41490. (a) For the 2021–22 fiscal year, the sum of fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Superintendent to apportion to the Orange County Department of Education in the manner, and for the purposes, set forth in this section. The Orange County Department of Education shall encumber or expend the funds apportioned pursuant to this subdivision on or before June 30, 2026.
(b) The Orange County Department of Education, in consultation with the Superintendent and the executive director of the state board, shall award no less than thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) of the amount appropriated in subdivision (a) as grants to local educational agencies for the purpose of funding schoolwide and districtwide implementation of services or practices aligned to the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework developed under the “Scale Up MTSS Statewide” (SUMS) project. The grants shall be awarded to local educational agencies on or before December 15, 2021. Any funds not awarded on or before December 15, 2021, shall be available for the Orange County Department of Education, in consultation with the Superintendent and the executive director of the state board, to award as grants to local educational agencies on or before December 15, 2022.
(1) Grant funds awarded to local educational agencies shall be used to support the implementation of high quality integrated academic, behavioral, and social-emotional learning practices in an integrated multitiered system of support at the schoolwide level, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Educator and leader training on the foundations of the California Multi-Tiered System of Support framework and practices, as developed by the SUMS project.
(B) Ongoing training and coaching support to schoolsite educators and leaders in deepening the implementation of high leverage practices for integrated academic, behavioral, and social-emotional learning across tiers throughout the school community.
(C) Ongoing training and support to school and local educational agency leaders in aligning practices, policies, and structures to create and sustain a schoolwide and agencywide integrated multitiered system of support.
(D) Establishing school- and local educational agency-level multitiered system of support teams to support implementation efforts.
(2) Grants shall be awarded with priority to local educational agencies serving a high number of unduplicated pupils, as defined in Section 42238.02, that have participated in local educational agency-level training to implement an integrated multitiered system of support.
(3) Local educational agencies receiving funds shall measure and report on implementation fidelity at least annually using the tools and resources developed by the SUMS project. Data shall be reported to the Orange County Department of Education in a form available to the public.
(4) (A) On or before September 30 of each fiscal year until the Orange County Department of Education has fully expended the funds allocated pursuant to this subdivision, the Orange County Department of Education shall submit an annual report to the Superintendent summarizing how it used the funds in the prior fiscal year. The Superintendent shall provide copies of these reports to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, the Department of Finance, the state board, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
(B) A report to be submitted pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(c) (1) The Superintendent shall establish a process, in consultation with and subject to the approval of the executive director of the state board, to select a local educational agency, a local educational agency in partnership with an institution of higher education or nonprofit educational service provider, or a consortia, to partner with the Orange County Department of Education and the Butte County Office of Education to expand the state’s capacity to support local educational agencies’ implementation of social-emotional learning, trauma screening, trauma-informed practices, and culturally relevant, affirming, and sustaining practices. The selected entity, known as a partner entity, shall be selected on or before February 15, 2022. No more than twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) of the amount appropriated in subdivision (a) is available for purposes of this subdivision.
(2) The partner entity shall have demonstrated expertise in developing and delivering high quality professional learning to educators in social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, and culturally relevant, affirming, and sustaining practices in a manner that aligns with local multitiered systems of support. The partner entity shall support the Orange County Department of Education and the Butte County Office of Education in offering high quality professional learning to educators and school leaders by performing all of the following functions:
(A) Creating, collecting, and curating resources for educators on social-emotional learning, trauma screening, trauma-informed practices, and culturally relevant, affirming, and sustaining practices.
(B) Providing ongoing training and support in the use of trauma screening tools and mental health service referrals, school climate surveys, and the use of tool and survey data.
(C) Providing grants to local educational agencies to support both of the following:
(i) Convening professional learning communities of educators and school leaders.
(ii) Providing ongoing training and coaching to educators and school leaders.
(3) In performing the work described in this subdivision, the partner entity, in partnership with the Orange County Department Education and the Butte County Office of Education, shall, to the extent practicable, leverage current research and work related to how educators and school leaders can best address the social-emotional needs of pupils, and consult with experts in the field on matters related to trauma screening and trauma-informed practices.
(4) For purposes of this subdivision, “high quality professional learning” shall include, but not be limited to, professional learning that is content-focused, incorporates active learning using adult learning theory, supports collaboration in job-embedded contexts, uses models and modeling of effective practices, provides coaching and expert support, and offers opportunities for feedback.
(d) A local educational agency that receives a grant pursuant to subdivision (b), or high quality professional learning pursuant to subdivision (c), shall, as a condition of receiving the grant or high quality professional learning, provide to the Orange County Department of Education, the Butte County Office of Education, and the department any available outcome data resulting from the practices implemented, and participate in overall program evaluation.
(e) The Orange County Department of Education may expend up to one million dollars ($1,000,000) of the amount appropriated pursuant to subdivision (a) to support the administration of grants and provide support to the grantees pursuant to Department of Finance approval of an expenditure plan. The Orange County Department of Education shall not expend moneys pursuant to this subdivision sooner than 30 days after the Department of Finance provides written notification of the approval of the expenditure plan to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
(f) For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school.
(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.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 52, Sec. 19. (AB 181) Effective June 30, 2022.)