School employees: School Social Worker Pilot Program.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Education, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and assigns to the department numerous duties relating to the financing, governance, and guidance of the public elementary and secondary schools in this state. Existing law authorizes a school district to employ and compensate psychologists and social workers who meet specified qualifications. This bill, subject to an appropriation of moneys by the Legislature, would establish the School Social Worker Pilot Program, under the administration of the department, to provide a multiyear grant award to one school district or the governing body of a charter school in each of the Counties of Alameda, Riverside, San Benito, San Joaquin, and Shasta to fund a social worker at each eligible school, as defined, within the school district or charter school, as applicable, for the 2021–22 fiscal year to the 2025–26 fiscal year, inclusive. The bill would require the department to develop an application process and criteria for determining grant recipients on a competitive basis, as provided. The bill would require each governing board of a school district and governing body of a charter school receiving a grant award to report to the department, and would require the department, on or before January 1, 2027, to report to the Legislature, changes in pupil outcomes at the schools participating in the pilot program, including, among others, changes in chronic absenteeism and changes in rates of suspension and expulsion. The bill would make the pilot program inoperative on July 1, 2027, and would repeal it on January 1, 2028.