written notification to also include (A) direction to the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform to access resources that help pupils and their families learn about college admission requirements and (B) a separate and distinct disclosure, provided as part of the school district's annual parent notifications, as required by federal law, that data may be shared with the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) to provide pupils and their families with direct access to online tools and resources for college and career planning. By imposing new duties on school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (42) Existing law requires a local educational agency to maintain a current written agreement for each pupil enrolled in an independent study program or course. Existing law requires the agreement to be signed before the commencement of independent study if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for 15 schooldays or more, and within 10 schooldays of the commencement of independent study if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for fewer than 15 schooldays. This bill would instead require the written agreement maintained by a local educational agency to be signed before the commencement of independent study if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for 16 schooldays or more, and during the school year in which the independent study takes place if the pupil's program or course is projected to last for 15 schooldays or fewer. (43) Existing law requires the State Board of Education to, on or before January 31, 2025, adopt an IDEA Addendum relating to improvements in services for individuals with exceptional needs, as specified. Existing law requires certain school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education identified by the department, as provided, to complete the IDEA Addendum and to undertake certain activities related to the addendum on or before July 1, 2025. This bill would extend by 2 years the date for the state board to adopt an IDEA Addendum to instead be January 31, 2027, and the date for the above-described school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to undertake certain activities related to the addendum to instead be on or before July 1, 2027. (44) Existing law requires each school district, county office of education, and charter school, on or before July 1, 2019, and each year thereafter, to develop a summary document known as the local control funding formula budget overview for parents. Existing law, on or before July 1, 2015, and each year thereafter, requires the governing body of a charter school to hold a public hearing to adopt a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) using a template adopted by the state board. Existing law requires the governing body of a charter school to update the goals and annual actions to achieve those goals identified in the charter petition, as provided, using the template for the LCAP and annual update to the LCAP adopted by the state board, as provided. Existing law requires a charter school to present a report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview for parents on or before February 28 of each year at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing body of the charter school, as provided. This bill would require a charter school to present the above-described report as part of a nonconsent item at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing body of the charter school. Existing law requires, before a governing board of a school district or a county board of education considers the adoption of an LCAP or an annual update to the plan, certain things to occur, including that the superintendent of the school district or the county superintendent of schools present a report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview for parents on or before February 28 of each year at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district or the county board of education, as specified. This bill would require the superintendent of a school district or the county superintendent of schools to present the above-described report as part of a nonconsent item at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board of the school district or the county board of education. By requiring local educational agencies and officials to present this report as part of a nonconsent item, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (45) Existing law requires the state board to, on or before March 31, 2014, adopt a template for a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) and an annual update to the LCAP for use by school districts, county boards of education, and charter schools. Existing law requires the state board to include instructions for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to complete the LCAP and annual update to the LCAP. This bill would require, on or before January 31, 2025, the above-described instructions developed by the state board to specify that all Learning Recovery Emergency Funds received by the local educational agency and bound by the above-described requirements related to local needs assessments are required to be included in the LCAP, or the annual update to the LCAP, for the period of July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2028, inclusive, as provided. By creating new requirements involving the template used by local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (46) Existing law requires the state board to adopt specified evaluation rubrics, including, among other things, state and local indicators to measure school district and individual schoolsite performance in regard to specified state priorities. Existing law, no later than January 31, 2020, requires those local indicators to ensure, at a minimum, that the governing board of a school district, the county board of education, and the governing body of a charter school review any data to be publicly reported for local indicators in conjunction with the adoption of the LCAP, as provided. If the governing board of a school district, the county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school is unable to review any data to be publicly reported due to a specified emergency, this bill would require the local indicator data to be reviewed at the next meeting of the governing board or body and would require a resolution to be adopted and submitted to the department, as provided. (47) Existing law requires the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and the department to establish a process, subject to approval by the executive director of the state board, to select county offices of education to serve as geographic lead agencies for a term not to exceed 5 years to conduct specified activities. At the conclusion of the term for each selected geographic lead agency, existing law authorizes the department and the collaborative to renew the selection of the existing geographic lead agency or reopen the selection of a geographic lead agency, as provided. This bill would require the executive director of the state board to approve the renewal or reopening, among other changes. Existing law requires the state board, as part of the evaluation rubrics, to adopt performance criteria for local educational agency assistance and intervention. If a charter school meets the performance criteria, as specified, existing law requires the county superintendent of schools in which the charter school is located to provide technical assistance, as provided. Existing law requires the geographic lead agency, or its designee, to serve in the role of the county superintendent of schools for a charter school authorized by the county board of education. This bill would require the geographic lead agency to choose a designee to provide technical assistance for any charter school for whom the geographic lead agency's county board of education is the chartering authority. The bill would require the geographic lead agency to contract with the designee using specified funds. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on county offices of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (48) Existing law establishes the Community Engagement Initiative and requires the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and a selected lead agency to convene professional learning networks for purposes of improving local pupil outcomes and community engagement, as specified. Existing law also establishes the Community Engagement Initiative Expansion and, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, appropriates $100,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for allocation to the collaborative to expand and strengthen the Community Engagement Initiative, as provided. Existing law requires the department and the collaborative, with approval from the executive director of the state board, to select an expert community engagement lead agency to coadminister the expansion with the collaborative, as provided. This bill would require the collaborative and the selected expert community engagement lead agency to incorporate learning recovery work, as specified, into the training and resources provided to local educational agencies. To the extent that the bill would impose additional duties on the expert community engagement lead agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (49) Existing law requires a county superintendent of schools to prepare a summary of how the county superintendent of schools plans to support school districts and schools within the county in implementing laws relating to local control and accountability plans and the statewide system of support. Existing law requires the summary to include, among other things, a description of how the county superintendent of schools will assist each school district identified for technical assistance. This bill would also require the summary to include how the county superintendent of schools will assist charter schools identified for technical assistance, as provided, and would make related conforming changes. By expanding a duty of a county superintendent of schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (50) Existing law requires the state board, on or before January 31, 2024, to appoint an independent panel of experts for the purpose of creating an approved list of evidence-based, culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate screening instruments for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 to assess pupils for risk of reading difficulties, including possible neurological disorders such as dyslexia, as specified. Existing law requires the governing board or body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school serving pupils in kindergarten or grades 1 or 2 to adopt, on or before June 30, 2025, one or more screening instruments from the approved list to assess pupils for risk of reading difficulties, as specified, and commencing no later than the 2025–26 school year, requires those local educational agencies to assess each pupil in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 for risk of reading difficulties using the screening instrument or instruments adopted by the governing board or body of the local educational agency, as specified. For purposes of the above-described requirement that local educational agencies assess each pupil in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 for risk of reading difficulties, this bill would require that the employees administering the screening instrument or instruments be appropriately trained to administer that instrument or instruments. To the extent this training requirement imposes additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would appropriate $25,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation, as specified, to local educational agencies that administer literacy screenings pursuant to the above-described provisions, as provided, and would require a local educational agency to expend those funds for training for educators to administer pupil screenings in kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, but excluding transitional kindergarten, in order to assess for risk of reading difficulties using those approved screening instruments. (51) Existing law provides that an essential component of transition services for individuals with exceptional needs is the project workability program that provides instruction and experiences that reinforce core curriculum concepts and skills leading to gainful employment. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop criteria for awarding grants, funding, and evaluating workability projects and requires project workability project applications to include, but not be limited to, specified elements. Existing law defines eligible applicants for project workability to include local educational agencies, including school districts, county offices of education, state special schools, and charter schools, and nonpublic, nonsectarian schools, as defined. This bill would remove nonpublic, nonsectarian schools from the list of eligible applicants for project workability funding. (52) Existing law requires a school district to be assessed a specified financial penalty if the Superintendent determines that the school district has not provided sufficient textbooks or instructional materials to pupils, as specified. This bill would make that financial penalty a reduction to the school district's principal apportionment for the applicable fiscal year, as provided. (53) Existing law requires the state board to adopt instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, and to adopt procedures for the submission of instructional materials. This bill would make the adoption of the procedures for the submission of instructional materials contingent upon an appropriation for that purpose. The bill would authorize the department to conduct a followup adoption, as defined, of instructional materials for language arts and mathematics. The bill would require the department to assess a fee on publishers and manufacturers choosing to participate in the followup adoption and would prohibit the fee from exceeding the reasonable costs to the department to conduct the followup adoption process, as specified. The bill would repeal provisions relating to followup adoptions on January 1, 2032. (54) Existing law establishes the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CalPADS) , which is maintained by the department and consists of pupil data from elementary and secondary schools, as specified, relating to, among other things, demographic, program participation, enrollment, and statewide assessments. Existing law requires the system to be used to accomplish specified goals and requires local educational agencies, in order to comply with federal law, to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, as provided. Existing law requires local educational agencies, in order to accomplish the specified goals and to comply with the requirement to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, to submit data according to the processes and timelines established by the department, as specified. This bill would require local educational agencies, among other things, to, in order to accomplish those specified goals and to comply with the requirement to retain individual pupil records for each test taker, also (A) inform the department of any schoolsite closure within 10 business days of the last day that pupils were no longer enrolled at the schoolsite and (B) submit grades 9 to 12, inclusive, pupil data to the CCGI according to processes and timelines established by the CCGI in the format approved by the Superintendent, as provided. The bill would require local educational agencies to, on or before June 30, 2026, using reports on CaliforniaColleges.edu and technical assistance from the California College Guidance Initiative, ensure that data needed to verify course eligibility to fulfill the A–G admissions requirements of the University of California and the California State University is accurate and up to date. By imposing new duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (55) Existing law requires the department to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the CCGI to accomplish specified goals, including sharing course level data from each local educational agency to validate, as they are submitted to CalPADS, if the course meets the requirements of A–G coursework, as specified. Existing law requires the department to notify local educational agencies of the additional use of CalPADS data and advise local educational agencies to include in their annual parent notifications, as required by federal law, information about the sharing and use of CalPADS data, as provided. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by, among other things, removing the sharing of course level data from local educational agencies as submitted to CalPADS from the department's memorandum of understanding with the CCGI and requiring the department to instead inform local educational agencies of the use of data submitted to the CCGI and advise local educational agencies to include in their annual parent notifications, as required by federal law, information about the sharing and use of that data, as specified. Existing law requires the Riverside County Office of Education to report to the Director of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee regarding the annual budget for the CCGI as supported through the annual Budget Act, as specified. This bill would require that annual report to additionally be made in collaboration with the department. By imposing additional duties on the Riverside County Office of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (56) Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2025, the Student Aid Commission to require that any grade point average data required for eligibility for student financial aid programs be submitted by local educational agencies through CalPADS for transmittal to the CCGI. This bill instead would require, upon implementation of transcript-informed accounts for pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform, the commission to require that any grade point average data required for eligibility for student financial aid programs be submitted by local educational agencies through the CCGI. (57) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that public higher education in California strive to provide educationally equitable environments that give each Californian, regardless of age, economic circumstance, or certain specified characteristics, including mental disability, a reasonable opportunity to develop fully their potential. This bill would establish the California Center for Inclusive College (the center) and would annually appropriate, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, $2,000,000 each fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent to, in consultation with the executive director of the state board, allocate to a county office of education selected to administer the center, working in partnership with specified entities. The bill would require the responsibilities of the center to include, among other things, assisting inclusive college programs, as defined, in aligning with the federal requirements, standards, and quality indicators pursuant to specified federal law and assisting public postsecondary educational institutions and inclusive college programs with the identification of potential funding sources to establish, sustain, or expand upon inclusive college programs, including student financial assistance opportunities. The bill, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, would require up to $500,000 to be available for the center to convene an advisory workgroup consisting of representatives from at least 2, but not more than 5, existing inclusive college programs throughout the state to consult with the center, as specified. To the extent that this bill would create new duties for a county office of education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (58) Existing law establishes the Golden State Teacher Grant Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission to, among other things, award grants of up to $20,000 to students enrolled in a professional preparation program leading to a preliminary teaching credential or a pupil personnel services credential who commit to work at a priority school or a California preschool program for 4 years within 8 years of program completion and meet certain other conditions, including, among others, satisfying a certain state basic skills requirement, as provided. This bill would, among other things, for applications received on July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, revise the terms of the Golden State Teacher Grant Program by lowering the award limit to $10,000, instead requiring a student to commit to working for 2 years within 4 years of program completion, and replacing the state basic skills requirement with a requirement to complete a baccalaureate degree program, as specified. The bill would require the Student Aid Commission, commencing July 1, 2024, to prioritize awards for eligible applicants with the lowest income at the time of application, and to establish up to 3 application period each year, as provided. (59) Whenever a student transfers from one community college or public or private institution of postsecondary education to another within the state, existing law requires appropriate records or a copy of appropriate records to be transferred by the former community college or college or university upon a request from the student. This bill would require community colleges enrolling high school pupils through dual or concurrent enrollment, as specified, to use eTranscript California to enable the uniform integration of the pupil's completed courses and grades received into the pupil's universal and electronic high school transcript that is housed on the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform. By imposing new duties on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (60) Existing law appropriates $7,500,000 from the General Fund to the Controller for allocation to the State Department of Education for the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program to improve broadband connectivity at California local educational agencies and improve digital learning opportunities for pupils. Existing law requires the department to contract with the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California to identify external broadband connectivity solutions that provide fiber broadband connectivity to the most poorly connected schoolsites to allow digital learning opportunities for pupils. Existing law requires any federal E-rate subsidies and California Teleconnect Fund subsidies received by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California as a result of broadband connectivity solutions pursuant to the program to be used for additional broadband connectivity solutions. This bill, notwithstanding that latter provision, would require, commencing July 1, 2024, any federal E-rate subsidies and California Teleconnect Fund subsidies received by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California as a result of broadband connectivity solutions pursuant to the program to instead first be made available for annual administrative costs for the department and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, as specified, before being allocated for additional fiber broadband connectivity solutions for the most poorly connected schoolsites for purposes of allowing digital learning opportunities for pupils. (61) Existing law appropriates $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the department to further support the Educator Workforce Investment Grant Program to coordinate and support professional learning opportunities for educators across the state, as specified, and requires those funds to be available through the 2024–25 fiscal year to provide one or more grants, as provided. Existing law requires the department and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, by September 1 each year, to report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature, the Department of Finance, and the Governor on the process for awarding grants, the name of each grant recipient, the amount awarded to each grant recipient, the activities provided with grant funds, and, if available, the number of schools served and the number of educators served. This bill would require those funds to instead be available through the 2025–26 fiscal year. By extending the time for which previously appropriated moneys are available, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill also would revise the above-described reporting requirements to instead require an initial report by September 1, 2023, an interim report by June 1, 2025, and a final report by June 1, 2027, and would revise the categories of information to be reported, as specified. (62) Existing law appropriates $3,360,885,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to establish the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant, for allocation to county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and the state special schools, in accordance with a formula based on a per-pupil basis, as provided. Existing law authorizes funds to be used to obtain standards-aligned professional development and acquire instructional materials in specified subject areas, to develop diverse book collections and obtain culturally relevant texts, and for operational costs, as provided. Existing law requires those funds to be available for encumbrance through the 2025–26 fiscal year. This bill would require those funds to instead be available for expenditure through June 30, 2026. The bill would require each local educational agency receiving those funds, by September 30, 2026, or, for a charter school that closes before June 30, 2026, within 60 days of ceasing operations, to report final expenditures to the department, would require the department to initiate collection of any unexpended funds, and would require any local educational agency that does not submit the final expenditure report to forfeit all of those funds. (63) This bill would require the department, on or before November 1, 2025, to develop a pupil benefit form in an alternative electronic format that meets the requirements and purposes of the local control funding formula and the eligibility requirements for federal school meals programs, as provided. (64) This bill would require the Superintendent to update the State Department of Education's Science Safety Handbook, as specified, and would require the department, by August 1, 2026, to make the updated handbook publicly available on its internet website. (65) The Budget Acts of 2021, 2023, and 2024 appropriated various amounts to either the Superintendent or the Marin County Office of Education for activities relating to Holocaust and genocide education, as specified. This bill would require the Marin County Office of Education, on or before January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter to January 1, 2030, inclusive, to report specified information relating to Holocaust and genocide education to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the Department of Finance, as specified. To the extent the bill would impose additional duties on the Marin County Office of Education, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (66) 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 authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation, until July 1, 2024, to establish a "California State Park Adventure Pass" to be available, upon application to the department, to any child in the 4th grade, or 4th grade equivalent, who is a California resident. Existing law authorizes the department, until July 1, 2024, to waive the day use entrance fees to an eligible unit of the state park system, as determined by the department, for any child who holds a valid "California State Park Adventure Pass" and specified persons accompanying that child, as provided. This bill would, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, require the Superintendent to add $2,100,000 to the Sacramento County Office of Education's local control funding formula allocation in order to contract with the Department of Parks and Recreation for purposes of providing pupils enrolled in grade 4 in California public schools access to California state parks pursuant to the provisions establishing the "California State Park Adventure Pass," as specified. The bill would authorize up to 5% of those funds to be used to support the Sacramento County Office of Education's indirect costs. (67) This bill would appropriate $4,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent to select a county office of education to research models of hybrid and remote learning at public schools across the state and provide guidance, support, and resources to local educational agencies, as specified. The bill would require the selected county office of education to submit a report on its findings and recommendations to specified entities on or before June 30, 2027. (68) This bill would appropriate $7,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to the Los Angeles County Office of Education to contract, with the approval of the executive director of the state board, with one or more nonprofit organizations with specified expertise to do certain things, including, among others, to develop a statewide repository of high-quality curriculum-embedded performance tasks across all grade levels, mapped to the Next Generation Science standards for use by local educational agencies and educators to support inquiry-based instruction and assessment, and to research existing high-quality curriculum-embedded performance tasks aligned to the Next Generation Science standards and identify tasks that can be used for the California repository. (69) This bill would appropriate $20,000,000 from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation, subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to one or more county offices of education, or consortia of county offices of education, to partner with the California Mathematics Project and other specified entities to develop and deliver educator training, including the training of mathematics coaches, and provide resources to educators on delivering high-quality mathematics instruction to pupils throughout the state pursuant to the curriculum framework for mathematics adopted by the state board, as specified. (70) This bill would, on or before June 30, 2025, appropriate an amount to be determined by the Director of Finance from the General Fund to the Superintendent in augmentation of a certain item in the Budget Act of 2024. The bill would make these funds available only to the extent that revenues distributed to local educational agencies for special education programs from successor agencies are less than the estimated amount determined by the Director of Finance. The bill would require, on or before June 30, 2025, the Director of Finance to determine if the revenues distributed to local educational agencies for special education programs from successor agencies exceed the estimated amount reflected in the Budget Act of 2024 and, if so, would require the Director of Finance to reduce the specified appropriation in the Budget Act of 2024 by the amount of that excess. (71) This bill would appropriate $1,260,000 from the General Fund to the State Allocation Board to be available for allocation to the William S. Hart Union School District to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of William S. Hart Union High School infrastructure. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the William S. Hart Union School District. (72) This bill would state that its provisions are severable. (73) 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. (74) 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. (75) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.