Bill Text: CA AB1950 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Charter School Facility Grant Program.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2010-06-30 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. [AB1950 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AB1950-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1950	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Brownley

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2010

   An act to amend Section 47614.5 of the Education Code, relating to
charter schools.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1950, as introduced, Brownley. Charter School Facility Grant
Program.
   Existing law establishes the Charter School Facility Grant Program
and requires the State Department of Education to administer the
program. Existing law declares that the intent of the program is to
provide assistance with facilities rent and lease costs for pupils in
charter schools.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those
provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 47614.5 of the Education Code is amended to
read:
   47614.5.  (a) The Charter School Facility Grant Program is hereby
established and shall be administered by the department. The grant
program is intended to provide assistance with facilities rent and
lease costs for pupils in charter schools.
   (b) Subject to the annual Budget Act, eligible schools shall
receive an amount of up to, but not more than, seven hundred fifty
dollars ($750) per unit of average daily attendance, as certified at
the second principal apportionment, to provide an amount of up to,
but not more than, 75 percent of the annual facilities rent and lease
costs for the charter school. In any fiscal year, if the funds
appropriated for the purposes of this section by the annual Budget
Act are insufficient to fund the approved amounts fully, the
Superintendent shall apportion the available funds on a pro rata
basis.
   (c) For purposes of this section, the department shall do all of
the following:
   (1) Inform charter schools of the grant program.
   (2) Upon application by a charter school, determine eligibility,
based on the geographic location of the charter schoolsite, pupil
eligibility for free or reduced price meals, and a preference in
admissions, as appropriate. Eligibility for funding shall not be
limited to the grade level or levels served by the school whose
attendance area is used to determine eligibility. Charter schoolsites
are eligible for funding pursuant to this section if the charter
schoolsite meets either of the following conditions:
   (A) The charter schoolsite is physically located in the attendance
area of a public elementary school in which 70 percent or more of
the pupil enrollment is eligible for free or reduced priced meals and
the schoolsite gives a preference in admissions to pupils who are
currently enrolled in that public elementary school and to pupils who
reside in the elementary school attendance area where the charter
schoolsite is located.
   (B) Seventy percent or more of the pupil enrollment at the charter
schoolsite is eligible for free or reduced price meals.
   (3) Inform charter schools of their grant eligibility.
   (4) Allocate funding to charter schools for eligible expenditures
in a timely manner. 
   (5) No later than June 30, 2005, report to the Legislature on the
number of charter schools that have participated in the grant program
pursuant to the expanded eligibility prescribed in paragraph (2). In
addition, the report shall provide recommendations and suggestions
on improving the grant program. 
   (d) Funds appropriated for purposes of this section shall not be
apportioned for any of the following:
   (1) Units of average daily attendance generated through
nonclassroom-based instruction as defined by paragraph (2) of
subdivision  (d)   (e)  of Section 47612.5
or that does not comply with conditions or limitations set forth in
regulations adopted by the state board pursuant to this section.
   (2) Charter schools occupying existing school district or county
office of education facilities.
   (3) Charter schools receiving reasonably equivalent facilities
from their chartering authority pursuant to Section 47614.
   (e) Funds appropriated for purposes of this section shall be used
for costs associated with facilities rents and leases, consistent
with the definitions used in the California School Accounting Manual.
These funds also may be used for costs, including, but not limited
to, costs associated with remodeling buildings, deferred maintenance,
initially installing or extending service systems and other built-in
equipment, and improving sites.
   (f) If an existing charter school located in an elementary
attendance area in which less than 50 percent of pupil enrollment is
eligible for free or reduced price meals relocates to an attendance
area identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (c), admissions
preference shall be given to pupils who reside in the elementary
school attendance area into which the charter school is relocating.
   (g) The Superintendent annually shall report to the state board
regarding the use of funds that have been made available during the
fiscal year to each charter school pursuant to the grant program.
   (h) It is the intent of the Legislature that not less than
eighteen million dollars ($18,000,000) annually be appropriated for
purposes of the grant program on the same basis as other elementary
and secondary education categorical programs.
   (i) Commencing with the 2009-10 fiscal year, the Superintendent
shall annually allocate the facilities grants to eligible charter
schools no later than October 1 of each fiscal year. However, the
department shall first use the funding appropriated for this program
in the 2009-10 fiscal year to reimburse eligible charter schools for
rent or lease costs for the 2008-09 fiscal year, consistent with this
section as it read on June 30, 2009.