(a) (1) For the 2018–19 fiscal year, the sum of six hundred ninety-seven million seven hundred fifty-nine thousand dollars ($697,759,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Controller for transfer to Section A of the State School Fund for allocation by the State Department of Education to school districts in the manner, and for the purposes, set forth in this section.

(2) For purposes of this section, a “school district” includes a county office of education and a charter school.

(b) The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall allocate the funds appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) to school districts on the basis of an equal amount per unit of regular average daily attendance, as those average daily attendance numbers are reported at the time of the second principal apportionment for the 2017–18 fiscal year.

(c) (1) If a school district is required to repay claims disallowed under the School-Based Medi-Cal Administrative Activities program for the 2009–10 fiscal year to the 2015–16 fiscal year, inclusive, the Controller shall, upon notification from the Department of Finance, withhold the specified amounts owed by the applicable school district from the allocations made to those school districts pursuant to subdivision (b).

(2) The Controller shall transfer the amounts withheld in paragraph (1) to the General Fund as reimbursement of the payments made by the state in the 2017–18 fiscal year and the 2018–19 fiscal year to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on behalf of those school districts.

(d) Allocations made pursuant to subdivision (b), less any amount withheld pursuant to subdivision (c), shall first satisfy any outstanding claims pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for reimbursement of state-mandated local program costs for any fiscal year. Notwithstanding Section 12419.5 and any amounts that are paid in satisfaction of outstanding claims for reimbursement of state-mandated local program costs, the Controller may audit any claim as allowed by law, and may recover any amount owed by school districts pursuant to an audit only by reducing amounts owed by the state to school districts for any other mandate claims. Under no circumstances shall a school district be required to remit funding back to the state to pay for disallowed costs identified by a Controller audit of claimed reimbursable state-mandated local program costs. The Controller shall not recover any amount owed by a school district pursuant to an audit of claimed reimbursable state-mandated local program costs by reducing any amount owed a school district for any purpose other than amounts owed for any other mandate claims. The Controller shall apply amounts received by each school district against any balances of unpaid claims for reimbursement of state-mandated local program costs and interest in chronological order beginning with the earliest claim. The Controller shall report to each school district the amounts of any claims and interest that are offset from funds provided pursuant to this section, and shall report a summary of the amounts offset for each mandate for each fiscal year to the Department of Finance and the fiscal committees of the Legislature.

(e) (1) The governing board of a school district may expend the one-time funds allocated pursuant to this section for any purpose.

(2) It is the intent of the Legislature that school districts shall prioritize the use of these one-time funds for professional development, induction for beginning teachers with a focus on relevant mentoring, instructional materials, technology infrastructure, employee benefits, and any other investments necessary to support implementation of the common core academic content standards in English language arts and mathematics, the implementation of English language development standards, and the implementation of the Next Generation Science standards.

(f) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, one hundred three million three thousand dollars ($103,003,000) of the appropriations made by subdivision (a) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202 of the Education Code, for the 2016–17 fiscal year, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202 of the Education Code, for the 2016–17 fiscal year.

(g) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, two hundred ninety-four million seven hundred fifty-six thousand dollars ($294,756,000) of the appropriations made by subdivision (a) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202 of the Education Code, for the 2017–18 fiscal year, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202 of the Education Code, for the 2017–18 fiscal year.

(h) For purposes of making the computations required by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution, three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000) of the appropriations made by subdivision (a) shall be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202 of the Education Code, for the 2018–19 fiscal year, and included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202 of the Education Code, for the 2018–19 fiscal year.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 426, Sec. 33. (AB 1840) Effective September 17, 2018.)