The After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002, an initiative statute approved by the voters as Proposition 49 at the November 5, 2002, statewide general election, establishes the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program under which participating public schools receive grants to operate before and after school programs serving pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 9, inclusive. The act requires an amount not to exceed $550,000,000 to be continuously appropriated to the State Department of Education from the General Fund in each fiscal year for purposes of the program, and requires the amount to be allocated to public elementary, middle, and junior high schools according to a specified priority scheme, as provided. The act authorizes the Legislature to appropriate funds for the program in excess of this continuous appropriation. The act makes each public elementary, middle, and junior high school in the state eligible to receive a 3-year renewable after school grant for after school programs to be operated during the regular school year, as provided. The act authorizes the Legislature to amend the provisions containing the priority scheme only by a statute, enacted by a 2/3 vote of each house and signed by the Governor, that furthers the purposes of the act.

Existing law establishes the 21st Century High School After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (High School ASSETs) program to create incentives for establishing after school enrichment programs to provide academic support and safe, constructive alternatives for high school pupils in the hours after the regular schoolday and to support college and career readiness. Under existing law, a High School ASSETs program is authorized to operate as either (1) an after school only program or (2) a program with both after school elements and any combination of before school, weekend, summer, intersession, or vacation elements.

This bill would establish the High School After School Education and Safety Grant Program as a component of the ASES Program. The bill would require program grantees to comply with the rules and requirements governing the High School ASSETs program, operate for up to 210 days per program year, and provide a daily funding rate of $16 per pupil. The bill would, commencing with the 2027–28 fiscal year and annually thereafter, and notwithstanding any other law, including the above-described priority scheme, require ASES Program appropriations in excess of the minimum requirement that have not been otherwise awarded, as provided, to be allocated to the department for expenditure consistent with the High School After School Education and Safety Grant Program. The bill would require the department to allocate these funds pursuant to a specified hierarchy, with first priority given to existing High School ASSETs grantees to fund an increase in their per pupil daily rate to $16 and to expand the number of program offering days to up to 210 days, and second priority given to fund new high school programs that comply with the grant requirements, as provided. The bill would require the department to ensure, for existing ASES Program grantees applying for a renewal of grant funds, that any funding reductions or eliminations as a result of the allocation for the High School After School Education and Safety Grant Program are distributed proportionally within each annual cycle of grantees, as provided. The bill would include a legislative finding and declaration that the bill furthers the purposes of the After School Education and Safety Program Act of 2002.

This bill would, for the purposes of attendance tracking for the High School ASSETs program, authorize pupils to be counted as attending twice if they participated in both an after school element and a before school element of a High School ASSETs program.

Existing law establishes the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to allocate funding appropriated in the annual Budget Act to local educational agencies pursuant to specified rules based on those local educational agencies’ percentage of unduplicated pupils, as defined, and average daily attendance of pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6, inclusive, as provided. Existing law requires local educational agencies to annually declare their operational intent to the department to run an expanded learning opportunity program.

This bill, commencing with the 2026–27 fiscal year, would require the department or a local educational agency designated by the department to convene a stakeholder workgroup with specified representatives to provide recommendations related to providing quality care to transitional kindergarten and kindergarten pupils, as provided, and submit a report to be posted on the department’s internet website on the full cost of providing accessible and quality expanded learning programs.

Existing law requires the department to develop and submit a biennial report to the Legislature related to the pupils attending, and the program quality of, expanded learning programs.

This bill would revise and recast these provisions by requiring the department to develop and submit an annual report to the Legislature related to the pupils attending expanded learning programs, including High School ASSETs programs, ASES programs, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and expanded learning opportunities programs. The bill would require the report to include, among other things, data derived from the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and aggregate reporting on specified pupil information. The bill would require the department to make the data collected in CALPADS available and accessible to the public, at the local educational agency level, and would require the department to develop summaries of the annual report for policymakers and the public.

Existing law, the Child Care and Development Services Act, administered by the State Department of Social Services, establishes a system of childcare and development services for children up to 13 years of age. Existing law establishes childcare resource and referral programs to serve a defined geographic area and provide prescribed services. Among the services provided by these programs is the establishment of a referral process that responds to parental need for information and that makes referrals to licensed child daycare facilities, as specified. Existing law requires, when making referrals, every agency operating both a direct service program and a resource and referral program to provide at least 4 referrals, at least one of which shall be a provider over which the agency has no fiscal or operational control, and information to a family on the family’s ability to choose a license exempt provider.

This bill would require every resource and referral program to provide information about expanded learning opportunities programs in its region, as provided.