California Community Schools Partnership Program: Promise Neighborhoods.

The full text of AB 1969 (all sections including findings, $1 billion appropriation, per-schoolsite funding formula ranging from $75,000 to $400,000, planning and implementation phases, certification process, county coordination grants of $200,000-$500,000, and the 10% retention provision for Promise Neighborhood network leads) was removed from the document.

Website navigation elements were added, including links to bill versions (08/28/26 Amended Senate, 08/21/26 Amended Senate, 06/10/26 Amended Senate, 03/26/26 Amended Assembly, 02/13/26 Introduced), search tools, and links to related bill information pages such as Votes, History, Bill Analysis, and Compare Versions.

Added a second act amending Section 8903 of the Education Code relating to community schools, expanding the bill beyond just the grant program in the Welfare and Institutions Code.

Appropriates $1,000,000,000 from the General Fund for FY 2026-27 to the State Department of Education to administer the California Community Schools Partnership Program, with annual adjustments possible through Item 6100-115-0001 of the Budget Act.

Appropriation designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' meaning the bill now makes a direct appropriation rather than being contingent on future funding.

Requires that retained funds (up to 10% of community schools awards) be used consistent with a specified community schools framework, adding a new constraint on how LEAs can spend their retained portion.

Authorizes local educational agencies that retain community schools funds to also use those funds to serve as a network lead for multiple schoolsites located in a Promise Neighborhood, expanding permitted uses of retained funds.

Removed duplicate subsection labels and corrected repeated words (e.g., 'poverty poverty' to 'poverty', 'partnerships partnerships' to 'partnerships'), and restructured the short title into its own Section 1 rather than embedding it in the chapter heading.

The program is renamed from 'California Coordinated Neighborhood and Community Services Grant Program' to 'California Coordinated Neighborhood and Community Services Schools Incentive Grant Program,' signaling a stronger emphasis on schools as a central component.

The stated purpose of the grant program is expanded to include 'support educational outcomes' in addition to reducing child poverty and advancing economic mobility.

A new legislative finding (subsection b) is added describing California's existing investments in community schools, universal prekindergarten, CalAIM, ELO-P, CalKIDS, and other programs, noting they operate in fragmented systems.

Legislative findings now reference 'community schools' alongside neighborhood-based partnerships and regional partnerships as proven approaches with strong returns on investment.

A new definition of 'Community School' is added, incorporating the existing definition from Section 8901 of the Education Code.

A new definition of 'Promise Neighborhood' or 'PN' is added, referencing the federal Promise Neighborhoods program authorized by ESSA (Public Law 114-95).

'Place-based partnership' now explicitly includes Promise Neighborhoods alongside neighborhood partnerships and regional partnerships, expanding which entities can qualify for grants.

The State Board of Education is added as a required consultation partner (alongside the State Department of Education) for developing the application process, establishing academic indicators, establishing health and social-emotional indicators, and setting up grant management structures.

Grant activity language in Section 8304 is updated to explicitly name 'neighborhood partnerships, Promise Neighborhoods, or regional partnerships' rather than the broader 'regional or neighborhood partnership development.'

The data disaggregation requirements no longer include 'English proficiency status' and 'Migrant status' as categories by which data should be broken down.

The definition of eligible entity for nonprofit organizations was expanded to include organizations exempt from state income taxation under Section 23701d of the Revenue and Taxation Code, in addition to those already exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This broadens which nonprofits can apply for grants.

A new subdivision (c) was added to Section 8306 establishing data privacy requirements: participants must give separate and distinct consent before their data is shared with the State Department of Social Services; data must not include personally identifiable information; data cannot be shared with other entities or used for purposes beyond grant program evaluation; data must comply with all applicable privacy laws; and no significantly different data elements may be collected without prior legislative authorization.

A new subdivision (d) was added to Section 8306 requiring the department to enforce data privacy and protection policies with all grant recipients, giving the administering agency an explicit enforcement duty over data handling.