AB 247 (Muratsuchi): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 247, the Transitional Kindergarten Through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2024, which will help students and teachers have access to adequate spaces in which to teach and learn. ACOE believes that every student and teacher has a right to safe, clean, and quality school sites, and this bill will help implement needed modernization projects in school facilities, preparing schools for the expansion of Transitional Kindergarten and strengthening their climate resilience. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations Committee support letter.  

AB 247 was signed into law on July 3, 2024.

AB 1858 (Ward): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 1858, which will provide framework standards and guidance on how TK-12 schools should conduct school shooter drills. With rising incidences of gun violence on school campuses, students and staff must be prepared to respond to school shooters, but a lack of standardization across campus can have troubling and lasting consequences on the mental health of students, families, and staff. SB 1182 aims to prioritize open communication, preparedness, and trauma-minimization in active shooter drills, ensuring that all involved parties are notified before, during, and after drills and connected to relevant resources. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter. Click this link to read ACOE' Senate Education Committee letter. 

AB 1913 (Addis): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 1913, which will update the content of mandated reporter trainings in TK-12 education to include child abuse prevention training, which is currently not a statewide mandate. AB 1913 tailors the current mandated curriculum, which is limited to reporting and identification, without adding time to the duration of these trainings. In doing so, the bill takes the appropriate, preventative steps to protect students and give mandated reporters the tools they need. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Human Services Committee support letter. Click this link to read its Senate Education Committee letter and this link to read its Senate Human Services Committee letter.

AB 1915 (Arambula): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 1915, which will direct the California Department of Public Health to develop an Opioid Overdose Response Training Toolkit to be made available to public high schools. Students who voluntarily participate in the program will learn how to administer a federally approved opioid overdose reversal medication during an emergency overdose and where to locate antagonists on campus. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Health Committee support letter. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Appropriations support letter.

AB 1927 (Alanis): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 1927, which will expand eligibility for the Golden State Teacher Grant Program (GSTGP) to prospective educators who commit to at least four years of work as a credentialed career technical education (CTE) instructor. ACOE prioritizes increasing student access to career preparation programs and addressing educator workforce shortages. ACOE supports the intent of this bill to expand GSTGP eligibility to include CTE instructors in order to increase accessibility for prospective instructors to earn their CTE credential, ultimately enhancing students’ opportunities to engage in robust career preparation programs. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter.

AB 1929 (McKinnor): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 1929, which will require that data collected by grant recipients of the Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program (CTEIG) and the Strong Workforce Program (SWP) be disaggregated by race to assess the number of African Americans enrolled in these programs and to analyze the outcomes for African American participants. ACOE is committed to increasing all students' access to career preparation programs and supports the aim of this bill to rectify racial disparities in representation of descendants of enslaved people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and related career technical education (CTE) programs. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter.

AB 1929 was signed into law on July 18, 2024.

AB 1939 (Maienschein): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 1939, which will require school attendance review board (SARB) members to consult with students at least once a year to gain the student perspective on school attendance challenges. SARBs are responsible for helping truant or recalcitrant students and their parents or guardians solve school attendance and behavior problems through the use of available community resources. ACOE believes that elevating student voices can have a pivotal impact when considering the challenges facing today’s generation and prepare both pupils and governing boards for long-term success. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter.

AB 1939 was signed into law on June 14, 2024. 

AB 2009 (Rendon): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2009, which will adjust informal bid and force account limits or school facilities in order to keep up with inflation. In doing so, the bill will allow small-scale schoolyear projects to more easily be completed on school campuses. ACOE recognizes that students can benefit greatly from the interdisciplinary and wellness supports that schoolyard greening projects, such as gardens, provide. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter.

AB 2019 (V. Fong): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2019, which will expand the definition of early and middle college high schools to include early and middle college programs to ensure that students can qualify for reduced instructional minute requirements. Additionally, this bill will extend the reduction in instructional minutes to include students in courses under a College and Career Access Pathway (CCAP) agreement. ACOE is committed to increasing student participation in career preparation programs and supports this bill's intent to expand dual enrollment opportunities without negatively impacting school funding. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee support letter.  

AB 2052 (Jones-Sawyer): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2052, which will strengthen the Public School-Based Health Center Support Program by improving collaboration between the California Department of Public Health and the Office of School-Based Health and by updating criteria for grant preference. ACOE is committed to ensuring that students have access to physical and behavioral health care supports, which School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) provide to students and their families regardless of their ability to pay for services. This bill proposes refinements to existing law to ensure that the program is administered effectively and available to schools with the greatest need. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Health support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education support letter.

AB 2112 (Muratsuchi): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2112, which will protect high-quality expanded learning opportunities for students in grades TK-6 by stabilizing funding for these essential programs. AB 2112 will set a floor for Rate 2 LEAs at the 2022-23 rate and will establish a working group of interest holders to make recommendations related to ELOP, including a method to stabilize per-pupil rates, an estimate of adequate funding levels to provide high-quality expanded learning programs, the need for an annual cost of living adjustment, and the need for statewide data collection. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education letter.

AB 2137 (Quirk-Silva): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2137, which will improve outcomes for foster youth and students who experience homelessness by using resources to enhance direct student support, streamlining coordination of services, and reducing gaps in financial aid application completion. ACOE is committed to serving our most vulnerable students and ensuring foster youth and students experiencing homelessness have access to specialized support services. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Human Services Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Senate Education support letter.

AB 2179 (Davies): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2179, which will require LEAs to provide information about local apprenticeship programs to students in grades 11 and 12 at the beginning of each school year. ACOE is committed to increasing students' access to career preparation programs, including apprenticeships. This bill would help students to learn about different apprenticeships they may apply for either while still in school or after graduation. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter. 

AB 2179 was signed into law on July 2, 2024.

AB 2229 (Wilson): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2229, which will expand the California Healthy Youth Act and ensure that students receive menstrual health instruction as part of comprehensive sexual education. Roughly 1.8 billion people across the globe menstruate monthly, and yet California does not have an established curriculum that teaches youth about the menstrual cycle. This lack of education can perpetuate societal stigmas surrounding menstruation, leading to shame, distress, and poorer health outcomes. AB 2229 will alter current sexual health curricula to ensure that all students receive information about an important topic related to sexual health and will help reduce stigma and taboos regarding menstruation. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter.

AB 2273 (Holden): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2273, which will establish the California Pilot Paid Internship Program and allow high school seniors to participate in eight-week paid internship programs that provide up to 40 hours of work per week. ACOE supports equitable access to meaningful workplace learning experiences for high school students. ACOE recognizes that unpaid internships pose a significant disadvantage for students seeking meaningful work experience who lack the flexibility to work without compensation and supports AB 2273's intent to remove this participation barrier. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Appropriations Committee support letter. 

AB 2459 (Wilson): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2459, which will protect existing foster youth mentoring relationships as youth are moved to new placements and provide new pathways to mentoring for foster youth. ACOE is committed to serving our most vulnerable students and ensuring foster youth have access to support services, including mentoring programs. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Human Services Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Judiciary support letter.  

AB 2508 (McCarty): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2508, which will expand CalKIDS eligibility to all foster youth in first through twelfth grade. CalKIDS is a California state program that helps children save for postsecondary education or career training. ACOE supports this bill's intent to expand access to this program to all students in foster care, regardless of age, in order to increase foster youth's access to postsecondary education or career training. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Human Services Committee support letter.   

AB 2548 (Ta): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2548, which will waive the current 2023-24 school year penalties on districts offering Early Transitional Kindergarten (ETK). Recent legislation mandates that schools accommodating ETK learners must maintain strict pupil ratios and class sizes, but, given that this language was established shortly before the current school year, schools have not been given adequate time to address staffing and classroom needs to avoid penalties. AB 2548 will protect schools from millions of dollars in penalties as they adjust to new requirements and preserve their fiscal stability. Click this link to read a coalition support letter to the Assembly Education Committee that ACOE signed.

AB 2768 (Berman): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 2768, which will ensure that grant recipients under the Golden State Teacher Grant Program (GSTGP) may meet their work commitment by serving at a nonpublic, nonsectarian school. NPSs provide critical educational and related services for students with special needs and have been impacted by the shortage of special education teachers across California. ACOE supports the intent of this bill to address special education workforce shortages at NPSs by including these programs in the definition of "priority schools" to fulfill GSTGP service requirements. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter.

AB 3131 (McCarty): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 3131, which will require LEAs receiving LCFF Equity Multiplier funding to be prioritized in receiving funding from the Career Technical Education Incentive Grant (CTEIG) and the Strong Workforce Program (SWP). ACOE is working to increase all students' access to career preparation programs and supports this bill's intent to ensure that students who most need targeted investments into high-quality CTE programs will benefit from CTE grants. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter.

AB 3223 (Wilson): ACOE is strongly supporting AB 3223, which will add youth who are subject to a juvenile court petition and who have been identified as being at imminent risk of removal and placement into foster care to the list of youth eligible to receive services through the Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program (FYSCP). ACOE is committed to serving our most vulnerable students, including foster youth and students attending juvenile court schools and supports this bill's intent to ensure that youth served by probation who are subject to a WIC 602 petition and are at imminent risk of placement are included on the eligibility list for FYSCP services. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Human Services Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter.

SB 333 (Cortese): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 333, which will establish the California Success, Opportunity, and Academic Resilience (SOAR) Guaranteed Income Program. A 4-month program commencing May 1, 2025, SOAR will provide roughly 15,000 12th grade students with a monthly $1,000 stipend to support their transition to employment and postsecondary education. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter and this link to read its Assembly Human Services Committee support letter. 

SB 483 (Cortese): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 483, which will prohibit the use of prone restraint in all California schools. The U.S. Department of Education recommends banning the use of prone restraints. ACOE urges California to join the 21 other states that have prohibited this form of physical restraint on all students. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter. 

SB 956 (Cortese): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 956, which will eliminate the sunset on the authorization for K-12 schools to use the Design-Build procurement method for construction projects over $1 million. This authority currently expires on January 1, 2025. However, schools have a proven track record of successfully utilizing the Design-Build method, which allows a school to use a best value method to select the team, expedite project construction, and reduce the risk of cost increases resulting from change orders once construction begins by establishing a Guaranteed Maximum Price. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter.

SB 995 (Padilla): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 995, which will require the creation of three pilot programs among partnering California State Universities (CSU) and California Community Colleges (CCC) to make becoming a teacher easier and more affordable. ACOE is committed to strengthening the education workforce and removing barriers to equitable access to the teaching profession. This bill would expand pathways to becoming a teacher and increase diversity in the profession by making it more accessible to low-income and minority students. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations support letter.

SB 997 (Portantino): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 997, which will permit middle school and high school students to carry federally approved opioid antagonists while they are on campus. Additionally, it would require middle schools and high schools to stock fentanyl testing strips and notify students about their location. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter and this link to read ACOE's Senate Health Committee support letter. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee letter. 

SB 1182 (Gonzalez): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1182, which will require the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop a Master Plan for Healthy, Sustainable, and Climate-Resilient Schools. California houses 1,000 school districts that each produce enormous quantities of waste and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As the state faces increasing climate-related threats that negatively impact student well-being, ACOE acknowledges that having a comprehensive roadmap on school sustainability is a crucial step towards protecting the health and safety of its students. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter, and click this link to read its Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee support letter. 

SB 1263 (Newman): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1263, which will eliminate the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) as a requirement for candidates to acquire a California teacher credential. As part of pursuing a credential, teachers are already required to complete 600 hours of clinical practice and demonstrate proficiency through clinical practice assessments, which are duplicative of the TPA and additionally provide vital experience with applying concepts and navigating classroom challenges. The TPA detracts from candidates' attention and engagement with clinical practice, and, additionally, presents inequitable demands for preparation that disproportionately discourage candidates of color from pursuing a credential. Creating a diverse, prepared workforce is critical to fostering long-term student success, and SB 1263 will support both the hiring and retention of qualified educators. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations Committee support letter. 

SB 1315 (Archuleta): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1315, which will require the California Department of Education (CDE) to provide a report on a biannual basis to the Superintendent, the Governor, and the Legislature on the number and types of reports that local education agencies (LEAs) are required to submit. This report would include an explanation of the purpose of each report, a recommendation of which reports can be consolidated, and an assessment of the administrative costs on LEAs to produce these reports. LEAs are annually required to produce 170 reports that align with growing state and district mandates, and ACOE believes that, by initiating the process to streamline and condense reporting requirements, SB 1315 will grant LEAs more time and resources to dedicate towards their students. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter.

SB 1322 (Wahab): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1322, which will lower the age that foster youth become eligible for the California Chafee Education and Training Grant from 16 years old to 14 years old. Currently, foster youth can only become eligible at the age of 16, which results in many younger foster youth missing out on crucial financial support. SB 1322 aligns the structure of the California Chafee Voucher with the Federal Chafee Voucher by lowering the age of eligibility to 14 to ensure that more foster youth receive support for educational pursuits and job training. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Senate Human Services Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations support letter. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee letter.

SB 1341 (Allen): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1341, which will expand existing statute relating to Proposition 28, Arts and Music in Schools Funding, to include media arts alongside other arts disciplines. Media arts is an inclusive discipline that allows students to utilize today's technology to produce artistic creations and is rife with opportunities for students to pursue in California's Creative Economy. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations support letter. Click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter.

SB 1380 (Dodd): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1380, which will protect the fiscal solvency of districts by eliminating legal loopholes and providing greater opportunity for districts to reflect on the financial ramifications of charter appeals and renewals. Specifically, SB 1380 will prevent charters from appealing when an appeal for a similar charter has already been denied, allow districts to provide testimony on and evidence of a charter's fiscal impact at a public hearing for an appeal, and authorize districts to consider the fiscal impact of charters, regardless of whether the district is in financial distress, in the first five years after the district exits state receivership. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations support letter. 

SB 1391 (Rubio): ACOE is strongly supporting SB 1391, which will strengthen the educator workforce by requiring the Cradle to Career (C2C) dashboard to provide critical data on teacher grant programs as well as teacher training pipelines that will help foster a more diverse and equitable teacher workforce in California. ACOE is committed to strengthening the education workforce and removing barriers to equitable access to the teaching profession and supports the intent of this bill to address educator workforce shortages by mandating the collection of teacher hiring, training, and credentialing data to improve teacher preparation programs. Click this link to read ACOE's Senate Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Senate Appropriations support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee support letter, this link to read ACOE's Assembly Higher Education Committee support letter, and this link to read ACOE's Assembly Appropriations Committee support letter.

AB 2088 (McCarty): ACOE is strongly opposing AB 2088, which will require governing boards of districts and county offices of education to offer first right of refusal for 10 business days to current nonprobationary classified employees for part-time and full-time job openings before extending openings to other applicants. ACOE believes that, by deferring to seniority, this bill prevents agencies from seeking out the most well-suited candidates for a position. Click this link to read a coalition opposition letter to the Assembly Appropriations Committee that ACOE signed.

AB 2254 (Rubio): ACOE is strongly opposing AB 2254, which will require authorizers to consider verified data in charter renewals, imposing new duties on local education agencies acting as chartering authorities. Verified data lack standardization across local education agencies, and ACOE recognizes that it would be difficult for chartering authorities to have a line of comparison for approving and renewing charters. Additionally, allowing verified data for charter school renewals creates inequity among school districts and charter schools, in that verified data are not allowable as a key accountability metric for school districts. ACOE wishes to preserve a streamlined, equitable authorizing process and, for this reason, is opposing AB 2254; click this link to read ACOE's Assembly Education Committee opposition letter. 

AB 3106 (Schiavo): ACOE is strongly opposing AB 3106, which will create a new category of unlimited paid sick leave for COVID-19, requiring local education agencies to maintain employee pay and benefits, while COVID-positive employees stay at home, as per California Department of Public Health guidelines. However, the broad provisions for this paid leave imposes new burdens on Proposition 98 resources and codifies out of date COVID-19 practices. Click this link to read a coalition letter to the Assembly Appropriations Committee that ACOE signed.

On March 4, 2024, ACOE sent a letter to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 3 on Education and Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education advocating for the protection of funding for the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP). The letter highlighted the role that community schools play in closing long-persistent equity gaps and improving social-emotional well-being and academic outcomes for students. ACOE applauded California for leading the way in adopting the community schools model and advocated for the preservation of the full CCSPP investment promised to students, families, and communities. Click this link to read the full Community Schools funding support letter.  

On March 12, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Senator Wiener (Senate Budget Committee), Senator Laird (Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education), Assembly Member Gabriel (Assembly Budget Committee), and Assembly Member Alvarez (Assembly Budget Committee 1 on Education), regarding requirements and penalties introduced in the 2023 TK-12 education trailer budget bill associated with the expansion of transitional kindergarten. The January 2023 Governor's budget proposed authorizing school districts to use their local funds to enroll children with birthdays in July and August as "Early Enrollment" students in TK. While many districts began enrollment of these children, the final budget agreement, Senate Bill 114, introduced new restrictions that were not signed until July 10, 2023. These requirements include requiring classes with Early Enrollment children to maintain pupil-to-teacher ratios of 1:10 and maximum classroom sizes of 20, with fiscal penalties being levied against districts that fail to meet these requirements.

Enforcing these requirements so soon after TK expansion punishes schools that are already facing staffing shortages, limits family choice, and presents an inflexible ratio that exceeds those of the other programs serving three- and four-year-olds. The coalition, therefore, recommends, that the Legislature refrain from introducing new requirements to the TK program until two years after the program is fully implemented in 2025-26, eliminate penalties incurred in 2023-24 and 2024-25, and implement 1:10 ratios in all TK classes only if sufficient funding is appropriated towards staffing and facilities needs. Click this link to read the full coalition letter.

On April 22, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Governor Newsom, President pro Tempore McGuire, Speaker Rivas, Senator Wiener (Senate Budget Chair), and Assembly Member Gabriel (Assembly Budget Chair) requesting the waiver of current year (2023-24) penalties on school districts who implemented early TK and were unable to meet the new staffing ratio and class size. Click this link to read the full coalition letter. 

On May 28, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Governor Newsom, President pro Tempore McGuire, Speaker Rivas, Senator Wiener (Senate Budget Chair), Assembly Member Gabriel (Assembly Budget Chair), Senator Laird (Senate Budget Sub. 1), and Assembly Member Alvarez (Assembly Budget Sub. 3). The letter urges the Governor and the Legislature to inculcate any necessary critical planning policies for the implementation of universal transitional kindergarten (TK) in the 2025-26 school year, which includes providing additional funding to LEAs to support new 10:1 pupil-to-teacher ratio requirements. Click this link to read the full coalition letter. 

On April 29, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Senator Wiener (Senate Budget Committee), Senator Laird (Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education), Assembly Member Gabriel (Assembly Budget Committee), and Assembly Member Alvarez (Assembly Budget Subcommittee 3 on Education Finance) expressing concerns about the Governor's proposal which would jeopardize school funding in the event there is an emergency that requires a school closure. This proposal changes existing law that authorizes LEAs to seek relief from the fiscal impact of unanticipated emergency events that result in school closures or reduced instructional time mandated by law. ACOE and the coalition support the objective of existing law, and the Administration's proposal, to ensure academic continuity for students when conditions allow. However, the proposed changes treat all emergencies equally and ignore the challenges that LEAs must manage in the immediate days following an emergency. Therefore, the coalition expressed opposition to the Governor's emergency school closure proposal and requested that the Legislature refrain from imposing unreasonable requirements on LEAs when they confront unanticipated emergencies. Click this link to read the full coalition letter and this link to read an updated version. 

On April 30, 2024, ACOE signed a federal advocacy coalition letter addressed to the California Congressional Delegation of the United States House of Representatives. The coalition expresses support for H.R. 4519 (IDEA Full Funding Act, Huffman) and H.R. 5141 (Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act, DeSaulnier) and requests the Delegation to co-sponsor these bills in solidarity of the authoring California Congressmembers.

The IDEA Full Funding Act will increase the federal investment in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), ensuring that Congress meets its promise of providing 40% of the per-pupil expenditure required by the IDEA to support the education of students with disabilities. California currently contributes to 59.9% of this total cost and has not seen necessary increases in the ongoing IDEA Federal Local Assistance grant to adequately provide for its students with disabilities. An increase in federal financial support for IDEA will support both students with disabilities and general education students, as LEAs will be able to allocate a larger portion of their funds through the Local Control and Funding Formula (LCFF) towards advancing general education programs for all. 

The Funding Early Childhood Is the Right IDEA Act further supplements support for students with disabilities in California and is based in research that early intervention resources are critical for these students' academic success. For example, an analysis by the Early Childhood Outcomes Center found that more than 75% of children who receive IDEA’s early childhood programs show greater-than-expected growth in three domains: knowledge and skills, social relationships, and taking action to meet needs. Unfortunately, the number of young learners in need of these services has been increasing at a faster rate than the funding these programs are receiving, with per-child funding for these services showing over 64% decrease from their peaks when adjusted for inflation. Federal support for these programs is necessary to ensure that all learners with disabilities are given timely interventions and are provided an early foundation of support for future academic success.

Click this link to read the coalition letter that ACOE signed. 

On May 5, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Senator Wiener (Senate Budget Committee), Senator Laird (Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education), Assembly Member Gabriel (Assembly Budget Committee), and Assembly Member Alvarez (Assembly Budget Subcommittee 3 on Education Finance) urging the Legislature to stabilize "Rate 2," their per-pupil Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP) funding rate for LEAs with an unduplicated pupil percentage less than 75%. Currently, Rate 2 LEAs do not receive a fixed funding rate. Rate 2 is sensitive to changes in statewide average daily attendance (ADA) and can vary significantly from year to year. Additionally, Rate 2 is determined only a few weeks before the start of the school year, putting Rate 2 LEAs in the challenging position of developing plans and making staffing decisions without knowing how much funding they will receive. ACOE joined the coalition to urge the Legislature to stabilize Rate 2 funding and ensure it does not drop below the original 2022-23 funding level. Providing adequate, stable funding will empower LEAs to fulfill the promise of of ELOP by offering high-quality, enriching expanded learning programs. Click this link to read the full coalition letter. 

On May 23, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Senator Laird (Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education) and Assembly Member Alvarez (Assembly Budget Subcommittee 3 on Education Finance) expressing opposition to the redirection of Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program (IEEEP) dollars to electric school buses and the proposal to pause the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) inclusivity requirement at its current level. Inclusive early care and education programs can improve children's developmental progress and educational outcomes, especially for children with disabilities. Interventions provided to children with disabilities are most effective when children are younger. Currently, California falls far behind the national average and its own goals to provide inclusive educational settings. The short-sighted cuts proposed at the May Revision would be devastating to children with disabilities, removing opportunities to interact with typically developing peers, which benefits all students and creates long-term savings in K-12 special education costs. Click this link to read the full coalition letter. 

On July 11, 2024, ACOE submitted a coalition letter on behalf of Alameda County school districts and community based organizations to Senate pro Tempore Mike McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas expressing appreciation for the restoration of $100 million of the IEEP grants in the final 2024-25 State Budget. Additionally, the coalition urged the leaders to allocate all remaining IEEEP dollars to the LEA award grantees to ensure implementation of existing plans to increase inclusive environments for preschoolers with disabilities. Click this link to read the full coalition letter.    

On May 30, 2024, ACOE signed a coalition letter addressed to Senator Wiener (Senate Budget Committee), Senator Laird (Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education), Assembly Member Gabriel (Assembly Budget Committee), and Assembly Member Alvarez (Assembly Budget Subcommittee 3 on Education Finance) concerning funding for the Golden State Teacher Grant program (GTSG), which provides funding as a key incentive for prospective educators to complete their teacher certification training. Recent trailer bill language proposes disallowing candidates in local education agencies' (LEAs') intern credential programs from accessing GTSG funds, as well as a reduction of the maximum grant amount per candidate from $20,000 to $10,000. Both of these changes limit the states' ability to strengthen its education workforce, by limiting LEAs' ability to recruit nontraditional candidates and impairing the critical incentive elements of the GTSG program. The coalition urges the Legislature to preserve the full funding of the GTSG program and abandon the aforementioned changes. Click this link to read the full coalition letter.