Funding Eligibility: New Construction Grants

The new construction grant program provides State funds for new school construction on a 50 percent State/50 percent local cost-sharing basis.

• Eligibility
• Covered Costs
• Grant Amounts

Covered Costs

New construction grant amounts are intended to provide the State share of all necessary project costs except site acquisition, utilities, and off-site and service-site development. "Necessary costs" include:

• Project design
• Construction
• General site development
• Education technology
• Unconventional energy (such as solar heating)
• Tests
• Inspections
• Furniture and equipment

Your district also may receive a separate site acquisition or design grant, but only in financial hardship circumstances.

Eligibility

Your eligibility for basic funding is based on your district's:

• Need to house pupils, as determined by criteria set in State law
  Because funding levels are fixed on a per-unhoused-pupil basis, your district must perform prescribed calculations that demonstrate deficient classroom capacity. To determine the number of unhoused pupils, compare your district's existing capacity to your five-year enrollment projection.
• Ability to provide local funding to cover 50% of the project cost
  Your district must demonstrate the availability of matching funds from local sources. If you are unable to achieve the required matching levels, you may apply for financial hardship assistance.

Supplemental funding is available in the categories listed below. Contact the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) for details as to whether your district is eligible.

• Special education
• Multilevel construction
• Site acquisition
• Site development
• Geographic location: locations that are remote or difficult to access, or which lack a pool of contractors
• Small-size projects
• New school projects to fund core facilities other than classrooms
• Urban locations, impacted sites, or areas with security issues where the useable site acreage is less than 75 percent of the site size recommended by the California Department of Education (CDE)
• Project assistance

Grant Amounts

Basic funding is available according to the number of unhoused students affected, by grade level. Per-pupil grant amounts are:

Supplemental funding amounts vary. If the OPSC determines that your district is eligible for supplemental funding, it will also provide you with grant amounts.

Grant amounts are adjusted for inflation each year.