- Which programs are included in the Targeted Instructional
Improvement Block Grant?
The Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant includes funding for:
- Targeted Instructional Improvement Grants
- Supplemental Grants (exclusive of revenue
limit designations)
- Who is eligible to receive funding from the Targeted
Instructional Improvement Block Grant?
School districts are eligible for funding from the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant if they received funding in 2003-04 from either of the two programs that were included in the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant. County offices of education were not eligible to receive funding in 2003-04 from either of the programs that were included in this block grant; hence, they are not eligible to receive funding from this block grant. Charter schools are not eligible to receive funding directly from the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant. In 2003-04, charter schools were not eligible to receive funding directly from the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant Program or for Supplemental Grants, but they received in lieu funding for Supplemental Grants through the Charter School Categorical Block Grant.
California Education Code Section 41540 provides that if a school received desegregation or targeted instructional improvement grant funds from a district in 2000-01 or thereafter as part of a court-ordered desegregation program before the school converted to a charter school, then the charter school is to continue to receive a proportionate share of funding from the school district through the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant if all of the following conditions are met:
- The charter school continues to serve the same general population.
- The charter school implements the intended goals of the court order.
- The court order remains in effect.
- How may Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant
funds be used?
After satisfying any court-ordered desegregation funding requirements, Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant funds may be used for any purpose authorized by the Targeted Instructional Improvement Grants or Supplemental Grants Programs as they existed prior to inclusion in the block grant. Districts will no longer be held to their previous designations of Supplemental Grant funds to categorical programs. As such, districts may, after satisfying desegregation court orders, expend funds for the purposes outlined below.
- What are the purposes of the programs included in
the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant - and on
which block grant funds may be spent?
Targeted Instructional Improvement Grant. The purposes of this program are to fund the costs of any court-ordered desegregation program and any voluntary desegregation program, and provide instructional improvement for the lowest achieving pupils in the district. Districts are required, however, to first satisfy the cost of desegregation programs that fall under active court orders before expending Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant funds on any other purpose.
Supplemental Grant. The purpose of the Supplemental Grant Program is to supplement the funding of approximately two dozen categorical programs listed in the Supplemental Grant statutes. Districts may expend block grant funds on the programs listed immediately below. These programs are either currently funded by the state and are on the list of programs that Supplemental Grant funds may supplement or are successor programs to those listed in the Supplemental Grant statutes. Districts may expend funds to serve the purposes of the programs in the block grant using Resource Code 7394. Alternatively, they may use Object Code 8990 to transfer the funds from the block grant to the Resource Code of the program on which the block grant funds will be spent. Districts must follow the statutory rules of the program when expending block grant funds from a program's Resource Code.
- California Peer Assistance and Review Program for Teachers, successor to Mentor Teacher Program (Resource Code 7271)
- Agricultural Vocational Education (Resource Code 7010)
- Child Nutrition (Resource Code 5310)
- Economic Impact Aid (Resource Codes 7090 and 7091)
- Educational Technology Program (Resource Code 7110)
- Environmental Education (Resource Code 7135)
- Foster Youth Services (Resource Code 7365)
- Gifted and Talented Education (Resource Code 7140)
- Home-to-School Transportation, excluding Special Education Transportation (Resource Code 7230)
- Instructional Materials Realignment (Resource Code 7156)
- Native American Indian Education (Resource Code 7015)
- Partnership Academies (Resource Code 7220)
- Reader Services for Blind Teachers (Resource Code 7295)
- Vocational Education Pupil Organizations (Resource Code 7360)
- Small School District Bus Replacement (Resource Code 7235)
- Specialized Secondary Schools (Resource Code 7370)
The Education Code sections governing the Supplemental
Grant Program also permit expenditures on a number of programs
that are no longer funded by the state, whose statutes have
sunset, or are now included in another block grant established
by Assembly Bill 825. These programs are listed below. The California
Department of Education will issue further guidance as to whether
Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant funds may be
transferred and/or spent on these programs.
Programs that are no longer funded and no longer have active
statutory authority:
- Demonstration Programs in Reading and Mathematics
- Miller-Unruh Reading Program
- Mentor Teacher Program
Defunded Program
- Intergenerational Education
Programs included in another Assembly Bill 825 established block grant:
- High School (Tenth Grade) Pupil Counseling - included in the Pupil Retention Block Grant (Resource Code 7390)
- Opportunity Classes and Programs - included in the Pupil Retention Block Grant (Resource Code 7390)
- Pupil Dropout Prevention - included in the Pupil Retention Block Grant (Resource Code 7390)
- School/Law Enforcement Partnership - included in the School Safety Consolidated Competitive Grant (Resource Code 7391)
- Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment - included in the Teacher Credentialing Block Grant (Resource Code 7392)
- School Improvement Program - included in the
School and Library Improvement Block Grant (Resource Code 7395)
- How much funding is available for the Targeted Instructional
Improvement Block Grant?
The Budget Act for 2005-06 provides $876,162,000 in funding for the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant, and the 2005-06 Trailer Bill proposes an additional $100,118,000 in 2005-06 funding that would be deferred to 2006-07.
- How much funding will districts receive from this
block grant?
Each district's 2005-06 allocation is to be based on the proportion of funding it received for Targeted Instructional Improvement Grants and Supplemental Grants for 2003-04 relative to the total statewide funding for these programs for 2003-04. In subsequent years, districts will receive the level of funding they received in the 2005-06 fiscal year adjusted by the annual rate of growth in statewide average daily attendance and the cost of living adjustment on district base revenue limits.
- Will district funding from the Targeted Instructional
Improvement Block Grant receive adjustments for growth and cost
of living? If yes, at what rates?
Yes, each district's allocation is to be adjusted each year, beginning in 2006-07, based on the rate of growth in statewide average daily attendance and the cost-of-living adjustment on district base revenue limits. Please note that in any year the statutory rates for growth and cost of living may be increased, reduced, or eliminated by provisions of the annual State Budget Act and related legislation.
- When will Targeted Instructional Improvement Block
Grant funding be allocated?
The first 89 percent of Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant funding will be allocated approximately in December 2005. The remaining 11 percent will be allocated in July 2006.
- What are the limits on transfers to and from the Targeted
Instructional Improvement Block Grant?
Funds may be transferred to and from the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant with the following limitations:
- Up to 15 percent of the amount allocated by the state to a district for the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant during any fiscal year may be transferred to any other program or block grant for which the district is eligible for funding, including programs whose funding is not part of a block grant established by Assembly Bill 825.
- The total funding received for any fiscal year by a program or block grant to which funds are transferred may not exceed 120 percent of the amount of state funding allocated to the district for that program or block grant for the same fiscal year.
- Prior to the expenditure of transferred funds, the district's governing board is required to hold a noticed public meeting to discuss the matter.
- Local educational agencies must track transfers in and transfers out of the block grants. Assembly Bill 831, Chapter 118, Statutes of 2005 was recently enacted, striking the requirement in Assembly Bill 825 that Object Code 8998 be used to track the transfers. Please use Object Code 8995 to track the transfers in and out of the School and Library Improvement Block Grant.
- If a district was basic aid in 2003-04 and chose to
take its statutorily required categorical funding reduction
(pursuant to Chapter 227, Statutes of 2003, Section 38) in a
program that is included in the Targeted Instructional Improvement
Block Grant, will that reduction be reflected in the amount
of block grant funding the district receives?
No. For the purpose of establishing block grant funding for basic aid districts, Education Code Section 41501(a) holds basic aid districts harmless by not including the funding reductions made pursuant to statute (Chapter 227, Statutes of 2003, Section 38) in the base year funding tallies, thereby making base-year funding whole for each basic aid district.
- Has the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant
been assigned a Resource Code?
Yes, the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant has been assigned Resource Code 7394.
- Has the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant
been assigned a Revenue Object Code?
Yes, all six block grants should use Revenue Object Code 8590.
- Can indirect costs be charged to the Targeted Instructional
Improvement Block Grant? If yes, at which rate?
Yes, consistent with the California Department of Education's existing indirect cost rate guidance, the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant may be charged for indirect costs, provided the amount charged does not exceed the local educational agency's approved indirect cost rate. Further information on indirect costs can be found on the California Department of Education Web site.
- How should carryover from programs included in the
Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant from fiscal years
prior to 2005-06 be used?
Carryover funds for programs included in the Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant from fiscal years prior to 2005-06 must be used according to the laws governing the original appropriation of such funds.
- Do transfers to programs authorized by the Supplemental
Grant statute, using Object Code 8990, count toward the 15 percent
limit on transfers out of the Targeted Instructional Improvement
Block Grant?
No.
