Dear County Superintendents of Schools:

First Apportionment for the Arts, Music, and
Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant
Fiscal Year 2022–23

This apportionment, in the amount of $1,780,443,075, is made from the state General Fund pursuant to Section 134 of Assembly Bill (AB) 181 (Chapter 52, Statutes of 2022), as amended by Section 56 of AB 185 (Chapter 571, Statutes of 2022) in support of the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant. Funding is provided to county offices of education, school districts, charter schools, and state special schools to obtain standards-aligned professional development and instructional materials in specified areas, obtain professional development on improving school culture, develop diverse and culturally relevant book collections, operational costs, and purchase COVID personal protective equipment. The amounts paid in this apportionment reflect approximately 50 percent of each local educational agency’s (LEA) allocation; remaining funds will be released in Spring 2023.

Allocations are based on an equal amount per unit of average daily attendance (ADA) as reported at the 2021–22 Second Principal (P-2) Apportionment by county offices of education, school districts, and charter schools. ADA for state special schools is deemed to be 97 percent of the enrollment as reported in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System as of the 2021-22 Fall 1 Submission. The calculated per-unit funding rate is approximately $666.08 ($666.07608531901).

The governing board or body of each LEA receiving funds pursuant to this section shall discuss and approve a plan for the expenditure of funds received pursuant to this section at a regularly scheduled public meeting.

Use of Funds

Pursuant to Section 134(a) of AB 181 as amended by Section 56 of AB 185, funds are available to:

1. Obtain standards-aligned professional development and instructional materials, which includes but is not limited to, books for school libraries and classrooms, in the following subject areas:

1. Visual and performing arts
2. World languages
3. Mathematics
4. Science, including environmental literacy
5. English language arts, including early literacy
6. Ethnic studies
7. Financial literacy, including the content specified in Education Code Section 51284.5
8. Media Literacy
9. Computer Science
10. History-social science

2. Obtain instructional materials and professional development aligned to best practices for improving school climate, including training on deescalation and restorative justice strategies, asset-based pedagogies, antibias, transformative social-emotional learning, media literacy, digital literacy, physical education, and learning through play.
3. Develop diverse book collections and obtain culturally relevant texts, including leveled texts, in both English and pupils’ home languages, to support pupils’ independent reading. It is the intent of the Legislature that these book collections and culturally relevant texts be used to provide support for pupils through the establishment of site-based school and classroom libraries that are culturally relevant to pupils’ home and community experiences and be available in English, pupils’ home language, or a combination of more than one language.
4. Operational costs, including but not limited, to retirement and health care cost increases.
5. In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, acquire personal protective equipment, masks, cleaning supplies, COVID-19 tests, ventilation upgrades, and other similar expenditures, if they are necessary to keep pupils and staff safe from COVID-19 and schools open for in-person instruction.

In addition, LEAs are encouraged, but not required, to proportionally use resources received pursuant to this section for the purposes noted in paragraphs (1) to (5), inclusive, of Section 134(a) and to support arts and music education programs.

Accounting and Payment Information

A warrant will be mailed approximately three weeks from the date of this letter. For standardized account code structure coding, use Resource Code 6762, Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant and Revenue Object Code 8590, All Other State Revenue.

County Superintendents of Schools were notified of this apportionment by email sent to their CDEfisc email addresses. The CDE requested that the email be forwarded to school districts and charter schools in the county and included the links to this letter and the accompanying apportionment schedule posted on the CDE web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r14/amimbg22res.asp.

Frequently asked questions regarding the funding calculations, apportionment timing, use of funds are available on CDE’s web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/ca/amimbg.asp. Programmatic resources are available at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/artsmusicimblockgrant.asp.

For questions regarding programmatic requirements and use of funds, please contact the Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division by email at CFIRD@cde.ca.gov. For questions concerning this apportionment or the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant allocation amounts, please contact the Categorical Allocations and Audit Resolution Office by email at CAAR@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Dearstyne, Director
School Fiscal Services Division