How California Schools Pay for an Assembly Speaker

Student Support and Professional Development Discretionary Block Grant

Speaker fitThe most flexible option. Your business office decides.

The state has funded this block grant twice, and districts can still be spending both rounds.

The 2025–26 round is for “discretionary purposes, including, but not limited to” teacher training on the English and math frameworks, teacher recruitment and retention, career pathways and dual enrollment, and “addressing rising costs.” Districts can spend it through June 30, 2029 (California Department of Education).

The 2026–27 round is $5,033,559,000, divided by average daily attendance and available through June 30, 2032. The state’s letter to districts says it’s for “discretionary purposes, including, but not limited to” teacher training, teacher recruitment and retention, career pathways and dual enrollment, community school partnerships, deferred maintenance, “and to address rising costs” (California Department of Education).

For the 2025–26 round, the Department of Education says it isn’t approving or denying individual district expenditures (SSPDBG FAQ), and its letter on the 2026–27 round points districts to the same FAQ. That puts the decision with your district.

Amount: about $935.17 per unit of average daily attendance (California Department of Education). On the state’s 2026–27 schedule, Millville Elementary in Shasta County, with about 197 students in daily attendance, is allocated $184,668. Ferndale Unified in Humboldt County, with about 498, is allocated $465,865 (allocation schedule). Your district’s line is on the same schedule.

Title IV-A in California

Speaker fitPossible. Ask your federal programs director.

California districts apply for Title IV-A through the Consolidated Application. To be eligible for 2026–27, a district had to receive Title I, Part A money in 2025–26 (California Department of Education).

Amount: the Department of Education allocates it “in the same proportion to an LEA’s prior year Title I, Part A allocation with a $10,000 minimum” (California Department of Education). So a small eligible district gets at least $10,000 for the year, and larger districts get more.

The rules, including supplement-not-supplant and the evidence-based requirement for prevention, are on the Title IV-A page.

Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant

Speaker fitNarrow. Possible, but the rules are tight.

The Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant (LREBG) was set up after the pandemic for learning recovery and “staff and pupil social and emotional well-being.” One of its allowed uses, from Education Code section 32526(c), is:

“Integrating evidence-based pupil supports to address other barriers to learning, and staff supports and training, such as the provision of health, counseling, or mental health services, access to school meal programs, before and after school programs, or programs to address pupil trauma and social-emotional learning, or referrals for support for family or pupil needs.”

The catch is in the rest of the law. Spending has to be evidence-based. Districts have to run a needs assessment built on test scores and chronic absence, list the spending in their LCAP, and explain how research supports each action (California Department of Education). A single assembly is a hard fit under those rules, though it isn’t ruled out.

Amount and timing: the state restored $757.3 million for 2026–27, and districts can spend LREBG money through the 2027–28 school year. A district’s share depends on its 2021–22 attendance multiplied by its share of low-income students, English learners and foster youth, so it varies widely. Districts and charters that opened after 2021–22 don’t get it.

Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE)

Speaker fitDoesn’t fit my talks.

TUPE grants pay for tobacco-use prevention in grades 6 through 12 (California Department of Education). My talks aren’t tobacco prevention, so I won’t suggest this money for them.

Local sources

The building budget, the PTO or PTA, student council, booster clubs, local education foundations, and Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs. The main funding page covers how to ask each one.

What does it cost?

The 2026–27 California rate is on the California youth speaker page. The principal approval packet has a paragraph you can paste straight into your request to the district.

Last checked November 5, 2026. This page isn’t legal or financial advice. Grant rules change every year, so confirm with whoever manages your district’s money before you spend it.