Bill > AB2121

This bill allows California community college districts, for a period of five fiscal years after the 2025-26 school year or until specific federal funding is fully restored, to temporarily exclude certain local unrestricted expenditures from their "current expense of education" calculation, which is a measure used to determine how much a district spends on classroom instructors. This exclusion is permitted only for expenditures that support student services previously funded by federal discretionary grants that have been terminated, nonrenewed, or defunded since September 10, 2025, and the amount excluded cannot exceed the lost federal grant funding. Community college districts must certify their eligibility to the Chancellor's office, which will then document these certifications in a report. The bill defines "discretionary grant" as a competitive federal grant for specific student support functions, not direct student aid, and lists various "student support functions" that can be covered, such as academic tutoring, counseling, mentoring, financial aid assistance, and programs for specific student populations. The provisions of this bill will become inoperative on July 1, 2031, or when the federal funding is fully restored, and will be repealed thereafter. The bill also emphasizes that this exclusion does not reduce a district's obligation to spend at least 50% of its current expense of education on classroom instructor salaries, maintain faculty positions, or diminish instructional quality, and prohibits using this exclusion to fund administrative positions or salary increases for administrators. This bill is declared an urgency statute to immediately address the disruption of essential student support services caused by federal funding changes.