Dear County Superintendents of Schools:

2025–26 Second Principal Apportionment

In June and/or July, county treasurers will receive a warrant that reflects state aid for school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education for programs included in the 2025–26 Second Principal (P-2) Apportionment. The California Department of Education (CDE) certified the P-2 Apportionment on June 19, 2026, pursuant to California Education Code (EC) Section 41335 in the amount of $51,176,959,271. County superintendents of schools should advise school districts and charter schools immediately of this apportionment. This apportionment includes funding for 2025–26, as well as updated funding for the 2024–25 First Annual Recertification, the 2023–24 Third Annual Recertification, and adjustments to other prior year apportionments, as necessary.

Pursuant to EC 14041.6, the amount of $267,203,387 in state aid of the P-2 payment shall be deferred from June 2026 to July 2026. This results in a deferral of the full P-2 payment for all local educational agencies (LEAs) except those with an approved deferral exemption. The State Controller's Office estimates that payments for this apportionment will be issued to county treasurers on July 16, 2026. The P-2 payment for LEAs with an approved deferral exemption will be issued to the county treasurer on June 30, 2026.

Due to increases in state tax revenues, the Education Protection Account (EPA) revenue has significantly increased in the Fourth Quarter Apportionment. EPA is an offset to Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) state aid, which means for many LEAs the significant increase in EPA resulted in an LCFF state aid overpayment as of 2025–26 P-2. The State Controller's Office will offset the 2026–27 Advance payment(s) for counties that are overpaid as of the P-2 Apportionment.

A summary of the calculations that the CDE used in the P-2 Apportionment is available as an attachment to this letter. Funding exhibits and apportionment Excel files that provide detailed funding amounts related to the P-2 Apportionment are available on the CDE 2025–26 Principal Apportionment web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/pa2526.asp. Additional Excel files for Special Education are available on the Special Education web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/se/.

The CDE provides funding information electronically via the CDE’s Principal Apportionment Section (PASE) listserv. The listserv provides important information to local educational agencies and other interested parties, such as notifications regarding LCFF updates, web application updates, key deadlines, reminders of due dates for submission of data, and any other pertinent topics related to the Principal Apportionment. If you do not already belong to the PASE listserv and would like to subscribe, send a “blank” message to: join-pase-contacts@mlist.cde.ca.gov.

If you need assistance or have any further questions, Principal Apportionment staff may be reached by phone at 916-324-4541 or by email at PASE@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Ian Cambridge, Administrator
Principal Apportionment Section

Shawna Shepley, Administrator
Principal Apportionment Section