Education Code § 44475

44475.

(a) For the 2026–27 fiscal year, the sum of four billion four hundred million one hundred sixty-three thousand dollars ($4,400,163,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the department for the Student Support and Professional Development Discretionary Block Grant, established pursuant to Chapter 8 of the Statutes of 2025, for allocation to county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and the state special schools for discretionary purposes, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(1) Providing standards-aligned professional development for teachers on the English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework and the Literacy Roadmap, including strategies to support literacy for English learners, and effective language acquisition programs for English learners, which may include integrated language development within and across content areas, and building and strengthening capacity to increase bilingual and biliterate proficiency.

(2) Providing standards-aligned professional development for teachers on the Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools.

(3) Providing professional development for certificated and classified educators of transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and grades 1 to 3, inclusive, and elementary schoolsite administrators on the principles and guidelines of developmentally appropriate instruction, including developmentally appropriate behaviors and behavior interventions, and developmentally appropriate transitional kindergarten pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section 48000 of the Education Code, to improve the implementation of transitional kindergarten.

(4) Developing and expanding teacher recruitment and retention strategies, including, but not limited to, coaching and mentoring of staff serving in an instructional setting, and beginning teacher or administrator induction.

(5) Expanding career pathways and dual enrollment efforts, consistent with the Master Plan for Career Education.

(6) Community school and promising neighborhood partnerships pursuant to the California Community Schools Partnership Act (Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 8900) of Part 6 of Division 1 of Title 1).

(7) Deferred maintenance of school facilities.

(8) Addressing rising costs.

(b) The department shall allocate funds proportionally to county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and the state special schools on the basis of an equal amount per unit of average daily attendance for transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as those numbers were reported as of the second principal apportionment for the 2025–26 fiscal year. The average daily attendance for each state special school shall be deemed to be 97 percent of the enrollment as reported in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System as of the 2025–26 Fall 1 Submission.

(c) (1) Funding appropriated pursuant to this section shall be available for expenditure through June 30, 2032. County offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and the state special schools are encouraged, but not required, to use funds received pursuant to this section for the purposes described in paragraphs (1) to (8) , inclusive, of subdivision (a). On or before September 30, 2032, each county office of education, school district, charter school, and state special school receiving an allocation pursuant to this section shall report final expenditures to the department, which shall initiate collection of any unexpended funds on or before January 31, 2033.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) , if a charter school ceases to operate before June 30, 2032, a final expenditure report shall be due to the department within 60 days of the effective date of closure and the department shall collect any unexpended funds allocated to the charter school.

(d) As a condition of receiving funds apportioned pursuant to this section, a school district, county office of education, charter school, or state special school shall do all of the following, as applicable:

(1) A school district or charter school with an existing declining enrollment or projected declining enrollment in the next five years shall hold a public hearing on their plans to address the declining enrollment’s impacts on the local educational agency, including, but not limited to, schoolsite closures or consolidations.

(2) Ensure that none of their employees are charged a fee for professional services, including, but not limited to, beginning teacher induction program costs and professional development costs, during the grant period pursuant to this section.

(e) Allocations made pursuant to subdivision (b) shall first satisfy any outstanding claims pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII   B of the California Constitution for reimbursement of state-mandated local program costs for any fiscal year. Notwithstanding Section 12419.5 of the Government Code and any amounts that are paid in satisfaction of outstanding claims for reimbursement of state-mandated local program costs, the Controller may audit any claim as allowed by law, and may recover any amount owed by school districts pursuant to an audit only by reducing amounts owed by the state to school districts for any other mandate claims. Under no circumstances shall a school district be required to remit funding back to the state to pay for disallowed costs identified by a Controller audit of claimed reimbursable state-mandated local program costs. The Controller shall not recover any amount owed by a school district pursuant to an audit of claimed reimbursable state-mandated local program costs by reducing any amount owed a school district for any purpose other than amounts owed for any other mandate claims. The Controller shall apply amounts received by each school district against any balances of unpaid claims for reimbursement of state-mandated local program costs and interest in chronological order beginning with the earliest claim. The Controller shall report to each school district the amounts of any claims and interest that are offset from funds provided pursuant to this section, and shall report a summary of the amounts offset for each mandate for each fiscal year to the Department of Finance and the fiscal committees of the Legislature.

(f) (1) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, of the amount appropriated from the General Fund in subdivision (a), three hundred eighty-three million eight hundred twenty thousand dollars ($383,820,000) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the 2024–25 fiscal year, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIIIB,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202, for the 2024–25 fiscal year.

(2) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, of the amount appropriated from the General Fund in subdivision (a), two billion four hundred thirty million eight hundred forty-eight thousand dollars ($2,430,848,000) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the 2025–26 fiscal year, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIIIB,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202, for the 2025–26 fiscal year.

(3) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, of the amount appropriated from the General Fund in subdivision (a), one billion five hundred eighty-five million four hundred ninety-five thousand dollars ($1,585,495,000) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the 2026–27 fiscal year, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIIIB,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202, for the 2026–27 fiscal year.