Shasta County gave back to the state more than $6.2 million earmarked for schools in 2026, after the California State Controller’s Office said it made a clerical error in January.
That same error shorted Siskiyou County schools $5 million, said Bismarck Obando with the state controller’s office. It was an error the state corrected in March.
Shasta and Siskiyou were two of 11 California counties affected by the error, he said.
California State Controller Malia Cohen’s office sent a letter to the Shasta County Office of Education in Redding on Feb. 19 that said “a bank account misalignment in our payment system” caused a mistake in Shasta’s K-12 education apportionment, issued to the county on Jan. 28. Shasta received $27,414,633 when it should have received $21,146,820.94.
“We respectfully ask that the County return the overpayment of $6,267,812.06 by March 5, 2026,” the state controller’s office said in the letter. “Please send a check, payable to the SCO, along with a copy of this letter to the address below and reference “K-12 Schools Apportionment” on the check.”
The good news is schools hadn’t spent or budgeted any of that money when the letter came, said Shasta County Office of Education spokesperson Kerri Schuette. “There was little to no impact on our districts … The California Department of Education and Department of Finance worked quickly to correct the error, and even in counties where there was a significant underpayment, the impact was relatively minimal,” Schutte said.
Siskiyou County was underpaid more than $5 million of its $5,407,864 allotted for 2026, Obando said. It received only $371,098 on Jan. 28, and has since received the balance due.
The funding error didn’t create any problems for the county, said Siskiyou County spokesperson Ali Kutzer.
California State Controller Malia Cohen’s office sent a letter to the Shasta County Office of Education in Redding on Feb. 19, 2026, requesting back more than $6.2 million of the more than $27 million the county received for kindergarten and grade schools in January.
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11 California counties over or under paid by state for schools
The mistake caused confusion 11 California counties, all of which received too much or too little money due them because of the error, Obando said. The other nine were San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus and Sutter.
All counties’ budgets “have been made whole” now, he said on Monday.
As a result of the mistake, the controller’s office said in a statement to the Record Searchlight it would implement new safeguards including “enhancing review and approval processes.”
California requests Sutter County give back $80M
Sutter County — with a population of fewer than 100,000 — reported it had to give back more than $80 million in state over payment.
County staff caught the error early, made obvious by the fact Sutter got more than four times the money expected, Sutter Auditor/Controller Nathan Black said.
“This is a weird one,” Black told the Sutter County Board of Supervisors at their March 10 meeting in Yuba City. “The state controller’s office accidentally added a row to their distribution worksheet which meant that a bunch of counties got other counties’ monies. Sutter County got $105 million dollars, and we were only supposed to get around $25 (million).”
“I don’t even know how to respond,” said an unidentified supervisor off camera at the meeting.
Sutter also got a letter from the state controller’s office asking the county to pay back the money by check, Black said. “Can you imagine that? Eighty million dollars on a warrant on a check?” The county opted to do an electronic transfer instead, he said.
Part of Sutter’s over payment was money intended for Stanislaus County, which was shorted $60 million. That money went right into Sutter’s account where it earned interest until it was returned. “We intend to keep the (interest) earnings from the money,” Black said at the supervisors’ meeting.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica on Record Searchlight Facebook groups Get Out! Nor Cal , Today in Shasta County and Shaping Redding’s Future. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta schools return $6.2M in school funds after state error