Supporting Priority School Districts
Describes the Proposition 2 bond-funded effort to augment the Supporting America's School Infrastructure Grant Program, with some differences in district eligibility and program implementation.Supporting Priority School District Program
On July 3, 2024, Assembly Bill (AB) 247 was signed by Governor Newsom, establishing the State Augmentation of Federal Supporting America’s School Infrastructure (SASI) grant program for priority school districts in Education Code (EC) sections 17078.45 - 17078.48.
On November 5, 2024, Proposition 2 was approved by California voters, authorizing the issuance of $10 billion in general obligation bonds for K-12 school facility repair, upgrade, and construction, including $5,000,000 for the Supporting Priority School Districts (SPSD) program.
On January 22, 2025, the State Allocation Board approved $5,000,000 for the SPSD program.
What will the SPSD program do?
The purpose of the SPSD program is to “expand the objectives of the Supporting America’s School Infrastructure (SASI) Grant and support priority school districts …” (EC Sections 17078.46). [A summary of the SASI grant program is provided below, with a link to more information.] The SPSD program will support ‘priority school districts’, as defined in EC Sections 17078.45(c), through a similar set of activities being developed in the federal SASI grant program:
- Providing Direct Technical Assistance to a select number of eligible local educational agencies (LEAs).
- Creating county and regional networks of support.
- Developing centralized online resources that will be available to all LEAs in California.
- Increasing the California Department of Education's (CDE) expertise in school facility maintenance needs, especially for high need LEAs.
What is the difference between the federal SASI Grant Program and the SPSD Program?
The intent of building capacity to support school districts are similar, but there are differences.
- The selection criteria for determining districts eligible for direct technical assistance are different. See EC Sections 17078.45(c).
- EC Sections 17078.48 requires the CDE to develop regulations for program. The regulatory process will take many months, and CDE cannot initiate the program until the regulation process is complete.
What happens next?
The CDE introduced regulatory concepts in a public stakeholders meeting in collaboration with the Office of Public School Construction on April 17, 2025. Based on stakeholder input submitted by May 2, 2025, CDE will begin the process of developing the regulations required in EC Sections 17078.48. As we have clarity about the timeline for the rule-making process, we will post that information here.
Questions regarding the SPSD program can be submitted to: SPSD@cde.ca.gov
Background on Federal SASI Grant
In January 2024, the U.S. Department of Education announced the CDE as a recipient of the SASI Grant Program. Its purpose is to build local, regional and statewide capacity to support high-need LEAs regarding their school building needs.