Bill Text: CA SB884 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended

California Senate Bill 884 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Education finance: emergencies: public safety power shutoffs.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-5)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2020-08-20 - August 20 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. [SB884 Detail]

Download: California-2019-SB884-Amended.html

Amended IN Senate June 18, 2020

Amended IN Senate March 16, 2020

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 884

Introduced by Senators Dodd and Stern
(Principal coauthors: Senators McGuire and Nielsen)
(Coauthors: Senators Archuleta, Galgiani, Hill, and Wilk)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Aguiar-Curry, Choi, Gallagher, Mathis, and Mark Stone)

January 23, 2020

An act to amend Sections 41422 and 46392 ~~of, and to add Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 46400) to Part 26 of Division 4 of Title 2 of,~~ of the Education Code, relating to education finance.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 884, as amended, Dodd. Education finance: emergencies: public safety power shutoffs.

Existing law prohibits a school district from receiving a state apportionment based upon average daily attendance unless it has maintained the regular day schools of the district for at least 175 days during the next preceding fiscal year. Existing law exempts from this prohibition a school district, county office of education, or charter school that is prevented from maintaining its schools during a fiscal year for at least 175 days because of a specified emergency or other extraordinary condition.

If the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of a specified emergency, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school approximately the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to the school district, county office of education, or charter school had the emergency not occurred.

This bill would add public safety power shutoffs to the list of emergencies for which the above-described provisions apply.

The bill would also establish the Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program for the purpose of allocating funding to eligible local educational agencies to make up instructional days lost due to emergency or other extraordinary conditions. The bill would require a participating local educational agency to be reimbursed at a specified rate for instructional days offered as part of the program. The bill would prohibit the total amount of funding received by a local educational agency pursuant to the program from exceeding the amount of funding that is attributable to the instructional time the local educational agency lost due to emergency or other extraordinary conditions. The bill would prohibit a certificated employee, classified employee, or pupil of a participating local educational agency from being required to attend instructional days offered by the local educational agency pursuant to the program. The bill would make the program operative only to the extent an appropriation is made for that purpose.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 41422 of the Education Code is amended to read:

41422.

(a) A school district, county office of education, or charter school that is prevented from maintaining its schools during a fiscal year for at least 175 days or is required to operate sessions of shorter length than otherwise prescribed by law because of fire, flood, earthquake, public safety power shutoff, or epidemic, or because of any order of any military officer of the United States or of the state to meet an emergency created by war, or of any civil officer of the United States, of the state, or of any county, city and county, or city authorized to issue that order to meet an emergency created by war, or because of other extraordinary conditions, or because of inability to secure or hold a teacher, or because of the illness of the teacher, which fact shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by the affidavits of the members of the governing board of the school district, the county board of education, or the governing board or body of the charter school and of the county superintendent of schools, shall receive the same apportionment from the State School Fund as it would have received had it not been so prevented from maintaining school for at least 175 full-length days.

(b) This section shall also apply to school districts, county offices of education, or charter schools that, in the absence of one or more of the conditions prescribed by this section, would have qualified for funds pursuant to Sections 46200 to 46208, inclusive, or Section 47612.5, as applicable.

SEC. 2.

Section 46392 of the Education Code is amended to read:

46392.

(a) If the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school ~~during a fiscal year~~ has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of any of the following, the fact shall be established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by affidavits of the members of the governing board or body of the school district, county office of education, or charter school and the county superintendent of schools:

(1) Fire.

(2) Flood.

(3) Impassable roads.

(4) Epidemic.

(5) Earthquake.

(6) Public safety power shutoff.

(7) The imminence of a major safety hazard as determined by the local law enforcement agency.

(8) A strike involving transportation services to pupils provided by a nonschool entity.

(9) An order provided for in Section 41422.

(b) (1) If a state of emergency is declared by the Governor in a county, a decrease in average daily attendance in the county below the approximate total average daily attendance that would have been credited to a school district, county office of education, or charter school had the state of emergency not occurred shall be deemed material. The Superintendent shall determine the length of the period during which average daily attendance has been reduced by the state of emergency.

(2) The period determined by the Superintendent shall not extend into the next fiscal year following the declaration of the state of emergency by the Governor, except upon a showing by a school district, county office of education, or charter school, to the satisfaction of the Superintendent, that extending the period into the next fiscal year is essential to alleviate continued reductions in average daily attendance attributable to the state of emergency.

(3) Notwithstanding any other law, the Superintendent shall extend through the 2018–19 fiscal year the period during which it is essential to alleviate continued reductions in average daily attendance attributable to a state of emergency declared by the Governor in October 2017, for a school district where no less than 5 percent of the residences within the school district or school district facilities were destroyed by the qualifying emergency.

(c) The average daily attendance of the school district, county office of education, or charter school for the fiscal year shall be estimated by the Superintendent in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school for determining the apportionments to be made to the school district, county office of education, or charter school from the State School Fund approximately the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to the school district, county office of education, or charter school had the emergency not occurred or had the order not been issued.

(d) Notwithstanding any other law, for a school district or charter school physically located within a school district, where no less than 5 percent of the residences within the school district, or the school district’s facilities, were destroyed as a result of a state of emergency that was declared by the Governor in November 2018, all of the following shall apply:

(1) In the 2020–21 fiscal year, for school districts, the Superintendent shall calculate the difference between the school district’s certified second principal apportionment local control funding formula entitlement pursuant to Section 42238.02 in the 2020–21 fiscal year and the 2019–20 fiscal year and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the school district.

(2) In the 2019–20 and 2020–21 fiscal years, for charter schools, the Superintendent shall calculate the difference between the charter school’s certified second principal apportionment local control funding formula entitlement pursuant to 42238.02 in the current year and each respective prior year and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the charter school.

(3) For a county office of education funded pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (g) of Section 2575 that has within the boundaries of the county school districts or charter schools affected pursuant to this subdivision and that has in the schools operated by the county office of education at least a 10-percent decrease in average daily attendance in the current fiscal year, in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 fiscal years, the Superintendent shall calculate the difference between the county office of education’s alternative education grant entitlement certified at the annual principal apportionment pursuant to Section 2574 in the current fiscal year and each respective prior fiscal year and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the county office of education.

(4) A school district may transfer funds received pursuant to paragraph (1) to the county office of education for the portion of the funds that represents pupils served by the county office of education who are funded through the school district’s local control funding formula apportionment pursuant to Section 2576.

(5) In each fiscal year, the allocations shall be made to school districts and charter schools by the Superintendent as soon as practicable after the second principal apportionment and to county offices of education as soon as practicable after the annual principal apportionment. The allocations made shall be final. The Superintendent may provide a preliminary allocation of up to 50 percent no sooner than the first principal apportionment.

(6) (A) The amounts described in this subdivision shall be continuously appropriated from the General Fund to the Superintendent for these purposes.

(B) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, the appropriation made by this subdivision shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the fiscal year in which they are appropriated, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202.

(e) This section applies to any average daily attendance that occurs during any part of a school year.

SEC. 3.Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 46400) is added to Part 26 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, to read:
4.Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program
46400.
~~(a)(1)This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program.~~
~~(2)For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school.~~
(b)The Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program is hereby established, to be administered by the Superintendent, for the purpose of allocating funding to eligible local educational agencies to make up instructional days lost due to emergency or other extraordinary conditions.
(c)To be eligible for participation in the program, a local educational agency shall demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Superintendent, as shown by affidavits of the members of the governing board or body of the school district, county office of education, or charter school and the county superintendent of schools, both of the following:
~~(1)That the local educational agency has either:~~
~~(A)Experienced a material decrease in average daily attendance during a fiscal year as a result of one or more of the events described in subdivision (a) of Section 46392.~~
~~(B)Failed to maintain its schools for at least 175 days during a fiscal year for one or more of the reasons described in subdivision (a) of Section 41422.~~
(2)That one or more of the events described in subdivision (a) of Section 46392 resulted in the loss of at least five instructional days in a single school year or the cumulative loss of at least 10 instructional days in two out of three consecutive school years.
~~(d)(1)A local educational agency that wishes to participate in the program shall submit an application to the Superintendent.~~
(2)The Superintendent shall respond to an application submitted by a local educational agency within 30 days. In considering whether to approve the application, the Superintendent may request additional information as needed.
(e)(1)Notwithstanding any other law, a certificated employee, classified employee, or pupil of a participating local educational agency shall not be required to attend instructional days offered by the local educational agency pursuant to the program.
(2)A participating local educational agency may offer instructional days pursuant to the program during a summer school session or any other supplemental instructional program, in an amount equal to or less than the instructional time the local educational agency lost due to an event described in subdivision (a) of Section 46392, subject to all of the following:
(A)If a participating local educational agency chooses to offer makeup instructional days during a summer school session or any other supplemental instructional program, participation is optional for pupils.
(B)If a participating local educational agency chooses to offer makeup instructional days during a summer school session or any other supplemental instructional program, certificated and classified employees are not required to work.
(C)(i)If a participating local educational agency chooses to offer makeup instructional days during a summer school session or any other supplemental instructional program, certificated and classified employees may choose to accept a supplemental contract for those instructional days.
~~(ii)For purposes of clause (i), supplemental contracts and pay rates are subject to collective bargaining for those employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.~~
(f)(1)(A)Subject to the adjustments described in this paragraph, the Superintendent shall reimburse a participating local educational agency for instruction provided pursuant to the program at a rate of seven dollars ($7) per pupil per hour.
(B)The rate described in subparagraph (A) shall be adjusted annually by the percentage change in the annual average value of the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services for the United States, as published by the United States Department of Commerce for the 12-month period ending in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. This percentage change shall be determined using the latest data available as of May 10 of the preceding fiscal year compared with the annual average value of the same deflator for the 12-month period ending in the third quarter of the second preceding fiscal year, using the latest data available as of May 10 of the preceding fiscal year, as reported by the Department of Finance.
(C)If the amount appropriated for purposes of the program is insufficient to reimburse each participating local educational agency at the rate described in subparagraph (A), as adjusted by subparagraph (B), the Superintendent shall adjust the rate of reimbursement proportionally to ensure each participating local educational agency is reimbursed at the same rate.
(2)The total amount of funding allocated to a participating local educational agency pursuant to the program shall not exceed the amount of funding that is attributable to the instructional time the local educational agency lost due to an event described in subdivision (a) of Section 46392.
~~(g)This section shall become operative only if an appropriation is made in the annual Budget Act or other statute for its purposes.~~