Code Section

41480.  

(a) (1) The sum of one billion five hundred million dollars ($1,500,000,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Superintendent for the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant. The Superintendent shall apportion these funds to school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools in an equal amount per full-time equivalent certificated staff, which shall not exceed the total certificated staff count, and full-time equivalent classified staff count, for each eligible local educational agency, in the 2020–21 fiscal year. The Superintendent shall make the calculations pursuant to this section using the data submitted through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System and classified staff data submitted through the California Basic Educational Data System as of October 2020.

(2) A school district, county office of education, charter school, or state special school may expend the funds received pursuant to this subdivision from the 2021–22 fiscal year to the 2025–26 fiscal year, inclusive. School districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and state special schools shall coordinate the use of any federal funds received under Title II of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (Public Law 114–95) to support teachers and administrators with the expenditure of funds received pursuant to this subdivision.

(3) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant support increased educator access to standards-aligned professional support for high-need areas of instruction, including, but not limited to, English language instruction, inclusive special education, early childhood education, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction, including, but not limited to, computer science.

(b) A school district, county office of education, charter school, or state special school shall expend funds apportioned pursuant to this section to provide professional learning for teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals who work with pupils, and classified staff that interact with pupils, with a focus on any of the following areas:

(1) Coaching and mentoring of staff serving in an instructional setting and beginning teacher or administrator induction, including, but not limited to, coaching and mentoring solutions that address a local need for teachers that can serve all pupil populations with a focus on retaining teachers, and offering structured feedback and coaching systems organized around social-emotional learning, including, but not limited to, promoting teacher self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and responsible decisionmaking skills, improving teacher attitudes and beliefs about one’s self and others, and supporting learning communities for educators to engage in a meaningful classroom teaching experience.

(2) Programs that lead to effective, standards-aligned instruction and improve instruction in literacy across all subject areas, including English language arts, history-social science, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computer science, and preschool learning foundations. This may include coursework that would allow existing staff to become credentialed, fully credentialed for their assignment, or meet the requirements of subdivision (g) of Section 48000.

(3) Practices and strategies that reengage pupils and lead to accelerated learning.

(4) Strategies to implement social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, suicide prevention, access to mental health services, and other approaches that improve pupil well-being.

(5) Practices to create a positive school climate, including, but not limited to, restorative justice, training around implicit bias, providing positive behavioral supports, multitiered systems of support, transforming a schoolsite’s culture to one that values diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and preventing discrimination, harassment, bullying, and intimidation based on actual or perceived characteristics, including disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, language, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.

(6) Strategies to improve inclusive practices, including, but not limited to, universal design for learning, best practices for early identification, and development of individualized education programs for individuals with exceptional needs.

(7) Instruction and education to support implementing 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.

(8) New professional learning networks for educators not already engaged in an education-related professional learning network to support the requirements of subdivision (c).

(9) Instruction, education, and strategies to incorporate ethnic studies curricula adopted pursuant to Section 51226.7 into pupil instruction for grades 7 to 12, inclusive.

(10) Instruction, education, and strategies for certificated and classified educators in early childhood education, or childhood development.

(11) (A) Strategies to improve beginning teacher retention and support through teacher induction programs, including mentor training, stipends for mentor teachers, beginning teacher induction program costs following initial preparation, the examination or assessment fee for one administration of the reading instruction competence assessment or a teaching performance assessment, training mentors to support candidates in completing a performance assessment or reading instruction competence assessment, or contracting with commission-approved preliminary teacher preparation programs to provide mentoring support for the completion of required assessments.

(B) Funding apportioned pursuant to this section that is used to improve beginning teacher retention and support through teacher induction programs consistent with subparagraph (A), shall supplement and not supplant funding already provided by grant recipients for similar purposes.

(c) To ensure professional development meets educator and pupil needs, local educational agencies are encouraged to allow schoolsite and content staff to identify the topic or topics of professional learning. Reasonably related costs of providing and attending professional learning, including, but not limited to, travel, per diem reimbursement, and substitute costs, are allowable expenditures of funds apportioned pursuant to this section. Professional learning provided pursuant to this section shall do both of the following:

(1) Be content focused, incorporate active learning, support collaboration, use models of effective practice, provide coaching and expert support, offer feedback and reflection, and be of sustained duration.

(2) As applicable, be aligned to the academic content standards adopted pursuant to Sections 51226, 60605, 60605.1, 60605.2, 60605.3, 60605.4, 60605.8, and 60605.11, and the model curriculum adopted pursuant to Section 51226.7, as those sections read on June 30, 2020, and former Section 60605.85, as that section read on June 30, 2014.

(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:

(1) On or before March 31, 2023, develop and adopt a plan delineating the expenditure of funds apportioned pursuant to this section, including the professional development of teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and classified staff. The plan shall be presented in a public meeting of the governing board of the school district, county board of education, or governing body of the charter school, before its adoption in a subsequent public meeting.

(2) On or before September 30, 2023, and again on or before September 30, 2026, report detailed expenditure information to the department, including, but not limited to, specific purchases made and the number of teachers, administrators, paraprofessional educators, or classified staff that received professional development. The department shall determine the format for this report.

(3) Ensure that none of their local educational agency employees are charged a fee for services allowable under this section, including, but not limited to, beginning teacher induction program costs, during the grant period pursuant to this section.

(e) The department shall summarize the information reported pursuant to subdivision (d) and shall submit the summary to the appropriate budget subcommittees and policy committees of the Legislature and to the Department of Finance on or before January 1, 2024, and again on or before November 30, 2026. The department shall determine the format for this report to optimize its production within existing resources, but shall include aggregated information on planned uses of the funds by allowable use and subject area. The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(f) Funding apportioned pursuant to this section is subject to the annual audits required by Section 41020.

(g) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, the appropriation made by subdivision (a) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, for the 2020–21 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 XIII B,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202, for the 2020–21 fiscal year.