Charter Schools Facilities Program.

Existing law establishes the Charter Schools Facilities Program to provide funding to qualifying entities for the purpose of establishing school facilities for charter school pupils. Existing law requires the California School Finance Authority, in consultation with the State Allocation Board, to adopt regulations establishing uniform terms and conditions that would apply equally to funding for charter school facilities projects, including security provisions that include the requirement that title to project facilities be held by the school district in which the facility is to be physically located, in trust, for the benefit of the state public school system. This bill, in addition, would authorize a local governmental entity, as specified, or a charter school to hold title to charter school project facilities. The bill would require applicants, prior to the release of funds for site acquisition or new construction final apportionments, to provide documentary evidence that the school district in which the facility is to be physically located, a local governmental entity, as specified, or the charter school holds title to the project facilities, subject to specified conditions. The bill would authorize a charter school to request a school district to transfer title to project facilities to an entity authorized by the bill, as specified, if the district entered into an agreement, prior to January 1, 2010, to hold title to the project facilities. The bill would authorize a school district that receives such a request to transfer the title to the entity designated in the request pursuant to terms and conditions mutually agreed upon by the district and the charter school. The bill also would make conforming changes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.