Amended in Assembly July 2, 2014

Amended in Senate May 27, 2014

Amended in Senate April 22, 2014

Amended in Senate March 24, 2014

Senate Bill No. 1137

Introduced by Senator Torres

(Principal coauthor: Senator Vidak)

(Coauthor: Senator Correa)

begin delete (Coauthor: Assembly Member Conway) end delete begin insert (Coauthors: Assembly Members Conway and Rodriguez) end insert

February 20, 2014

An act to add Section 41850.5 to the Education Code, relating to school transportation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1137, as amended, Torres. School transportation: apportionments.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to provide for the transportation of pupils to and from school. Existing law, among other things, requires each school district or county office of education that provides transportation to receive the same home-to-school and special education transportation allowances that it received in the prior fiscal year and prohibits the transportation allowances from exceeding the prior year’s approved transportation costs, increased by the amount provided in the annual Budget Act.

This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction, begin delete for the 2014-15 fiscal year to the 2020-21 fiscal year, inclusive, end delete begin insert commencing with the 2015-16 fiscal year, end insert to apportion to each school district, county office of education, entity providing services under a school transportation joint powers agreement, or a regional occupational center or program that provides pupil transportation an amount equal to a specified annually increasing percentage of its approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year or 100% of its school transportation apportionment for the 2013-14 fiscal year, annually adjusted as specified, whichever is greater. begin insert The bill would require the Superintendent to establish a process to provide startup school transportation apportionments to school districts that did not provide pupil transportation services in the 2014-15 fiscal year, as specified. These provisions would be operative only to the extent that funding for purposes of the bill is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute. end insert

begin delete

The bill would become operative only to the extent that funding is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute for the purposes of the bill.

end delete

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 41850.5 is added to the Education Code,
to read:

41850.5.  

(a) Notwithstanding any other law, begin delete for the 2014-15
fiscal year to the 2020-21 fiscal year, inclusive, end delete begin insert commencing with
the 2015-16 fiscal year, end insert the Superintendent shall apportion to each
school district, county office of education, entity providing services
under a school transportation joint powers agreement, or regional
occupational center or program that provides pupil transportation
services either 100 percent of its school transportation
apportionment for the 2013-14 fiscal year, as adjusted by
subdivision (b), or the following amount, whichever is greater:

(1) For the begin delete 2014-15 end delete begin insert 2015-16 end insert fiscal year, 41 percent of its
approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year.

(2) For the begin delete 2015-16 end delete begin insert 2016-17 end insert fiscal year, 42.5 percent of its
approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year.

(3) For the begin delete 2016-17 end delete begin insert 2017-18 end insert fiscal year, 44 percent of its
approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year.

(4) For the begin delete 2017-18 end delete begin insert 2018-19 end insert fiscal year, 45.5 percent of its
approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year.

(5) For the begin delete 2018-19 end delete begin insert 2019-20 end insert fiscal year, 47 percent of its
approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year.

(6) For the begin delete 2019-20 end delete begin insert 2020-21 end insert fiscal year, 48.5 percent of its
approved transportation costs for the prior fiscal year.

(7) For the begin delete 2020-21 end delete begin insert 2021-22 end insert fiscal year, begin insert and each fiscal year
thereafter, end insert 50 percent of its approved transportation costs for the
prior fiscal year.

(b) The 2013-14 fiscal year school transportation apportionment
amount described in subdivision (a) shall be adjusted annually
begin delete from the 2014-15 fiscal year to the 2020-21 fiscal year, inclusive, end delete
by the percentage change in the annual average value of the Implicit
Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods
and Services for the United States, as published by the United
States Department of begin delete Commerce end delete begin insert Commerce, end insert for the 12-month
period ending in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. This
percentage change shall be determined using the latest data
available as of May 10 of the preceding fiscal year compared with
the annual average value of the same deflator for the 12-month
period ending in the third quarter of the second preceding fiscal
year, using the latest data available as of May 10 of the preceding
fiscal year, as reported by the Department of Finance.

begin insert

(c) The Superintendent shall establish a process to provide
startup school transportation apportionments to school districts
that did not provide pupil transportation services in the 2014-15
fiscal year, subject to all of the following:

end insert begin insert

(1) The startup school transportation apportionment shall only
apply to the first fiscal year in which the school district provides
pupil transportation services and shall be equal to the school
district’s estimated approved transportation costs multiplied by
the percentage in subdivision (a) for the applicable fiscal year.

end insert begin insert

(2) The school transportation apportionment for the second
fiscal year in which the school district provides pupil
transportation services shall be determined pursuant to subdivision
(a) and shall be increased or decreased to adjust for differences,
if any, between the prior fiscal year approved transportation costs
and prior year estimated transportation costs.

end insert begin insert

(3) No more than 5 percent of the amount provided for purposes
of subdivision (b) shall be allocated for startup school
transportation apportionments. If any of this amount is unused for
startup school transportation apportionments, the balance shall
be used for purposes of subdivision (a).

end insert begin insert

(4) Funding for startup school transportation apportionments
shall only be available to school district employee-operated
home-to-school transportation programs.

end insert begin delete

(c)

end delete

begin insert (d) end insert  This section shall be operative only to the extent that funding
is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute for begin delete the end delete
purposes of this section.