AB 2509 California Assembly · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Education finance: average daily attendance: apportionments.

Summary

Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires the local control funding formula, in part, to be based on average daily attendance, as defined. For purposes of the local control funding formula, existing law requires a school district's fiscal year average daily attendance to be computed using the 2nd principal apportionment regular average daily attendance for the greater of the current fiscal year, the prior fiscal year, or the average of the 3 most recent prior fiscal years, as specified. This bill, for purposes of the local control funding formula, would require a school district's fiscal year average daily attendance to be computed using the average of the 5 most recent prior fiscal years, if that average is greater than the 3 averages described above.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2026 Last action May 14, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

04/20/26 - Amended Assembly → AB2509 · 1 edit

MINOR

No substantive policy changes were made between these two versions of AB 2509. The differences are entirely formatting and presentation changes, converting the bill from a traditional printed legislative document layout (with line numbers, page headers, and column formatting) to a web-based rendering with navigation elements. The legal text of Sections 42238.05 and 42238.051 is identical in both versions.

TECHNICAL

The bill was reformatted from a traditional legislative document layout (with line numbers, page breaks, and two-column formatting) to a web-based presentation format with navigation menus, search tools, and different heading structure. No legal language was added, removed, or altered.

02/20/26 - Introduced → 03/16/26 - Amended Assembly · 6 edits · Mar 16, 2026

MODERATE

AB 2509 was substantially expanded from a nonsubstantive reformatting of one section (41378) into a major overhaul of how school districts calculate average daily attendance for state funding purposes. The amended bill now adds a five-year averaging option to the local control funding formula and allows districts to exclude their five lowest-attendance days, both of which protect district funding against enrollment declines. The fiscal committee answer also changed from 'no' to 'yes,' confirming new budgetary implications.

Scope change

Expanded from a single nonsubstantive amendment to Section 41378 (kindergarten class size penalty formatting) to a substantive rewrite of Sections 42238.05 and 42238.051 governing how all school districts and sponsoring districts calculate average daily attendance for the local control funding formula.

SCOPE

The bill now amends Sections 42238.05 and 42238.051 of the Education Code in addition to Section 41378, expanding its scope from a single nonsubstantive fix to a comprehensive rewrite of how average daily attendance is computed for state school funding.

FISCAL

A new five-year averaging option was added to the local control funding formula. A district's fiscal year average daily attendance is now computed using the greatest of four values: current fiscal year, prior fiscal year, three-year average, or five-year average (new). This gives districts more protection against enrollment drops by allowing a longer smoothing period.

School districts may now exclude the five days with the lowest recorded attendance from their current and prior fiscal year when computing regular average daily attendance. This reduces the impact of low-attendance days (such as holidays or weather closures) on funding calculations.

The fiscal committee answer changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the amended bill now has state-mandated local program or fiscal implications that were not present in the introduced version.

REQUIREMENT

Section 42238.051 now requires sponsoring school districts to compute attendance using both three and five most recent prior fiscal years, with detailed adjustment rules for pupils moving between charter and noncharter schools, annual reporting requirements, and transition provisions for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years.

ENFORCEMENT

A new 'zero floor' provision states that if charter-related adjustments result in a 50 percent or greater reduction of a district's second period attendance for the prior or second prior fiscal year, the district's average second period attendance for the three and five most recent prior fiscal years shall be set to zero.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 14, 2026

Lower · Passed

In committee: Held under submission.

lower

May 6, 2026

Committee

In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

lower

Apr 21, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

lower

Apr 20, 2026

Lower · Passed

Read second time and amended.

lower

Apr 16, 2026

Introduced

From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 2.) (April 15).

lower

Mar 17, 2026

Committee

Re-referred to Com. on ED.

lower

Mar 16, 2026

Introduced

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on ED. Read second time and amended.

lower

Mar 16, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on ED.

lower

Feb 21, 2026

Lower · Passed

From printer. May be heard in committee March 23.

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor