October 11, 2006
Dear County and District Superintendents and Governing Board Presidents:
One-Time Appropriation to Purchase Supplemental Instructional Materials for English Learners
Assembly Bill 1802, Chapter 79 of the Statutes of 2006, appropriates $30,000,000 on a one-time basis for local educational agencies (LEAs) to purchase supplementary instructional materials for English learners (ELs) in kindergarten through twelfth grade "to accelerate pupils as rapidly as possible towards grade level proficiency" in reading, writing, and speaking English. The appropriation is subject to the following conditions:
- No more than $25 per EL will be allocated. The allocation may be slightly less depending upon the number of participants. An LEA may expend no more than $30 from its allocation to purchase materials for any individual EL.
- An LEA may only claim funding for the number of ELs for whom it intends to purchase materials, up to the certified number of ELs, based on the most recently certified language census. Certified numbers from the Language Census of 2005-06 are now available on DataQuest on the California Department of Education (CDE) Web site at Data Quest .
- An LEA may only purchase materials: that are supplementary and are used "in addition to" the basic reading/language arts and other core program materials provided for every student.
- The materials must have been verified by the CDE and approved by the State Board of Education (SBE) as being "substantially correlated to identified state standards."
- An LEA must submit a "request to participate/ purchase materials” or a “request to review new materials” and certify that the materials are substantially correlated to identified English Language Arts/ English Language Development content standards no later than March 30, 2007.
- An LEA, in conjunction with the publisher of materials it intends to purchase, must submit a "standards map" for the purpose of validating that the materials it has selected are substantially correlated to identified state standards.
No later than June 30, 2009, an LEA must encumber any funds it has been allocated. The CDE has an implementation plan for the distribution of this special appropriation, and we anticipate providing more detailed information to you in December 2006. The text of the legislative language and periodic updates regarding implementation will be posted on the CDE Web site at AB 1802 Supplemental Materials for English Learners . Our plan includes the following steps:
November–March 2007: LEAs and county offices of education (COEs) submit their Intent to Purchase/Request to Review New Materials Forms to the CDE.
April–June 2007: The CDE will review new supplemental materials.
July and September 2007: The SBE acts to certify materials and release funds to LEAs and COEs.
By June 30, 2009: LEAs encumber any funds they are allocated. Funds not encumbered by this deadline will be subject to recovery by the state.
If you any questions regarding this special appropriation to purchase supplementary instructional materials for ELs, please contact Thomas Adams, Director, Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division, at 916-319-0881 or by e-mail at tadams@cde.ca.gov, or Suzanne Rios, Administrator, Instructional Resources Unit, at 916-319-0665 or by e-mail at srios@cde.ca.gov.
Sincerely,
JACK O'CONNELL
JO:ihl
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814