The Prop 28 Compliance Checklist (2026-27)
A free 5-page checklist for California superintendents, CBOs and arts coordinators.
Prop 28 (the Arts and Music in Schools Act, Education Code §8820) sends roughly $1 billion a year to California schools for arts and music education. The rules on what counts, who gets paid, and how spending is reported are specific, and the most common mistake is coding non-arts programs to Prop 28.
This checklist puts those rules in plain language so you can check your plan before you commit next year’s dollars.
What’s inside the checklist
- The 5 §8820 arts disciplines (dance, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts) and the programs that do not qualify, such as science, robotics, culinary and pure coding.
- The 80/20 spend rule, the fewer-than-500-pupil small-LEA exemption, and the good-cause waiver.
- The vendor partnership rule: when an outside arts educational partnership program supplements your staff, and when it looks like supplanting.
- A 12-line audit-prep checklist covering site allocations, encumbrance windows, the board-approved annual report and resource coding.
- A vendor short-list checklist to use before you sign.
Get the PDF
It’s free, no sign-up needed.
Download the Prop 28 Compliance Checklist (PDF)
Related reading
- Prop 28 supplement-not-supplant: what the audit checks
- How to braid ELO-P and Prop 28 for arts enrichment
- The 2026-27 ELO-P Vendor Selection Guide
Want a second read on your Prop 28 plan?
Book a free 20-minute call. We will walk through which of your arts ideas fit §8820 and how a partnership program would be scoped, whether or not we ever work together.
Book the 20-Minute Prop 28 Call
Published by The Kodely Blog. Kodely runs hands-on K-8 enrichment across STEM, arts, entrepreneurship, sports and SEL for public school districts and private schools, in afterschool and summer settings. NYC SBS-certified M/WBE. Learn more at kodely.io.