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Can Prop 28 Funds Buy Curriculum and Instructional Materials?

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Proposition 28 allows up to 19% of a school site's allocation to be used for training, supplies and materials, and arts educational partnership programs. Supplemental instructional materials fit within that category.

Below are the questions site administrators ask most often about spending Prop 28 funds on materials.

Can Prop 28 funds be used to buy curriculum or instructional books?

Yes. Supplies and materials are an allowable use. Proposition 28 requires at least 80% of a site's allocation to go toward employing certificated or classified staff who provide arts instruction. The remaining funds — up to 19%, with no more than 1% for administrative costs — may be used for training, supplies and materials, and arts educational partnership programs.

Instructional books and curriculum fall in that supplies-and-materials category. If a provider delivers programming alongside the materials, the purchase may instead fit the arts educational partnership category.

What percentage of our allocation can go to materials?

Up to 19%. The breakdown set by the measure is:

CategoryShare

Certificated and classified staff providing arts instructionAt least 80%

Training, supplies and materials, arts educational partnership programsUp to 19%

Administrative costsNo more than 1%

You may see this shorthanded as "the 20%." The precise figures are 19% plus the 1% administrative cap.

Who decides how our school's Prop 28 money is spent?

The site administrator, in collaboration with teachers, families, and students. Proposition 28 money is allocated to each school site individually rather than pooled at the district level, and each site develops its own annual expenditure plan.

This is why Prop 28 decisions happen at the school rather than in a district adoption cycle.

Does a materials purchase need to go out to bid?

Not at typical site-allocation amounts. California's formal bid threshold for supplies sits well above $100,000 and is adjusted annually. Most site-level materials purchases fall far below it.

Your district will still have its own internal purchasing procedures, informal bid thresholds, and vendor requirements. Check with your business office on:

• Whether the vendor must be registered in your district's vendor system

• Your purchasing card limit, if you hold one

• Whether a quote and W-9 are sufficient to issue a purchase order

Does the California Department of Education have to approve our purchase?

No. CDE does not approve or deny individual purchases. The responsibility sits with the LEA to ensure the cost is necessary and reasonable for an arts instruction purpose, that it appears in the site's expenditure plan, and that it is documented.

What does "supplement, not supplant" mean for a materials purchase?

It means Prop 28 money has to add to your arts program rather than pay for something you were already funding another way. If your site was already purchasing a particular set of materials out of general funds, moving that same purchase to Prop 28 would be supplanting.

Adding materials your program did not previously have is supplementing.

Do we lose Prop 28 funds if we don't spend them?

Yes, eventually. An allocation is available for up to three fiscal years. After that, unexpended funds revert to the state and are reallocated. LEAs report unexpended amounts by October 1 following the end of the expenditure period.

Funding began in 2023–24. If your site has carried an unspent balance since then, confirm your exact expiration date against CDE's Proposition 28 Year-at-a-Glance guidance.

Can we pool our allocation with another school?

Yes, schools may pool or share funds with another school. Funds cannot be transferred from one site to another.

Can we combine Prop 28 with ELOP or other funding?

Often, yes, but the streams have different rules and each expenditure has to be traceable to a use that stream allows. The most common pairing: Prop 28 covers arts instruction and materials, while ELOP funds the expanded learning time in which programming happens.

Note that ELOP cannot pay for anything occurring during the regular school day — before school, after school, and non-school days only. If you are buying materials for use in an afterschool program, ELOP may be the cleaner fit.

Do purchases have to align to the California Arts Standards?

Alignment is expected practice rather than a line-item approval requirement, and it is what makes a purchase straightforward to justify. California's 2019 Arts Standards were required by Education Code Section 60605.13 to be based on the National Core Arts Standards, and they cover dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts.

Ask any vendor which specific standards their materials address. A vendor who can name the codes has done the work; one who says "standards-aligned" without specifics has not.

Does a music curriculum that includes social-emotional learning still count as arts instruction?

Yes, provided the arts instruction is genuine and not incidental. Prop 28 funds arts and music instruction. Materials that teach music while also developing social-emotional competencies remain arts instruction — the SEL component is additive.

For documentation purposes, describe the purchase by its arts function first, with the SEL outcomes noted as a secondary benefit.

Do we have to report what we bought?

Yes, at the LEA level. Each LEA must complete an annual report, have it approved by its governing board, submit it to CDE through the Arts and Music in Schools portal, and post it on the LEA's website.

The site-level expenditure plan is completed annually but does not have to be posted online, board-approved, or submitted to CDE. Keep it on file.

Who do we ask if we're still not sure?

CDE's Arts and Music in Schools team answers both program and fiscal questions at Prop28@cde.ca.gov.

You can also subscribe to the Prop 28 listserv by emailing join-prop28@mlist.cde.ca.gov for release notices.

Your county office of education is often faster for practical questions. County arts leads work with school sites on Prop 28 implementation regularly.

Where Say It With Music fits

Say It With Music publishes supplemental instructional books built on the psychological effects of music, used in schools, expanded learning programs, military youth programs, and community organizations.

For Prop 28 purposes:

• Category: supplies and materials, within the 19% allocation

• Supplemental by design — these add to an existing arts program rather than replacing funded instruction

• Grade bands: K–4th, and a teen advanced edition

• Consumable: each student works in their own copy

We provide a quote, W-9, and invoice on request, and accept purchase orders and purchasing card payment.

Request a quote: https://www.sayitwith-music.com/booking-page