Funding by institution
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Introduction
Overview
Senate Bill 135 (Statutes of 2026, Chapter 79), the 2026 education trailer bill, added Article 9 to the Education Code, sections 78093 through 78093.2, effective July 13, 2026. The article establishes the Credit for Prior Learning Initiative and directs the Chancellor’s Office, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to allocate designated funds to support implementation at each campus using four goals: increasing access to credit for prior learning opportunities equitably for all eligible students, increasing completion through credit for prior learning awards, advancing career attainment through credit for prior learning, and supporting credit for prior learning opportunities through the Chancellor’s Office’s pilot projects, “such as the California Mapping Articulated Pathways Initiative.” Each campus demonstrates its implementation through those metrics (§ 78093.2(d)(2)). This page sets out how the Chancellor’s Office proposes to allocate the 2026-27 one-time appropriation across the 2026-27 and 2027-28 fiscal years under that article, and how an institution’s outcomes determine what it qualifies for.
Most of the one-time appropriation is allocated directly to institutions — all 118 of them, the 115 colleges and the three noncredit-only campuses — in proportion to how much teaching each one does, credit and noncredit together. The rest funds the statewide CPL projects and technology that serve every college, and two Chancellor’s Office posts supporting that work. Every institution’s max award — the most it can qualify for on its outcomes — sits between a base award of $150,000 and a cap of $400,000 across the two years.
An institution’s CPL outcomes determine what it qualifies for. The Chancellor’s Office measures the prior-learning credit each institution puts on students’ records, from that institution’s own MAP data, against four priorities. An institution meets the baseline requirements to take part; from that point the funding follows the outcomes.
one-time 2026-27 appropriation for CPL implementation
allocated to the 118 institutions, on their CPL outcomes
$23,427,905 credit and $1,812,403 noncredit
statewide CPL projects and technology, and two Chancellor’s Office posts supporting colleges across the two years
Those two lines account for the whole appropriation. The $25,240,308 to institutions is one funding total, shared among all 118 in proportion to combined credit + noncredit size within the base award and the cap. Every award then splits into a credit share and a noncredit share by the institution’s own teaching mix: statewide, $1,812,403 is noncredit, carried within 108 college awards and restricted to noncredit outcomes. The $9.04 million remaining from 2025-26 is a separate distribution.
Lowest
$150,000
the base award, and where 51 of the 118 institutions land
Average
$213,901
$198,542 credit and $15,359 noncredit, the 118 awards averaged
Highest
$400,000
the cap, and where 7 of the 118 institutions are held
A few very large institutions raise the average: half of the 118 institutions are allocated $172,314 or less.
Funding outcomes
The priorities below carry the funding, against the goals set out in Ed. Code §78093.2(d)(1). Each holds a share of every institution’s award and one measure of that institution’s CPL outcomes. The Chancellor’s Office sets the shares and measures below and recommends the strategies under each.
Timeline
Dates
The Chancellor’s Office has set the dates below. A milestone without a date is contingent.
How the funding arrives
Two timing settings are in effect. Neither changes the amount an institution can qualify for.
- The full two-year amount is made available in year one. The capacity this work requires — staff time, faculty review of credit recommendations, and local process design — is concentrated at the outset, and withholding half of the allocation until year two would delay it. Funding remaining at the end of year one carries forward. Because the entire allocation is available in year one, the targets shown are the full two-year figures.
- Year two mirrors year one. The two years are held identical so that a change to one is reflected in the other. Disabling the mirror leaves both years as they were, so nothing is overwritten.
How an allocation is computed
The Chancellor’s Office measures an institution’s size in full-time equivalent students, its standard measure of instructional volume, counting credit and noncredit instruction together. Across the 118 institutions the combined total is 1,151,171 FTES. An institution accounting for two percent of that total begins with two percent of the amount allocated to institutions.
The Chancellor’s Office then makes two adjustments to that proportional figure:
- The base award, $150,000, across the two years. Forty-five institutions’ proportional share fell below that amount and is brought up to it, funded from within the same total.
- The cap, $400,000, across the two years. Six institutions’ proportional share exceeded that amount and is held there. The Chancellor’s Office redirects the difference, $262,241, to the institutions below the cap. An institution held at the cap is assessed against a correspondingly smaller target, so it qualifies at the same rate as every institution above the base award.
How noncredit funding is calculated
The Chancellor’s Office calculates noncredit funding from the noncredit FTES each institution reports to MIS, and that funding counts toward the priorities on this page. Noncredit FTES are counted where the instruction originates in the noncredit program and the credit is awarded at a credit college in the district.
Eligibility requirements
Each requirement is verifiable from MAP:
The Chancellor’s Office allocates funding to each institution for the FTES that meet the priority outcomes, up to its max award. Once an institution meets the minimum conditions, it receives its full outcomes-based funding within the two-year window.
How outcomes count toward funding
The priorities and their shares are above. This is the arithmetic underneath them.
The Chancellor’s Office measures outcomes in units of credit for prior learning, converted to equivalent FTES on the college’s own calendar: 30 semester units make one FTES, or 45 on a quarter calendar.
How a share becomes a target
The Chancellor’s Office divides each priority’s share by its FTES reimbursement rate to set its target. That rate is the 2026-27 state rate of $5,649.63 per FTES, multiplied by that priority’s funding factor. The factors currently set are 1.0, 1.0 and 1.0.
What the funding factor does. A factor above 1.0 raises the FTES reimbursement rate, so fewer units of prior learning reach the priority’s share, which gives more weight to outcomes the Chancellor’s Office intends to encourage. A factor below 1.0 has the opposite effect. The share sets how much funding stands behind a priority; the factor sets the volume of prior learning that qualifies for it.
| Priority | Funding | Target (FTES) | Roughly, in units |
|---|
An institution that reaches half of a priority’s target qualifies for half of that priority’s share. Exceeding the target does not increase the amount: the share is the ceiling.
One consequence of the base award. Because the base award is funded from within the same total, an institution above it qualifies for approximately $5,158 for each FTES of prior learning it records rather than the full $5,650, while an institution brought up to the base award reaches its target on considerably less. That is the intended trade: the rate per FTES is not uniform across institutions, and the smallest institutions are the ones it favors.
Funding Model Numbers
The Chancellor’s Office sets some of these figures as policy and can change them. Others are given, and it uses them as they are.
| Number | Currently | Who decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Priority order, names and shares | 34% / 33% / 33% | Set by the Chancellor’s Office |
| Funding factor per priority | 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 | Set by the Chancellor’s Office |
| Base award per institution | $150,000 | Set by the Chancellor’s Office |
| Cap per institution | $400,000 | Set by the Chancellor’s Office |
| Noncredit shares of the awards | $1,783,399 | Determined by each institution’s reported instructional mix |
| Baseline requirements and deadline | 30 Dec 2026 | Set by the Chancellor’s Office |
| The appropriation | $35,000,000 | Given — the enacted budget |
| State rate per FTES | $5,649.63 | Given — the 2026-27 SCFF rate |
| Each institution’s credit and noncredit FTES | 2025-26 reported actuals | Given — MIS, as reported by the institutions |
| Units of prior learning recorded in MAP | As recorded by the institutions | Given — the institutions |