The state of California is delivering some unexpected—but positive news for the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
The District will receive $3 million from the state to fund special education. The money was included as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget passed in June, and is intended to offset some of the federal funding cuts from the U.S. Department of Education. The funds are intended to be ongoing.
Conrad Tedeschi, the district’s assistant superintendent of Business Services, called the funding one of the “biggest impacts” to the district’s budget.
Nearly 14% of students in the school district have disabilities and receive special education, as of the 2025-2026 school year.
Additional one-time funds coming to the district
The District will also receive a Student Support and Professional Development grant of nearly $10 million for professional development, dual enrollment and career pathways, teacher recruitment and retention, or maintenance that’s been put off to save money.
The grant also states that the district must hold a special hearing to address enrollment, which has declined by more than 16% since 2014.
Tedeschi suggested that the state wants school districts to use one-time funds to address issues like declining enrollment. The district must use this grant by 2032.
The other one-time funding from the state comes in the form of the Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant, which is intended to support academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The district will receive $2.4 million from this grant and must use it by the end of next year.
Board member Celeste Kafri asked Tedeschi how the district can spend the one-time funds in a way where the district continually improves from the funding.
“I’m opening this up to the entire cabinet to look at ideas,” Tedeschi responded. “And with that in mind, how can we not just take care of this, but how can we invest in something that could have future benefit.”
