LaShae Sharp-Collins

Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to identify a list of schools for which the county superintendent of schools, or a designee, is required to inspect annually and submit an annual report that describes the state of schools in the county, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to reestablish the list in the 2024–25 fiscal year and again every 3 fiscal years. Existing law requires the priority objective of the visits to be to determine the status of, among other things, sufficient textbooks and the condition of a facility that poses an emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils or staff, as specified. Existing law requires the county superintendent to enforce the use of state textbooks and instructional materials and of high school textbooks and instructional materials regularly adopted by the proper authority, as specified, and requires, if a school is identified on the above-described list, the county superintendent to specifically review the school at least annually as a priority school and to conduct the review for this purpose by the 4th week of the school year.

This bill would require, for schools that are identified on the list established in the 2024–25 fiscal year, and only in the fiscal years in which that list is used, a county superintendent to complete the textbook and instructional materials review for the above-described purposes by the 8th week of the school year. The bill would require the county superintendent to prioritize visiting, within the first 4 weeks of the school year where practicable, those schools for which the county superintendent has received information from a survey, a complaint filed pursuant to the Uniform Complaint Procedures, or any other reliable source that the school does not have sufficient textbooks or that a facility of the school poses an emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils or staff or is not in good repair, as specified. By imposing new duties on county superintendents of schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.