(a) From the funds appropriated pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 8483.5, the department may spend 1.5 percent to cover evaluation costs and to provide training and support to ensure quality program implementation, development, and sustainability and may pay its costs of awarding and monitoring grants.

(b) Beginning with the 2006–07 fiscal year, 1.5 percent of the funds appropriated pursuant to this article shall be available to the department for purposes of providing technical assistance, evaluation, and training services, and for providing local assistance funds to support program improvement and technical assistance.

(1) The department shall provide directly, or contract for, technical assistance for new programs and any program that is not meeting attendance or performance goals, or both, and requests that assistance. The department shall allocate an appropriate level of technical assistance funds to the regional system of support to support program startup within 45 days after grant awards to programs.

(2) (A) Training and support shall include, but is not limited to, the development and distribution of voluntary guidelines for physical activity programs established pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 8482.3, that expand the learning opportunities of the schoolday.

(B) The department shall distribute these voluntary guidelines for physical activity programs on or before July 1, 2009.

(c) The department shall contract for an independent statewide evaluation of the effectiveness of programs funded pursuant to this article to be prepared and submitted to the Legislature. The evaluation shall include a comparison of outcomes for participating pupils and similarly situated pupils who did not participate in the program. A report shall be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature on or before October 1, 2011, providing data that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:

(1) Data collected pursuant to Section 8484.

(2) Data adopted through the process outlined in subdivision (b) of Section 8421.5 and subdivision (g) of Section 8482.4.

(3) Number and type of sites and grantees participating in the program.

(4) Pupil program attendance, as reported semiannually, and pupil schoolday attendance, as reported annually.

(5) Pupil program participation rates.

(6) Quality of program drawing on the research of the Academy of Sciences on critical features of programs that support healthy youth development.

(7) The participation rates of local educational agencies.

(8) Local partnerships.

(9) The academic performance of participating pupils in English language arts and mathematics, as measured by the results of the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program established pursuant to Section 60640.

(d) A final report shall be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature on or before December 1, 2011. The final report shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(1) Updated data on the measures specified in subdivision (b), including, but not limited to, changes in those measures.

(2) The prevalence and frequency of activities included in funded programs.

(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 303, Sec. 59. (AB 731) Effective January 1, 2016. Note: This section was added on Nov. 5, 2002, by initiative Prop. 49.)