(a) As a condition of receiving apportionments under Section 41850.1, a local educational agency shall develop a plan describing the transportation services it will offer to its pupils, and how it will prioritize planned transportation services for pupils in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and any of grades 1 to 6, inclusive, and pupils who are low income. The plan shall be adopted by the local educational agency’s governing board on or before April 1, 2023, and updated by April 1 each year thereafter. The plan shall include the following components:

(1) A description of the local educational agency’s transportation services that would be accessible to pupils with disabilities and homeless children and youth, as defined pursuant to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. § 11301 et seq.).

Terms Used In California Education Code 39800.1

(2) A description of how unduplicated pupils, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 42238.02, would be able to access available home-to-school transportation at no cost to the pupils.

(b) (1) The plan shall be developed in consultation with classified staff, teachers, school administrators, regional local transit authorities, local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts, parents, pupils, and other stakeholders.

(2) The plan shall be presented and adopted by the governing board of the local educational agency in an open meeting with the opportunity for in-person and remote public comment.

(c) The plan may provide for the local educational agency to partner with a municipally owned transit system to provide service pursuant to this section to middle school and high school pupils.

(d) Nothing in a local educational agency’s plan shall preclude a local educational agency from providing no-cost transit passes to pupils.

(e)  For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school district, excluding a school district with a districtwide charter petition approved pursuant to Section 47606, or a county office of education.

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 48, Sec. 19. (SB 114) Effective July 10, 2023.)