AB 640: Local educational agencies: governance training.

(1)Existing law requires all local agency officials to receive training in ethics, at specified intervals, if the local agency provides certain monetary payments to a member of a legislative body, as provided. Existing law requires a local agency to provide information on available ethics training to its officials and authorizes a local agency or an association of local agencies to offer the ethics training, as provided. Existing law requires a local agency to maintain specified records related to the ethics training of its officials. Existing law defines local agency to include, among others, a school district, county office of education, and charter school, and defines local agency official to include, among others, a member of the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school, for these purposes.

This bill would require all local educational agency officials, as defined to include any regular member of a governing board of a school district or a county board of education, or any regular member of the governing body of a charter school or a nonprofit public benefit corporation operating a charter school, as specified, to receive training in K12 public education school finance laws, as defined, except as otherwise provided. The bill would prescribe the timelines within which the training is required to be completed and the methods that a local educational agency or a consortium of local educational agencies may offer or arrange to provide that training, as provided. The bill would require the County Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team to create curriculum covering specified topics of K12 school finance laws that would be required to be used to satisfy the training requirement, as provided. The bill would require local educational agencies to maintain specified records related to this training.

By imposing new duties on school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program.

(2)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.