51873.
(a) The department shall establish an Office of Educational Technology with sufficient staff to administer this article. Funding for the Office of Educational Technology shall be provided through the annual Budget Act for a minimum of three full-time equivalent staff to plan, coordinate, and support, as needed, the provisions of this article. The duties of the department under this article shall include, but are not necessarily limited to, all of the following:(1) (A) Preparing a comprehensive State Digital Equity Plan that reflects the overall needs and priorities related to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the access and use of technology to support teaching and learning in California schools. The plan shall be prepared with input from local educational agencies and other stakeholders, and shall be submitted to, and approved by, the state board.
(B) The focus of the State Digital Equity Plan shall be on how best to meet locally defined educational needs that can be effectively addressed with the use of technology. In order to prepare the plan, the department shall collect data on the technology needs of local educational agencies, including, but not necessarily limited to, their digital infrastructure needs and the estimated needs of their pupils for computing devices and for internet connectivity adequate for at-home learning.
(C) The plan shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, findings and recommendations related to all of the following topics:
(i) Professional development for teachers, school administrators, and technical support staff.
(ii) Establishing effective distance learning to include hybrid strategies combining school and home.
(iii) Digital resource selection and usage for school or for online instruction, or for both.
(iv) Digital network infrastructure and needed bandwidth for schools and homes.
(v) Technical assistance to school districts in developing a support system to operate and maintain an education technology infrastructure, including improving pupil recordkeeping and tracking related to pupil instruction.
(vi) Planning and coordination with, and support for, the local funding and implementation of federal, state, and local programs.
(vii) Accessing and using a variety of funding sources for instructional technology.
(viii) Technical assistance and information to support access, planning, and the use of high-speed telecommunications networks.
(ix) Technology planning and implementation assistance to rural and technologically underserved school districts and county offices of education.
(x) Assistance in the use of online instruction to replace or supplement classroom instruction when necessary, or both, and to establish online and hybrid learning proficiency for teachers.
(xi) Helping to ensure that online and hybrid instruction is aligned to the state’s academic content standards and incorporates related pupil learning assessment.
(xii) Coordinate with education stakeholders at school districts and county offices of education to identify support needs for the DEEP and to develop a needed support structure in all of the following areas:
(I) Professional development for teachers, school administrators, and support staff.
(II) Connectivity solutions.
(III) Dedicated device funding.
(D) On or before January 31, 2022, the Superintendent shall submit the plan to the state board for adoption, and the state board shall adopt the plan on or before March 31, 2022.
(2) Providing for the statewide coordination, planning, and evaluation of education technology programs and resources.
(3) Providing sufficient staff to provide ongoing support, direction, and coordination of the regional and statewide educational technology services described in this article.
(4) Advancing the use of technology in the curriculum and in the administration of elementary and secondary schools.
(5) Providing ongoing planning, funding, and policy information to the directors for planning and distribution to school districts served by the region.
(6) Coordinating educational technology planning, policies, and information with other divisions of the department to include, but not necessarily be limited to, curriculum, assessment, technical support, budget, and professional development.
(b) Funding shall be provided through the annual Budget Act to the Superintendent to provide centralized statewide educational technology services that address locally defined needs and are more efficiently and effectively provided on a statewide basis. The department may contract with a county office of education to provide specific educational technology services that may include, but are not necessarily limited to, any or all of the following:
(1) Review of electronic learning resources, including, but not necessarily limited to, software, online resources, and video, for alignment with the content standards adopted by the state board and for the results of reviews to be accessible online, as needed by all public educators in the state.
(2) Professional development focused on digital school leadership for educational administrators in the areas of data-driven analytics, equity, and accessibility, integrating technology into standards-based curriculum, technology planning, professional development needs of staff, digital citizenship and privacy, and financial planning for technology.
(3) Access for schools to training, support, and other resources for technical professionals in the state.
(c) The Superintendent shall annually submit a written report to the state board and the Legislature on the services provided, persons served, and funds expended for purposes of this article, and the extent to which the objectives of the State Digital Equity Plan prepared pursuant to this section were attained in the immediately preceding year. A report to be submitted to the Legislature pursuant to this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.