AB1348 - Average daily attendance: emergencies: immigration enforcement activity: independent study plans.

Enrolled September 11, 2025 Passed IN Senate September 08, 2025 Passed IN Assembly September 09, 2025 Amended IN Senate August 29, 2025 Amended IN Senate July 10, 2025 Amended IN Assembly May 05, 2025 Amended IN Assembly March 11, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 1348 Introduced by Assembly Member Bains February 21, 2025 An act to amend, repeal, and add Sections 46392 and 46393 of the Education Code, relating to school finance. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1348, Bains. Average daily attendance: emergencies: immigration enforcement activity: independent study plans. Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires the local control funding formula, in part, to be based on average daily attendance, as defined. For purposes of state apportionments based on average daily attendance, as provided, if the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of a specified type of emergency, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school the total average daily attendance that would have been credited had the emergency not occurred, as provided. This bill would, until July 1, 2029, add an immigration enforcement activity, as defined, to the list of emergencies for which the above-described provisions related to calculating average daily attendance for purposes of state apportionments apply, as provided. The bill would, for purposes of these provisions related to calculating average daily attendance for purposes of state apportionments, prohibit a school district, county office of education, or charter school from being credited for more than 10 days of missed attendance for a pupil due to an immigration enforcement activity. For affidavits submitted to the Superintendent for emergency events occurring after September 1, 2021, but on or before June 30, 2026, that resulted in a school closure or material decrease in attendance, existing law requires a school district, county office of education, or charter school that provides an affidavit to the Superintendent to certify that it has a plan for which independent study will be offered to pupils, as provided, and requires that plan to comply with certain requirements, including, among other things, that independent study is offered to any impacted pupil within 10 instructional days of the first day of a school closure or material decrease in attendance. This bill would, for affidavits submitted to the Superintendent for an immigration enforcement activity that occurred on or after January 1, 2025, but on or before June 30, 2026, that resulted in a school closure or material decrease in attendance, require a school district, county office of education, or charter school that provides an affidavit to the Superintendent to additionally require the independent study plan to either (1) require the offering of live interaction or synchronous instruction to pupils, as provided, or (2) provide a description of both the extenuating circumstances that prevent the offering of live interaction or synchronous instruction and a description of what pupil engagement, services, and instruction will be provided to support pupils during or immediately after the period of closure or material decrease in attendance. The bill would, as applied to the above-described provisions for calculating average daily attendance for purposes of state apportionments and related affidavits certifying independent study plans, exempt from the California Public Records Act any documentation related to an immigration enforcement activity submitted to the Superintendent by a school district, charter school, county office of education, or county superintendent of schools, as provided. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2029, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2030. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 46392 of the Education Code is amended to read: 46392. (a) If the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school during a fiscal year has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of any of the following, the fact shall be established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by affidavits of the members of the governing board or body of the school district, county office of education, or charter school and the county superintendent of schools: (1) Fire. (2) Flood. (3) Impassable roads. (4) Epidemic. (5) Earthquake. (6) The imminence of a major safety hazard as determined by the local law enforcement agency. (7) A strike involving transportation services to pupils provided by a nonschool entity. (8) An order provided for in Section 41422. (9) Snowstorm. (10) (A) An immigration enforcement activity. (B) For purposes of this paragraph, “immigration enforcement activity” includes any and all efforts on or after January 1, 2025, to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal civil immigration law, and also includes any and all efforts to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal criminal immigration law that penalizes a person’s presence in, entry, or reentry to, or employment in, the United States. (b) (1) In the event a state of emergency is declared by the Governor in a county, a decrease in average daily attendance in the county below the approximate total average daily attendance that would have been credited to a school district, county office of education, or charter school had the state of emergency not occurred shall be deemed material. The Superintendent shall determine the length of the period during which average daily attendance has been reduced by the state of emergency. (2) The period determined by the Superintendent shall not extend into the next fiscal year following the declaration of the state of emergency by the Governor, except upon a showing by a school district, county office of education, or charter school, to the satisfaction of the Superintendent, that extending the period into the next fiscal year is essential to alleviate continued reductions in average daily attendance attributable to the state of emergency. (3) Notwithstanding any other law, the Superintendent shall extend through the 2018–19 fiscal year the period during which it is essential to alleviate continued reductions in average daily attendance attributable to a state of emergency declared by the Governor in October 2017, for a school district where no less than 5 percent of the residences within the school district or school district facilities were destroyed by the qualifying emergency. (c) (1) (A) The average daily attendance of the school district, county office of education, or charter school for the fiscal year shall be estimated by the Superintendent in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school for determining the apportionments to be made to the school district, county office of education, or charter school from the State School Fund approximately the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to the school district, county office of education, or charter school had the emergency not occurred or had the order not been issued. (B) In determining the apportionments to be made to the school district, county office of education, or charter school pursuant to subparagraph (A) for purposes of an affidavit submitted in relation to an immigration enforcement activity, as defined in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (10) of subdivision (a), a school district, county office of education, or charter school shall not be credited for more than 10 days of missed attendance for a pupil. (2) (A) From September 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, inclusive, with the exception of a material loss of attendance for pupils who are individuals with exceptional needs, as that term is defined in Section 56026, whose individualized education program developed pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 56340) of Chapter 4 of Part 30 does not specifically provide for participation in independent study or pupils who are enrolled in community day schools pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with Section 48660) of Chapter 4 of Part 27, a school district, county office of education, or charter school shall not receive average daily attendance credit pursuant to this section for pupils that have been quarantined and are unable to attend in-person instruction due to exposure to, or infection with, COVID-19 pursuant to local or state public health guidance. (B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), from September 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, inclusive, a school district, county office of education, or charter school may receive average daily attendance credit pursuant to this section for school closures related to impacts from COVID-19 or material loss of attendance due to COVID-19 related staffing shortages if the following conditions are established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent by affidavits of the members of the governing board or body of the school district, county office of education, or charter school and the county superintendent of schools: (i) The school district, county office of education, or charter school is unable to provide in-person instruction to pupils due to staffing shortages as a result of staff quarantine due to exposure to, or infection with, COVID-19 pursuant to local or state public health guidance. (ii) For certificated staff shortages, the school district, county office of education, or charter school has exhausted all options for obtaining staff coverage, including using all certificated staff and substitute teacher options, and has consulted with their county office of education and the Superintendent in determining that staffing needs cannot be met through any option. (iii) For classified staff shortages, the school district, county office of education, or charter school has exhausted all options for obtaining staff coverage, including using all staff options, and has consulted with their county office of education and the Superintendent in determining that staffing needs cannot be met through any option. (d) Notwithstanding any other law, for a school district or charter school physically located within a school district, where no less than 5 percent of the residences within the school district, or the school district’s facilities, were destroyed as a result of a state of emergency that was declared by the Governor in November 2018, all of the following shall apply: (1) (A) In the 2020–21 fiscal year, for school districts, the Superintendent shall calculate the difference between the school district’s certified second principal apportionment local control funding formula entitlement pursuant to Section 42238.02 in the 2020–21 fiscal year and the 2019–20 fiscal year and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the school district. (B) In the 2021–22 fiscal year, for school districts, the Superintendent shall allocate an amount equal to 25 percent of the difference calculated in subparagraph (A) to the school district. (C) In the 2022–23 fiscal year, for school districts, the Superintendent shall allocate an amount equal to 12.5 percent of the difference calculated in subparagraph (A) to the school district. (2) (A) In the 2019–20 and 2020–21 fiscal years, for charter schools, the Superintendent shall calculate the difference between the charter school’s certified second principal apportionment local control funding formula entitlement pursuant to Section 42238.02 in the current year and each respective prior year and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the charter school. (B) In the 2021–22 fiscal year, for charter schools that operate a minimum of 175 school days and report at least 75 percent of the total second period average daily attendance for the 2019–20 fiscal year, as described in Section 41601, the Superintendent shall allocate 25 percent of the difference calculated in subparagraph (A) to the charter school. (3) For a county office of education funded pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (g) of Section 2575 that has within the boundaries of the county school districts or charter schools affected pursuant to this subdivision and that has in the schools operated by the county office of education at least a 10-percent decrease in average daily attendance in the current fiscal year, in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 fiscal years, the Superintendent shall calculate the difference between the county office of education’s alternative education grant entitlement certified at the annual principal apportionment pursuant to Section 2574 in the current fiscal year and each respective prior fiscal year and, if there is a difference, allocate the amount of that difference to the county office of education. (4) A school district may transfer funds received pursuant to paragraph (1) to the county office of education for the portion of the funds that represents pupils served by the county office of education who are funded through the school district’s local control funding formula apportionment pursuant to Section 2576. (5) In each fiscal year, the allocations pursuant to this subdivision shall be made to school districts and charter schools by the Superintendent as soon as practicable after the second principal apportionment and to county offices of education as soon as practicable after the annual principal apportionment. The allocations made shall be final. The Superintendent may provide a preliminary allocation of up to 50 percent no sooner than the first principal apportionment. (6) (A) The amounts described in this subdivision shall be continuously appropriated from the General Fund to the Superintendent for these purposes. (B) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, the appropriation made by this subdivision shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined i [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]