School facilities: design-build: alternative design-build: county superintendents of schools.

Section 6 (statewide concern finding) had a drafting artifact cleaned up: the old version contained duplicated text reading 'Sections 3 and 5 Section 3 or 3.5 of this act' which was corrected to 'Section 3 or 3.5 of this act, as applicable.' This is a clerical correction, not a policy change.

All line numbers, page headers/footers, and the old bill number (97) were removed; the enrolled version uses bill number 96 and standard enrollment formatting without inline line numbering.

Standard enrollment markings were added: passage dates (Assembly August 20, 2026; Senate August 19, 2026), signature lines for the Chief Clerk of the Assembly, Secretary of the Senate, and Private Secretary of the Governor, and a 'CHAPTER' designation.

The term 'county office of education' is replaced with 'county superintendent of schools' in the definitions of 'school district' in both Section 17250.15(g) and Section 17250.60(g), as well as throughout the digest and operative text. This narrows the defined entity from the broader office to the specific individual role.

The entire amendment to Public Contract Code Section 20110 is removed. The Assembly version would have applied the Local Agency Public Construction Act to county offices of education, deeming them school districts for purposes of that act. The Senate version drops this provision entirely.

A new Section 3.5 allows a school district, on or before December 31, 2031, to procure multiple design-build contracts for comparable shade structure projects at various sites through a single bundled solicitation, even if individual project values are below the $1,000,000 threshold (but not exceeding $10,000,000 each), provided the total value exceeds $1,000,000. Each contract must remain separate with its own scope, location, schedule, design, and construction.

A new Section 7 adds a coordination mechanism with SB 1107: the bundled shade structure provision (Section 3.5) only becomes operative if both bills are enacted and effective on or before January 1, 2027, each amends Section 17250.20, and AB 1860 is enacted after SB 1107, in which case the original Section 3 of this bill would not become operative.

County superintendents of schools are now given exclusive authority to award design-build contracts (Section 17250.20) and alternative design-build contracts (new Section 17250.61) on behalf of a county office of education and county board of education, notwithstanding any other law.

A new Section 17250.61 is added to the Education Code authorizing county superintendents of schools to procure alternative design-build contracts for projects exceeding $5,000,000, with the same exclusive authority provision as standard design-build.

A new Section 6 declares that the provisions granting county superintendents exclusive contract-awarding authority address a matter of statewide concern and apply to all counties, including charter counties, superseding any inconsistent county charter provisions.

The definition of 'school district' in Sections 17250.15 and 17250.60 is changed from 'a school district or a county office of education' to 'a school district or a county superintendent of schools,' with an exception for the exclusive authority subdivisions.

New conflict-of-interest policy requirements are added to both Section 17250.20 and 17250.61, requiring school districts to develop guidelines for a standard organizational conflict-of-interest policy regarding whether persons or entities that perform services for the district in soliciting design-build projects can submit proposals as a design-build entity or join a design-build team.

Section 17250.20 now includes an effective date provision stating the chapter applies to bid requests issued on or after July 1, 2016.