Education finance: transitional kindergarten: funding for basic aid school districts and necessary small schools.

Existing law authorizes a school district or charter school to maintain a transitional kindergarten program. Existing law requires a school district or a charter school, as a condition of receipt of apportionment for pupils in a transitional kindergarten program, to ensure that, beginning with the 2025–26 school year, a child who will have their 4th birthday by September 1 of a school year be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school. Under existing law, pursuant to the LCFF, school districts and charter schools receive, as funding for transitional kindergarten, the sum of a base grant, a supplemental grant, a concentration grant, if applicable, and a transitional kindergarten add-on, multiplied by transitional kindergarten average daily attendance, as provided.

Under existing law, school districts that receive local revenues that exceed the LCFF amount do not receive a specified apportionment of LCFF funds, as provided, and are known as "basic aid school districts" or "excess tax entities." Existing law, notwithstanding those provisions, requires charter schools and school districts, including basic aid districts, to receive a minimum level of state-aid funding, as provided.

This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, require the minimum level of state funding for basic aid districts to include both the above-described sum of the LCFF base, supplemental, and concentration grants for transitional kindergarten, and an unspecified add-on amount for transitional kindergarten, multiplied by transitional kindergarten average daily attendance, as provided.

Existing law provides for the funding of necessary small schools and high schools, as specified. Existing law requires that funding to be based on, among other things, the necessary small school's average daily attendance and the number of full-time teachers, as specified. Existing law requires these necessary small school amounts to be added to the LCFF calculations for school districts with necessary small schools, as provided.

This bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funding for pupils attending transitional kindergarten in certain necessary small schools, as provided. The bill would require this allocation to include, for any average daily attendance generated by pupils attending a transitional kindergarten program in the necessary small school, the sum of the above-described LCFF base grant, supplemental grant, and concentration grant, if applicable, and transitional kindergarten add-on amounts, as provided. The bill would, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, and for each fiscal year thereafter, appropriate the amount of funding necessary to implement the required allocations for the applicable fiscal year from the General Fund to the Superintendent for allocation to necessary small schools under these provisions.

Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.