Williams Oversight Training Materials

Updated Williams Resources.

Posted: September 2, 2022 (Last reviewed 7/2025)
Download Integrated Process Document (ver. 9.2.2022)

Posted: October 31, 2025
Download Update to Williams Inspection Timelines (Assembly Bill 927)

Integrated Process.

For County Office Documentation Review and Site Visit Validation (as outlined in Education Code Section 1240 based on Williams Settlement Legislation)

Williams Review Process Overview.

1.Overview

2.Identification & Outreach

3.Orientation/Training

4.Documentation Collection and Review

5.Required Site Validation Visits

6.Reporting Requirements

Instructional Materials Insufficiencies
Emergency Facilities
Quarterly Reporting
Annual Report (to district governing boards, county board of education, and county board of supervisors).

Timeline (*Mandated).

N/A
March-April
May-July
May-August
First four weeks of school

5 business days of the review (*10 business days for counties with 200 or more schools)•Immediate notification
October, January, April, July
Submitted for the regularly scheduled November board meeting•

Williams Oversight.

Education Code Section 1240 requires the County Superintendent of each county to annually present a report describing the state of Williams-monitored schools in the county including observations while visiting the schools. The statute allows the county superintendents to conduct their reviews of instructional materials and facilities in single or multiple visits upon consideration of factors such as: cost-effectiveness, disruption to the school site, deadlines, and availability of qualified reviewers.

Learn more

Overview

Education Code Section 1240 requires the County Superintendent of each county to annually present a report to the Governing Board of each school district under his/her jurisdiction, the County Board of Education of his/her county, and the County Board of Supervisors of his/her county, describing the state of Williams-monitored schools in the county including observations while visiting the schools. The visits must be conducted at least annually.1 At least 25 percent of the visits must be unannounced. The statute allows the county superintendents to conduct their reviews of instructional materials and facilities in single or multiple visits upon consideration of factors such as: cost-effectiveness, disruption to the school site, deadlines, and availability of qualified reviewers.

The primary objective of the County Superintendent’s or the County Superintendent’s designee(s) visits will be to determine the status of the following:

The sufficiency of textbooks and instructional materials.
The condition of facilities that pose emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils.
The accuracy of data reported on the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) with respect to the availability of sufficient textbooks and instructional materials, and the safety, cleanliness, and adequacy of school facilities including good repair.

“Sufficient” textbooks or instructional materials, means that each pupil, including English Learners, has a standards-aligned textbook or instructional materials, or both, to use in class and to take home. Sufficient textbooks or instructional materials do not include photocopied sheets from a textbook if the copies are being used to address a shortage. The materials may be in a digital format as long as each pupil, at a minimum, has and can access the same materials in the class and to take home, as all other pupils in the same class or course in the school district and has the ability to use and access them at home. (Section 60119 (c)(1).)

Legislature expanded the definition of “technology-based materials” with the adoption of Senate Bill (SB) 820 (Chapter 110, Statutes of 2020) to state that “technology-based materials” are a component of the “instructional materials” referenced in Sections 60119 and 1240, which includes the software and hardware (e.g., laptops and devices to access the internet), needed to access the materials (Section 60010(m). This change, accordingly, has implications for county offices’ sufficiency reviews under Williams insomuch as where the course materials require access to online content, county offices are now required to also ensure a sufficiency of laptops and devices so students can access the materials in class and at home via the internet.

The term “good repair” is defined to mean a facility that is maintained in a manner that assures that it is clean, safe, and functional as determined pursuant to a school facility inspection and evaluation instrument developed by the Office of Public School Construction. (Section 17002(d)(1).) The Facility Inspection Tool (FIT) is intended to assist school districts and county offices in performing these functions. The FIT Guidebook (most recently updated in 2017) was developed to supplement the FIT and identifies examples of deficiencies and best practices for every FIT category.

Resources:

1.1 ACLU_Statewide_Impact_Report_2007.pdf

1.2 Williams_Progress_Update_May_2009.pdf

1.3 Williams_v_California_Lessons_From_Nine_Years_Of_Implementation.pdf

*Hereinafter, all statutory references are to the California Education Code unless otherwise stated.

Orientation/Training: Establishing Expectations Through Communication with District and Charter Administrators and School Sites

At the beginning of the process, the county superintendent, or designee, should meet with LEA and site representatives to inform them of the Williams legislative requirements and emphasize that this is a collaborative process that follows a self-study/validation format. Through training or another form of orientation, the county office of education staff will inform LEA and school site staff about the information and documentation that will be required during the review and provide a timeline of events and an overview of the visitation process. The County Superintendent will request an LEA liaison and a site liaison to be appointed. All communications and requests will flow to an identified county liaison.

The County Liaison and LEA/Site Liaisons should provide orientation/training(s) for the following district/school representatives:

District or Charter School “Williams” liaison,
District or Charter School SARC designee
District or Charter School Curriculum designee
District or Charter School Facilities designee
Site Administrator
Site Liaison
Site Facilities designee

Resources:

3.1_School/LEA Checklist 2022

3.2_Site Inspection Protocol_2022

3.3_SARC_Data_Verification_Tool.pdf

Identification & Outreach

Assembly Bill (AB) 599 (Chapter 668, Statutes of 2021) revised Section 1240 and requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to identify the list of Williams-monitored schools (including charter schools) beginning with the 2021-22 fiscal year, again in 2022-23 fiscal year, and then every three fiscal years thereafter, during the same fiscal year that schools are identified for comprehensive support and improvement or additional targeted support and improvement pursuant to Every Student Succeeds Act (Public Law 114-95) or identified as low performing under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-10). The list of schools will be compiled as follows:

All schools (excluding Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) schools) identified for comprehensive support and improvement and additional targeted support and improvement pursuant to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (Public Law 114-95).
All schools where 15 percent or more of the teachers are holders of any authorization that is a lesser certification than a preliminary or clear California teacher credential.*
The list of schools excludes alternative schools defined in Section 52052(d) and other schools accepted for participation in the DASS program.

Lists shall be used for inspections beginning the following fiscal year. Lists are anticipated to be established near the beginning of the calendar year for use beginning in Fall of the following fiscal year. The County Superintendent or designee should reach out to all county-identified local educational agencies (LEAs) once a list is released from the California Department of Education.

Resources:

2.1 Williams Case 2022 – AB 599 – Why, Who, How, When

2.2 CDE Williams Case Schools Identified for Monitoring Office Hours 4.16.22

* AB 1505 offered flexibility to teachers in non-core / non-college prep courses to be fully credentialed beginning 2025. As a result, if no other identifying criteria are met, it is possible that a school will not be identified on the list having more than 15% of teachers not certified with a preliminary or clear.

Documentation Collection and Review

Documentation Collection and Review should be discussed via orientation/training. The school(s)/LEA(s) will be informed of all the requirements and documentation that they need to complete prior to a county office team visit to the school. For the Facilities and Instructional Materials Reviews, LEAs are requested to have all documentation completed and submitted to the County Office Liaison in a timely fashion. The classroom visits are intended to evaluate and validate what the school site has already determined.

The school(s)/LEA(s) should maintain a copy of the following documents for the administrative record. The County Superintendent will also maintain a copy of these documents from which they will prepare required reports.

A. General Documentation:

Title	Description	District Sites	Charter Schools
A.1	Statement from each school confirming that they have posted classroom notices and adopted required Uniform Complaint Procedures for instructional materials, facilities, and teacher vacancies or misassignments.	X	n/a
A.2	Master calendar for the first 4 weeks of school which will help to identify dates on which visits would be most or least productive (for example, testing dates, field trips, school assemblies, and for high school, dates when there will be science labs occurring.)	X	X
A.3	Copy of the most current SARC for each Williams eligible school.	X	X
A.4	School map with room numbers identified and grade level.	X	X
A.5	For elementary schools, general bell schedule.	X	X
A.6	For middle and high schools, a Master Schedule which shows room numbers, course titles and number of sections for the four core areas, world language, health, 9-12 science laboratory courses, and which periods taught.	X	X
A.7	Completed Planning for Site Visit document: 3.3_Planning_for_Site_Visits_2022	X	X

B. Facilities Documentation:

Title	Description	District Sites	Charter Schools	Comments	Documentation Received (Y/N)
B.1	Completed School Facility Inspection Tool (FIT) for each monitored school site 4B.2_Facility_Inspection_Tool_SAB_Appr… 4B.3_cash-fit-guidebook-oct-2017	X	X

C. Instructional Materials Documentation:

C1. Board Adoption

Title	Description	District Sites	Charter Schools
C.1	Board resolution of sufficiency of approved standards-aligned instructional materials (Note: this link initiates a CDE doc download) This is required in the four core areas: English Language Arts, including the English language development component of an adopted program, Mathematics, History/Social Science, and Science; 9-12 science laboratory equipment; and the elective courses of world language and health for middle and high schools. If the governing board determines that there are insufficient textbooks and/or instructional materials, it shall inform the public by identifying in the text of the public resolution, the percentage of pupils in each school in each subject area and the reasons that they are lacking sufficient materials.	X	n/a
C.1.1	Board resolution of sufficiency of approved standards-aligned instructional materials (Note: this link initiates a CDE doc download) This is required in the four core areas: English Language Arts, including the English language development component of an adopted program, Mathematics, History/Social Science, and Science; 9-12 science laboratory equipment; and the elective courses of world language and health for middle and high schools. If the governing board determines that there are insufficient textbooks and/or instructional materials, it shall inform the public by identifying in the text of the public resolution, the percentage of pupils in each school in each subject area and the reasons that they are lacking sufficient materials.	X	n/a
C.1.1 above.		X	n/a
C.1.2	(K-8) Board minutes which confirm the action described in C.1.1 above.	X	n/a
C.1.3	C.1.3 (9-12) Board minutes which identify the standards-aligned instructional materials for each course in the four core areas, world language and health consistent with the content and cycles of the curriculum frameworks adopted by the state board. Schools will need to include edition information.	X	n/a

C2. Instructional Materials Sufficiency:

Documentation needed from school/LEA to determine if sufficient quantities of approved standards-aligned materials have been purchased (and re-supplied) in each of the four core areas (English language arts (ELA), English language Development (ELD), Math, Science and Social Studies), and at middle and high school levels for world language and health courses.

Title	Description	District Sites	Charter Schools
C.2	Documentation needed from school/LEA to determine if sufficient quantities of approved standards-aligned materials have been purchased (and re-supplied) in each of the four core areas (English language arts (ELA), English language Development (ELD), Math, Science and Social Studies), and at middle and high school levels for world language and health courses.
C.2.1	By grade level, and number of EL’s in each classroom	X	X
C.2.2	C.2.2. A current inventory by grade level (elementary) and by course (secondary) including specific programs such as Dual-language signed off by the Site Administrator and the Superintendent. If, after reviewing the initial inventory, potential insufficiencies are identified, it’s recommended that COE teams request further documentation that may include purchase orders. 4C2.2_SURVEY_Elementary_Self-Contain… 4C2.2_HS_INSTRUCTIONAL_MATERIA… 4C2.2_Verification_Current_Inventory_Form…	X	X
C.2.3	For secondary schools, by each course in the four core areas, world language and health courses. (high schools should submit a Student Information System Report and Master Schedule)	X	X
C.2.4	Documentation or summary of digital materials process (if applicable) for Williams compliance 4C2.4_Sample_Digital_Process_and Proced… 4C2.4_Sample_Digital_Opt-out_Form
C.2.5 Enrollment figures	By total school By grade level, and number of EL’s in each classroom - 4C2.5_Elementary&Middle_Schoo… For secondary schools, by each course in the four core areas, world language and health courses. (high schools should submit a Student Information System Report and Master Schedule)	X	X

C3. Science Laboratory Sufficiency:

Documentation needed from school/LEA to determine availability of sufficient 9-12 science laboratory equipment in locally identified 9-12 science lab courses as appropriate. There are sufficient quantities of science lab equipment for identified courses so that each enrolled pupil has sufficient lab equipment available to use in class. This statement assumes that working in lab groups is acceptable.

Title	Description	District Sites	Charter Schools
C.3	Documentation needed from school/LEA to determine availability of sufficient 9-12 science laboratory equipment in locally identified 9-12 science lab courses as appropriate. There are sufficient quantities of science lab equipment for identified courses so that each enrolled pupil has sufficient lab equipment available to use in class. This statement assumes that working in lab groups is acceptable.
C.3.1	A list of science courses in which lab equipment is locally required.	X	n/a
C.3.2	A school list of the specific science equipment available by each designated grade 9- 12 course for students to use in the science laboratory classroom; classroom where equipment is available; amount of the equipment purchased; number of sections offered in each course; periods when offered and typical class size. 4C3.2_Science_Inventory_Template_June2022	X	n/a

Validation Visits

Once the county superintendent has received the required documentation, the county office team will develop a schedule for school visits in the county consisting of 75 percent announced visits and 25 percent unannounced. The county superintendent should provide the calendar for the announced visits to each school district and affected school site. The actual visits to the school site will be used to clarify any questions and to observe the condition of school repair and maintenance and the sufficiency of the instructional materials.

Please note: Section 1240 requires that the visits only cause minimal disruption to the operation of the school and that all individuals conducting the visits be fingerprinted, per current law requirements. The statute allows the county superintendents to conduct their reviews of instructional materials and facilities in single or multiple visits upon consideration of factors such as: cost-effectiveness, disruption to the school site, deadline, and availability of qualified reviewers.

Recommended Visitation of Classrooms: COEs will randomly sample classrooms at a level to be considered statistically valid. All grade levels are to be visited; and for instructional materials in the case of year round schools with various schedule tracks, all tracks are to be visited. It is important that the visits occur when students are in the classroom, particularly for instructional materials.

The following visitation protocol percentages are minimums and more classes may be visited if necessary.

For K-8: 25 percent of the classrooms will be visited with the minimum threshold that each grade level will be visited as well as all restrooms, ancillary support areas, multipurpose room (MPR), gym, auditorium, and cafeteria.

For 7-12: (Secondary Level) Since the visitation is focused on courses rather than classrooms, there are many more opportunities for visits. COE teams will visit 20 percent of all possible sections of courses in each required Williams subject area (see sample 5.1 Secondary Visitation Worksheet). With this method, not all of the courses offered in a required Williams subject area would necessarily be visited, but all required subject areas will be visited. The facilities review will also ensure that 20 percent of the classrooms are visited as well as other areas where students and staff are present (all restrooms, ancillary support areas, MPR, gym, auditorium, and cafeteria).

As the schedule of visits is being developed, please also consider the following:

Visit special designated classrooms such as special education classrooms and bilingual or sheltered classrooms.
For middle and high schools, visit Algebra I classes.
For middle and high schools, make sure that 20 percent of the classrooms are being visited to meet facility guidelines

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS*

A. Instructional Materials Deficiencies (Section 1240(i)(4)(C))

If the county superintendent determines that a school does not have sufficient textbooks or instructional materials, the county superintendent shall prepare a report that identifies and documents the areas or instances of noncompliance, provide a copy of the report to the school district, and provide the district with the opportunity to remedy the deficiency. If the deficiency is not remedied by the second month of the school year, the county superintendent shall request that the California Department of Education immediately purchase textbooks or instructional materials for the school. The funds necessary for the purchase are considered a loan to the school district to be repaid based upon an agreed-upon schedule with the SPI, or by deducting an amount from the district’s next principal apportionment or other apportionment of state funds.

B. Emergency or Urgent Facilities Conditions (Section 1240(c)(2)(G))

If a county superintendent discovers any facilities condition that “poses an emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils or staff”, we recommend that the county superintendent immediately notify the principal. The county superintendent may, among other things, do any of the following: 1) return to the school to verify repairs, 2) prepare a report within 30 days of visit documenting instances of emergency facility non-compliance if district does not provide evidence of successful repairs and may provide it to the district governing board, 3) post the report on the county’s website.

C. Quarterly Report Requirements (Section 1240(c)(2)(C))

Each quarter, the county superintendent reports the results of county office visits to Williams-monitored schools related to instructional materials and facilities conditions, as well as reviews of teacher misassignments and vacancies to the district board at a regularly scheduled meeting. County superintendents may report, at their option, uniform complaint data received from school districts. Quarterly reports should be submitted in October, January, April and July.

If no visits or reviews are conducted in a quarter, the quarterly report must report that fact.

6.2_Quarterly_Report_Template_ Four_Required_Areas_and_Optional_Reporting_UCP_…

D. Annual Report Requirements EC 1240(c)(2)(A)(iii)

The County Superintendent must submit an annual report at a regularly scheduled November board meeting that describes the state of schools in the county to the:

Local governing board of each school district under the jurisdiction of the county superintendent;
County board of education;
and County board of supervisors.

The Annual Report must include the determinations for each school made by the county superintendent or designee using a standardized template regarding the following:

Student access to sufficient standards-aligned instructional materials in four core subjects (ELA, English Language Development (ELD), mathematics, history/social science, and science), world language, health, and science laboratory equipment, as appropriate.
Compliance with facilities maintenance requirements, including determination of the condition of facilities that “pose an emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of pupils or staff” and facilities in “good repair.”
Accuracy of data reported on annual School Accountability Report Card related tosufficiency of instructional materials and condition of facilities, including whether in“good repair.”
Teacher misassignments and teacher vacancies.

Resources:

6.3_Annual_Report_Template_for_Four_Required_Areas

6.4_Annual_Report_Template_Limited_Scope_Four_Required_Areas

6.5_Sample_Quarterly_Annual_Report_Summary_Tables

*Section 1240 outlines the following requirements for reporting; however the language is specific to school districts and not charter schools.

Updated Williams Resources.

Integrated Process.

Williams Review Process Overview.

Timeline (*Mandated).

Williams Oversight.

Overview

Orientation/Training: Establishing Expectations Through Communication with District and Charter Administrators and School Sites

Identification & Outreach

Documentation Collection and Review

Validation Visits

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS*

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