{"id":392575,"date":"2026-07-09T21:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392575\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T21:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:56:18","slug":"california-increases-special-education-funding-by-2-4b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392575\/","title":{"rendered":"California increases special education funding by $2.4B"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gov.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom high-fives schoolchildren while holding up the signed Assembly Bill 126 at Willett Elementary School in Davis on Thursday. The bill will increase funding for special education across the state. <\/p>\n

REN\u00c9E C. BYER<\/p>\n

rbyer@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Thursday that includes a $2.4 billion increase for special education programs in California schools, calling the budget a step toward improving services for students across the state.<\/p>\n

The event took place at Willett Elementary School in Davis, where Newsom was joined by state education officials and lawmakers including Assembly members David Alvarez and Darshana Patel, and California Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investments now are about to take place and shape to answer the concern that these are dollars moving forward. I can\u2019t make up for the past,\u201d Newsom said during a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been muddling along, doing better than we were in the past,\u201d Newsom said. He acknowledged concerns that rising special education costs were helping push districts such as Sacramento City Unified toward fiscal insolvency, an indication that the state\u2019s previous efforts were \u201cnot good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gov. Gov. Gavin Newsom gestures during a new conference at Willett Elementary School in Davis on Thursday after signing Assembly Bill 126, which will increase funding for special education across the state. REN\u00c9E C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Darling-Hammond said one way the state plans to ensure the money reaches students is by preparing and recruiting teachers who can meet their needs, while Patel pointed to a \u201csuite of solutions\u201d in the budget and said local education agencies must ensure the resources go to the students who need them.<\/p>\n

The $2.4 billion increase in special education funding comes after the Natomas Unified, Sacramento City Unified and Twin Rivers Unified school districts were criticized for their treatment of students with disabilities<\/a> in a Sacramento County Grand Jury report.<\/p>\n

For Sacramento City Unified, which has been scrambling<\/a> for months to close a more than $170 million deficit and avoid state receivership, special education costs have become a major driver of the district\u2019s financial strain.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s unrestricted general fund contribution to special education was $73.6 million in 2018-19, before the pandemic, and has since climbed to $172.2 million in the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those school districts that have those students with higher cost levels, there\u2019s now a pool of money that they can tap into,\u201d Petal said, adding that the budget includes money to train educators for inclusive classrooms, help districts cover high-cost special education placements and support diploma pathways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose funds have been oversubscribed for years, and we\u2019re now finally approaching levels where maybe we\u2019ll right-size that fund and actually meet the needs of the families that are seeking it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 2:12 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Chaewon Chung<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Chaewon Chung covers climate and environmental issues for The Sacramento Bee. Before joining The Bee, she worked as a climate and environment reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom high-fives schoolchildren while holding up the signed Assembly Bill 126 at Willett Elementary School in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-392575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}