Ltr1-09: Williams Case Settlement

January 11, 2010

Dear County Superintendents of Schools and Treasurers:

NOTICE OF APPORTIONMENT FOR THE
COUNTY OVERSIGHT RELATED TO THE
WILLIAMS AND VALENZUELA CASE SETTLEMENTS
FISCAL YEAR 2009-10

This apportionment, in the amount of $8,016,000, is made from funds provided in Item 6110-266-0001 of the Budget Act of 2009 (Chapter 1, Statutes of 2009, Third Extraordinary Session) as amended by Assembly Bill 1 of the Fourth Extraordinary Session (Chapter 1, Statutes of 2009). Funding is in support of county office oversight activities related to the Eliezer Williams, et al. v. State of California, et al. (Williams) case settlement and the Valenzuela v. O’Connell (Valenzuela) case settlement, subject to the flexibility provisions under California Education Code (EC) Section 42605, as explained below.

County superintendents of schools are requested to immediately inform recipients of this apportionment. Warrants will be mailed to each county treasurer approximately four weeks from the date of this Notice. To view the schedule of apportionment, please visit the California Department of Education (CDE) Categorical Programs Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/ca/.  

EC Section 42605, added by Senate Bill 4 of the Third Extraordinary Session (Chapter 12, Statutes of 2009) and amended by Assembly Bill 2 of Fourth Extraordinary Session (Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009), authorizes complete flexibility by a school district, county office of education (COE), and charter school in the use of funds appropriated in the state budget for fiscal years 2008-09 through 2012-13 for numerous budget items. This flexibility applies to the funds formerly restricted to oversight activities related to the Williams and Valenzuela case settlements, except that a COE is required to conduct at least one site visit to each of the required school sites pursuant to EC Section 1240 and fulfill all of the requirements of EC sections 1240 and 44258.9. Once this requirement is met, a COE may use the remaining funds for any educational purpose.

The funds are therefore unrestricted and should be accounted for as such. For standardized account code structure (SACS) coding, use Resource Code 0000, Unrestricted, and Revenue Object Code 8590, All Other State Revenue.

The amount paid in this apportionment reflects 100 percent of each COE’s total entitlement for the Williams and Valenzuela case settlements in 2009-10. Pursuant to EC 42605, entitlements were calculated by allocating the 2009-10 appropriation to the COEs in the same relative proportion of funds that each COE received in 2008-09 for the two programs. The funding in 2009-10 is 5.3 percent below the funding received for 2008-09.

For fiscal questions related to the Williams case settlement, please contact Thi Huynh, Fiscal Consultant, Categorical Allocations and Audit Resolution, at 916-324-4555 or thuynh@cde.ca.gov [Note: the preceding contact information is no longer valid and has been replaced by Julie Klein Briggs, Fiscal Consultant, Categorical Allocations and Management Assistance Office, by phone at 916-323-6191 or by e-mail at JBriggs@cde.ca.gov.]. For fiscal questions related to the Valenzuela case settlement, please contact Wendi McCaskill, Fiscal Consultant, Categorical Allocations and Management Assistance, at 916-323-6191 or wmccaskill@cde.ca.gov [Note: the preceding contact information is no longer valid and has been replaced by Julie Klein Briggs, Fiscal Consultant, Categorical Allocations and Management Assistance Office, by phone at 916-323-6191 or by e-mail at JBriggs@cde.ca.gov.].

Sincerely,

Susan Lange, Deputy Superintendent
Finance, Technology, and Administration Branch