AB2496 - Local educational agencies: reports: school accountability report card: California School Dashboard: local control accountability plan: local control funding formula budget overview.

Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate August 13, 2026 Amended IN Senate July 06, 2026 Amended IN Senate June 22, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 27, 2026 Amended IN Assembly March 19, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 2496 Introduced by Assembly Member Solache February 20, 2026 An act to amend Sections 32286, 33352, 47606.5, 52062, 52068, and 60800 of, and to add and repeal Section 33126.7 of, the Education Code, relating to school accountability. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2496, as amended, Solache. Local educational agencies: reports: school accountability report card: California School Dashboard: local control accountability plan: local control funding formula budget overview. The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, amended the California Constitution to, among other things, require school districts maintaining an elementary or secondary school to adopt a school accountability report card for each school. The act also requires, by statute, the governing boards of school districts maintaining an elementary or secondary school to annually issue a school accountability report card that includes certain information for each school in the school district, publicize those reports, and notify parents and guardians of pupils that a hard copy of those reports is available upon request, as specified. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with, and subject to the approval of, the executive director of the State Board of Education, to develop and maintain the California School Dashboard, a web-based system for publicly reporting performance data on the state and local indicators included in evaluation rubrics. This bill would require the department, on or before August 31, 2027, to provide a report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Governor, and the Legislature that identifies duplication between the data contained in the school accountability report card and other publicly available data sources, as provided. Existing law requires a local educational agency to develop annually a summary document known as the local control funding formula budget overview for parents. Existing law requires, before the governing board or body of a local educational agency considers the adoption of a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to the LCAP, certain things to occur, including that the superintendent of the school district, the county superintendent of schools, or the charter school present a report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview for parents on or before February 28 of each year at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board or body of the local educational agency, as specified. This bill would eliminate the February 28 deadline for the presentation of the above-described report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview. Under existing law, each school district and county office of education is responsible for the overall development of a comprehensive school safety plan for each of its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in consultation with certain local entities. Existing law requires each school to annually review and update its comprehensive school safety plan, and to report each July on the status of its school safety plan, including a description of its key elements in the annual school accountability report card, as provided. This bill would repeal the requirement that each school annually report on the status of its school safety plan. Existing law requires the department to exercise general supervision over the courses of physical education in the elementary and secondary schools of the state, advise officials, school boards, and teachers in the development and improvement of their physical education and activity programs, and investigate the work in physical education in the public schools. Existing law requires the department to ensure that the data collected through the categorical program monitoring indicates the extent to which each school within the jurisdiction of a school district or county office of education provides, among other things, for inclusion of the results of physical testing of pupils in the school accountability report card, as provided. This bill would repeal the above-described requirement that the results of physical testing of pupils be included in the school accountability report card. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district maintaining any of grades 5, 7, or 9, during the month of February, March, April, or May, to administer to each pupil in those grades the physical performance test designated by the state board and report the aggregate results of this physical performance testing in its annual school accountability report card. This bill would repeal this reporting requirement. 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. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) The school accountability report card (SARC) was established in the Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act (act), an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election. The act established a formula for stable school funding and paired with it a requirement that each school district annually adopt a SARC for each school maintained by the school district. The SARC was intended to make schools accountable by requiring that each school make public a progress report on test scores, dropout rates, classroom discipline, class size, instructional materials, the quality of instruction, and school leadership. The Legislature subsequently established that the SARC is also intended to provide data by which a parent can make meaningful comparisons between public schools that enable them to make informed decisions on the school in which to enroll their children. (2) In 2013, the state reformed school funding by adopting the local control funding formula (LCFF). Like Proposition 98, school accountability was a central focus of LCFF. The LCFF statutes established the requirement to complete a local control and accountability plan, a three-year plan that describes the goals, actions, services, and expenditures to support pupil outcomes that address both state and local priorities. The LCFF statutes also created the California School Dashboard as a new accountability tool to reflect local educational agency and school performance across the state priority areas so that parents and the public have a complete picture of what is happening in the state’s schools and local educational agencies and can identify those that need additional support. (3) While the LCFF statutes created a new accountability system and tools to better inform the public and ensure parents have meaningful information to engage in local planning and accountability, they did not reform the SARC. The result is a now largely duplicative system that increases school district staff workload without commensurately increasing accountability, transparency, parent and family engagement in local planning and accountability, and pupil achievement. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to do both of the following: (1) Consolidate, truncate, or replace duplicative or obsolete reports that increase the reporting burden of local educational agencies and do not benefit accountability, transparency, parent and family engagement in local planning and accountability, and pupil achievement. (2) Ensure that reporting mechanisms provide information in meaningful, accessible, and efficient ways to enable the active involvement of parents and guardians, pupils, educators, community leaders, school boards, and schoolsite teams in local decisionmaking. SEC. 2. Section 32286 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32286. Each school shall adopt its comprehensive school safety plan by March 1, 2000, and shall review and update its plan by March 1, every year thereafter. A new school campus that begins offering classes to pupils after March 1, 2001, shall adopt a comprehensive school safety plan within one year of initiating operation, and shall review and update its plan by March 1, every year thereafter. SEC. 3. Section 33126.7 is added to the Education Code, to read: 33126.7. (a) The department shall, on or before August 31, 2027, and in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code, provide a report to the Superintendent, the Governor, and the Legislature that identifies duplication between the data contained in the school accountability report card and other publicly available data sources. (b) In complying with subdivision (a), for each table in the most recent school accountability report card template adopted by the state board, excluding those described in subdivision (e), the department shall do all of the following: (1) Identify the statutory requirement that requires the data to be submitted by school districts and note each instance where the template exceeds statutory requirements. (2) Identify other publicly available data sources that provide substantially similar information. Sources of other data shall include, but are not limited to, all of the following: (A) The California School Dashboard, established pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 52064.5. (B) The department’s DataQuest internet website. (C) Any other internet web page or system managed by the department. (D) Any other internet web page or system managed by other state entities, such as the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, where data is obtained from the department pursuant to a data sharing agreement. (E) Any data related to measures on the most recent school accountability report card template adopted by the state board that a school district is also required by statute or regulation to post do any of the following with that data: (i) Post on its internet website. (F) Any data that a school district is required by statute or regulation to present (ii) Present at a governing board meeting. (G) Any data element of another (iii) Include in another plan or report, when that plan or report is required by statute or regulation, including, but not limited to, a local control and accountability plan or the School Plan for Student Achievement. (3) Analyze how closely the data identified in paragraph (2) aligns with or differs from the current data available in the school accountability report card. This may include, but is not limited to, an indication that the data is identical, that the information is similar but not identical with a notation of the differences, or that the information addresses the same topic but is available at a different level, such as at a school district level when the school accountability report card requires schoolsite-level information. (c) In complying with subdivision (a), the department shall also identify any instance where data provided by school districts in a school accountability report card is used to satisfy other state or federal requirements and what other alternatives may exist to satisfy those same requirements. (d) It is the intent of the Legislature that the department makes a broad interpretation of the similarity of other publicly available data sources so as to promote a robust analysis of the degree of duplication. However, differences should be thoroughly described, including, but not limited to, differences in the level of information, such as schoolsite or district level, how the information is displayed or formatted, the number of years of data available, and the steps required to access the data. (e) For purposes of this section, the department shall exclude from its report tables or data elements that have been removed from statute but not yet removed from the school accountability report card template. (f) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed. SEC. 4. Section 33352 of the Education Code is amended to read: 33352. (a) The department shall exercise general supervision over the courses of physical education in the elementary and secondary schools of the state; advise school officials, school boards, and teachers in the development and improvement of their physical education and activity programs; and investigate the work in physical education in the public schools. (b) The department shall ensure that the data collected through the categorical program monitoring indicates the extent to which each school within the jurisdiction of a school district or county office of education does all of the following that are applicable to the school: (1) Provides instruction in physical education for a total period of time of not less than 200 minutes each 10 schooldays to pupils in grades 1 to 6, inclusive, as required pursuant to paragraph (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 51210. (2) Provides instruction in physical education for a total period of time of not less than 400 minutes each 10 schooldays to pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, as required pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 51222. (3) Provides instruction in physical education for a total period of time of not less than 200 minutes each 10 schooldays to pupils in an elementary school maintaining grades 1 to 8, inclusive, as required pursuant to Section 51223. (4) Conducts physical fitness testing of pupils as required pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 60800) of Part 33 of Division 4. (5) Offers pupils exempted from required attendance in physical education courses pursuant to paragraph (1) of either subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 51241 a variety of elective physical education courses of not less than 400 minutes every 10 schooldays. (6) Provides a course of study in physical education to pupils in any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, that includes a developmentally appropriate sequence of instruction, including the effects of physical activity upon dynamic health, the mechanics of body movement, aquatics, gymnastics and tumbling, individual and dual sports, rhythms and dance, team sports, and combatives. (7) Provides instruction in physical education to pupils that provides equal opportunities for participation regardless of gender. (8) Provides instruction in physical education to pupils in any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, by physical education teachers who hold appropriate teaching credentials issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. (c) The department annually shall do both of the following: (1) Submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature that summarizes the data collected through categor [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]