While the 2020 Budget Act included a steep decline in general fund (GF) revenue and a $10 billion reduction in the Prop. 98 guarantee, the 2021 Budget Act rebounded with the largest single year growth in GF revenue and the Prop. 98 guarantee ever recorded. Prop. 98 funding dropped to about $71 billion in the 2020 budget, but then soared up to nearly $94 billion in the 2021 budget. This additional state revenue, along with considerable federal funding, allowed the state to create and expand a number of programs and services. This increase in funding, however, did not fully mitigate all the challenges facing LEAs as the Delta-variant of COVID-19 continued to disrupt educational programs and other essential services for children.

The 2021-22 Budget and subsequent clean-up legislation rewrote Independent Study law, leaving school administrators and teachers scrambling to retool long-standing operations in an already stressful start of a school year.