Budget Priorities
On April 27, 2022, the Senate released their revised budget position based on the latest information of stronger than expected state revenues. Those priorities include: maintaining the state’s historic reserves to protect the progress we are making from future downturns; aligning new commitments with Gann Limit requirements, such as maximizing infrastructure investments, including for schools and higher education, and strengthening targeted tax relief programs; and building a more equitable economy through investments that will help get California back to work, strengthen the middle class, assist struggling families and aging Californians, address housing challenges and homelessness, and improve and broaden access to quality education.
Highlights for education include:
- Early Childhood Care and Education: $1 billion to increase provider reimbursement rates and improve benefits; continue family fee waivers to help keep childcare costs affordable; and stabilize the state preschool program; and $445 million for childcare facilities expansion and infrastructure investments, and professional development and workforce support.
- K-12: $5 billion base increase – growing to $10 billion by 2024-25 – for additional discretionary funding for local school districts to end the fear of a ‘fiscal cliff’; $10 billion in one-time funds spread over multiple years to mitigate learning loss and other COVID-related impacts; significant new funds for Home-to-School Transportation; and billions for school facilities and deferred maintenance.
- Historic Reserves: $43.1 billion in total reserves, including $10.1 billion for the Prop 98 Rainy Day Fund.
- School Facilities and Deferred Maintenance: $4.5 billion above the Governor’s proposal for school facilities, including $1 billion for Transitional Kindergarten and $1 billion for K-12 deferred maintenance.
The press release can be found here and the presentation here.
Legislative Update
Friday, April 29, 2022, was the statutory deadline for legislative proposals with a fiscal implication to be heard and moved out of their respective policy committee. Bills without a fiscal implication have until May 6, 2022, to pass. This report provides a status of key legislative proposals CASBO is actively working through the legislative process, and bills that have stalled. Since this is the second year of the 2021-2022 legislative session, bills that have stalled are now dead and can no longer move forward. Friday, May 20, 2022, is the last day for fiscal committees to hear and report to the floor bills introduced in their house. We will continue to provide updates on critical policy issues impacting public education.
Budget
AB 1948 (Ting): Education finance: LCFF: low-income pupils: pupils experiencing homelessness. This bill would change definitions of two unduplicated pupil groups: 1. change “eligible for free/reduced-price meal” to “low-income”; and define “low-income” as “a pupil from a household with income of 250% or less of the federal poverty measure, as updated annually”; and 2. include and define “pupils experiencing homelessness” as “pupils considered homeless” pursuant to the federal McKinney-Vento Act. This bill also provides a COLA of 10.66% for 2022-23 and sets new LCFF targets, based on the new unduplicated pupil definitions.
The author accepted the recommended committee amendments by the Assembly Education Committee and this bill now, as proposed to be amended, changes the following:
- For the 2022-23 school year, increase the grade span adjusted base grant for a school district or charter school’s LCFF entitlement by 15%.
- To address declining enrollment, add language that the fiscal year ADA for a school district be computed based on the greatest of current year ADA, prior year ADA, or the average of the three most recent prior fiscal years.
- Remove provisions related to establishing targets for supplemental and concentration grant apportionments.
- Remove provisions related to duplicating pupil groups for the calculation of the supplemental and concentration grants.
We expect updated language to be in print in the coming days.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staffer: Andrea Ball
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 1973 (McCarty): Education finance: base grants: adjustments: kindergarten: minimum school day.
This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 school year, require that, as a condition of receiving the kindergarten through grade 3 additional adjustment, a school district that offers a kindergarten program provide a minimum schoolday for the kindergarten day that is at least equivalent to the minimum schoolday provided for grades 1 to 3 at each schoolsite that offers a kindergarten program.
The author accepted the recommended amendments by the Assembly Education Committee and this bill now, as proposed to be amended, changes the following:
- Extend the timeline so that schools with large populations of unduplicated pupils would be required to offer full-day programs starting with the 2027-28 school year, and all other schools beginning in the 2030-31 school year.
- Stipulate that school districts and charters not offering full-day kindergarten by the stated deadline lose the portion of the K-3 grade span adjustment only for the ADA associated with the LEA’s kindergarten enrollment.
- Clarify that the full-day requirement applies only to kindergarten, not to transitional kindergarten.
- Clarify that each school site would be required to offer at least one full-day kindergarten program to comply with these requirements.
CASBO Position: Informational Only
Staff: Andrea Ball
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2774 (A. Weber): Education finance: LCFF: supplemental grants: lowest performing pupil subgroup or subgroups. This bill would, commencing with the 2023-24 fiscal year, adjust the definition of “unduplicated pupils” to include pupils who are included in the lowest-performing subgroup or subgroups, based on the most recently available mathematics or language arts results on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. This bill would also require the State Superintendent to annually identify the lowest-performing pupil subgroup or subgroups and would authorize school districts and charter schools to review and revise their submitted data on pupils who are included in the lowest-performing subgroup or subgroups.
In June 2018, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 1808 into law. Among other provisions, Section 31.5 of AB 1808 added Education Code Section 41570 to govern the allocation of a $300 million Low-Performing Students Block Grant (LPSBG) by the CDE. The grant was intended to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) with resources to address the persistent academic achievement gap in California’s public schools that has led to inequitable outcomes and opportunities for children, including those and other factors that are the residual effect of the historical oppression of disempowered communities. The program expired summer of 2021.
CASBO Position: Informational Only
Staff: Andrea Ball
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SB 3 (Caballero): Education finance: Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) portal. This bill would require the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop, on or before July 1, 2023, an LCAP portal that will allow comprehensive analysis by policymakers of actions, expenditures and progress on metrics included within LCAPs adopted by local education agencies (LEAs). The bill would require the portal to include a tracking mechanism for school districts, county offices of education and charter schools to use to report the types of services on which they spend their supplemental and concentration grant funds. Commencing January 1, 2024, the bill would require LEAs to annually report to CDE the types of services on which they spend their supplemental and concentration grant funds using the portal developed by CDE.
CASBO Position: Oppose
Staffer: Andrea Ball
Location: The bill is on the Assembly desk waiting referral to policy committee.
SB 579 (Allen): Education finance: LCFF. This bill would, for the 2022-23 fiscal year, require apportionments to local educational agencies (LEAs) under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) to be calculated based on the greater of each LEA’s 2019-20, 2021-22, or 2022-23 average daily attendance (ADA).
CASBO Position: Watch
Staffer: Andrea Ball
Location: The bill is on the Assembly desk awaiting referral to policy committee.
SB 830 (Portantino): Education finance: supplemental education funding. This bill would require that commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, LEAs receive supplemental education funding, in addition to their LCFF entitlement, in an amount equal to the difference between what the LEA would have received under the LCFF if it were based on average daily membership instead of ADA, and what the LEA received under the LCFF based on ADA for that fiscal year. The bill defines “average daily membership” as the quotient of the aggregate enrollment days for all pupils in an LEA, from transitional kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, as applicable, divided by the total number of instructional days for the local educational agency in an academic year. The data used for this calculation shall be from the same fiscal year used to calculate the LEA’s ADA.
The bill also:
- Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), for the purpose of calculating the supplemental education funding, to apply the funding difference to the LCFF base, supplemental, and concentration grants for each LEA.
- Specifies that LEAs are eligible for the supplemental education funding if they meet the following requirements:
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- Submit to the SPI by January 15 the unduplicated primary and short-term enrollments for their first term enrollment totals and final enrollment data for the entire academic year under timeframes and procedures established by the Superintendent.
- Demonstrate a maintenance of effort, subject to annual audit, to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy by maintaining at least the same per-pupil spending level on staff who address these issues as the LEA did in 2019-20.
- Requires that at least 30 percent of the supplemental education funds be used for LEA expenditures to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy by providing services and supports that have been determined to improve school attendance; or by addressing the root causes that contribute to pupils being chronically absent or habitually truant.
- Requires LEAs to continue to implement a system to accurately track pupil attendance to raise the awareness of the effects of truancy and chronic absenteeism, identify and address factors contributing to habitual truancy and chronic absenteeism, and ensure that pupils with attendance problems are identified as early as possible to provide applicable support services and interventions.
- Requires the SPI, for purposes of calculating average daily membership, to issue directives and guidance on determining the date of withdrawal for a pupil deemed habitually truant.
- Requires the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), by November 1, 2028, to submit a report to the Legislature on the implementation of the funding provisions of this section that includes information from local educational agencies selected by the LAO.
CASBO Position: Oppose. Letter can be found here.
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
Location: Senate Appropriations Committee
Credentialing
AB 1895 (E. Garcia):School employees: Substitute Teacher Support Grant Program. This bill would, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, appropriate $100 million from the General Fund to the State Department of Education to establish and administer the Substitute Teacher Support Grant Program, which would provide one-time competitive grants to LEAs to develop and implement new, or expand existing, locally identified solutions that address local substitute teacher shortages or needs for professional development for substitute teachers.
The author accepted the recommended amendments by the Assembly Education Committee and the bill now, as proposed to be amended, changes the following:
- Of the $100 million in grant funds, award funds for school districts as follows, to ensure proportional grant amounts across LEAs:
- $22 million to districts with 250 or fewer ADA;
- $55 million to districts with ADA of more than 250 but less than 5,000; and,
- $23 million to districts with ADA of 5,000.
- Expand the program to include classified instructional substitutes such as paraeducators.
- Add a reporting requirement and an evaluation of the program.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
Location: Senate Appropriations Committee
Curriculum and Instruction
AB 1923 (Mathis): Partnership academies: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to prioritize proposals for new partnership academies in a manner that addresses the participation of pupils traditionally underrepresented in career technical education or in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs or professions. “Pupils traditionally underrepresented” for purposes of this program, must include but not be limited to, pupils from the following: rural communities; economically disadvantaged regions; regions with high “at-promise pupil” rates, as defined; and regions with a low-to-moderate number of existing academic partnerships.
CASBO Position: Watch
Staffer: Andrea Ball
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
Fiscal Impact: The Assembly Appropriations Committee notes that there is no cost. The bill does not establish a new partnership academy, rather it establishes priorities for the location of new partnership academies if and when a new one is established.
Transportation
SB 878 (Skinner): School transportation., This bill would, beginning in the 2027-28 school year require LEAs to offer to transport all pupils to and from their neighborhood school. This bill would also:
- Require LEAs not currently providing transportation to all pupils it serves to implement a plan.
- Require LEAs to ensure that all drivers providing home-to-school transportation meet specific qualifications.
- Specify that an LEA may partner with a municipally owned transit system to provide supplementary service pursuant to this section to middle school and high school pupils if all of the specified conditions are met.
- Prohibit all LEAs from charging pupils a fee to be transported to school from their residence or to their residence from school.
- Authorize LEAs to receive state reimbursement for the transportation of preschool or nursery school pupils if funding for that travel has been appropriated in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
- Make all of these provisions operative only upon an appropriation of funds for these purposes.
CASBO Position: Concern. Letter can be found here.
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
Location: Senate Appropriations Committee
Fiscal Impact: The Senate Appropriations Committee analysis states: California Department of Education (CDE) estimates a minimum of $1.4 billion each year, but it is likely to be higher because existing law does not currently require LEAs to provide transportation to all students. CDE also estimates General Fund costs of $312,000 each year and creation of two positions for fiscal administration of the Transportation Access to Public Schools Fund; and additional, unknown General Fund costs and staffing for programmatic support. There are a
AB 2933 (O’Donnell): School transportation services. This bill would rrequire the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, to apportion to each school district, county office of education (COE), entity providing services under a school transportation joint powers agreement (JPA), or regional occupational center or program (ROCP) that provides pupil transportation services, either 100% of its school transportation apportionment for the 2020–21 fiscal year or 100% of its approved home-to-school transportation (HTST) costs as determined by a specified report, whichever is greater.
CASBO Position: Support. Letter can be found here.
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
Health
AB 2034 (O’Donnell): Local education agency: Medi-Cal billing option. This bill would expand access to school-based health and mental health services by encouraging more schools to participate in the Local Education Agency Medi-Cal Billing Option Program (LEA BOP) and to bill for more eligible services, thereby increasing funding available to support student services. This bill would require the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to reform the process by which it audits claims from the LEA BOP program in various ways including ensuring that schools are reimbursed for all eligible services that are not precluded by federal law.
CASBO Position: Support
Staffer: Andrea Ball
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SB 866 (Wiener): minors: vaccine consent. This bill would authorize a minor 12 years of age or older to consent to vaccines that meet specified federal agency criteria. This bill would authorize a vaccine provider, as defined, to administer a vaccine pursuant to the bill, but would not authorize the vaccine provider to provide any service that is otherwise outside the vaccine provider’s scope of practice.
CASBO Position: Informational Only.
Location: Scheduled to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, May 5, 2022.
Human Resources
AB 2573 (McCarty): Certificated school employees: probationary employees. This bill would require a certificated employee of a school district or a county superintendent of schools, regardless of the ADA of the school district or county superintendent of schools, who completes two consecutive school years and is so re-elected, to become and be classified as a permanent employee.
CASBO Position: Oppose. Letter can be found here.
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
Fiscal Impact: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the costs are unknown, but, potentially significant, (Proposition 98 GF) to school districts and COEs, to the extent newly permanent employees at school districts, COEs and ROC/Ps seek due process related to dismissal. Costs associated with due process hearings or other dismissal proceedings can range from $10,000 to over $100,000 per case, depending on the scope. This bill likely would apply to employees at the state’s 71 adult education consortia; more than 60 ROC/P programs; and 237 COEs and school districts with fewer than 250 ADA. If the Commission on State Mandates determines the bill’s requirements to be a state mandate, they would be reimbursable.
Pension
AB 1667 (Cooper): State Teachers’ Retirement System. This bill would make various changes related to the State Teachers’ Retirement System in connection with employee liability for system errors in payments,
- Ensuring retired members are not held liable for prior overpayments, except in cases of “member error”;
- Holding CalSTRS accountable for guidance later determined to be erroneous;
- Requiring that CalSTRS regularly update an official guidance document governing employer reporting;
- Clarifying that any changes to CalSTRS’ interpretation of creditable compensation laws must be preceded by prior notice;
- Requiring that CalSTRS publish all audit reports on their website; and
- Ensuring that CalSTRS’ appeal process allows all individuals impacted by an audit the right to appeal.
CASBO Position: Support. Letter can be found here.
Staffer: Elizabeth Esquivel
Location: Assembly Appropriations Committee
Bills Stalled
AB 1607 (Muratsuchi): Education finance: Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). This bill would, starting with the 2022-23 school year, calculate average daily attendance (ADA) for school districts based on a three-year average for the current fiscal year and each of the previous two fiscal years. The bill would also add $4.2 billion (half of the estimated Proposition 98 increase) into the LCFF above the statutory cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the 2022-23 budget year, with the intent that the Legislature strive to reach the top 10 states in the country in K-12 per-pupil spending. Out of the additional $4.2 billion above the estimated 2022-23 COLA, the base rates would increase by about $3.4 billion to help every district benefit from this measure. The measure would also provide increases to the supplemental and concentration grant by roughly $750 million each.
CASBO Position: Watch
Location Stalled: Assembly Education Committee
AB 1609 (Muratsuchi): Education finance: local control funding formula. This bill would provide for the legislative solution to the current year’s ADA decline.
CASBO Position: Support
Location Stalled: Assembly Education Committee
AB 1614 (Muratsuchi): Education finance: LCFF: base grants: aspirational funding level: reports. This bill would add $4.2 billion into the current base grant funding, using the existing LCFF, for the 2022-23 budget year, with intent language that the Legislature strive to reach the top 10 states in the country in K-12 per-pupil spending. Commencing with the 2022-23 fiscal year, a base grant of:
- $9,989 for ADA in grades K-3
- $9,184 for ADA in grades 4-6
- $9,457 for ADA in grades 7 and 8
- $11,245 for ADA in grades 9-12
CASBO Position: Support
Location Stalled: Assembly Education Committee
AB 1877 (Fong). State teachers’ retirement: retirees. This bill would remove the compensation limit on state teachers’ defined benefit program by eliminating the compensation limit for state special education teachers in an effort to expand the pool of eligible educators to return to the classroom. This bill would also require an LEA exercising this exemption to submit specified documentation, certified under penalty of perjury, to substantiate a retired member’s eligibility.
CASBO Position: Support
Location Stalled: Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement
AB 2924 (O’Donnell): Education finance: base grants: adjustments: reduced class size. This bill would require, commencing with the 2022–23 fiscal year, the 10.4% adjustment to be applied to the kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, base grant, the grades 4 to 6, inclusive, base grant, and the grades 7 and 8 base grant for a school district or charter school that maintains an average class enrollment of not more than 24 pupils for each schoolsite, unless a collectively bargained alternative ratio is agreed to by the school district or charter school, and would make conforming changes.
CASBO Position: Informational Only
Location Stalled: Assembly Education Committee
SB 871 (Pan): Public health: immunizations. This bill would prohibit the governing authority of a school or other institution from unconditionally admitting any person as a pupil of any public or private elementary or secondary school, childcare center, day nursery, nursery school, family daycare home, or development center, unless prior to their admission to that institution they have been fully immunized against COVID-19. This bill would also repeal Section 120338 of the Health and Safety Code, thereby removing the personal belief exemption from any additional immunization requirements deemed appropriate by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).
CASBO Position: Informational Only
Location Stalled: Senate Health Committee