The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - Funds Initiatives to Improve Coordination in Workforce Development. The 2025-26 budget includes funding for two initiatives, one in the LWDA and one in the Government Operations Agency (GovOps), to improve coordination between the state ’s workforce development and education agencies.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081/

Trends in CalWORKs: Participant Characteristics

Jun 16, 2025 - States May Face Financial Penalties for Failing to Meet WPR Requirements. Federal financial penalties for failing to meet the WPR requirements can start at 5 percent of a state’s annual TANF grant. Penalties can increase (up to a maximum penalty of 21 percent) each successive year a state fails to meet the requirements.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5057

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Federal CalWORKs Pilot

Feb 21, 2025 - Generally, if an individual is ineligible for CalWORKs, other members of his or her family (including children) who themselves meet eligibility requirements can receive aid. Grants Based on Number of Eligible Family Members, Not Overall Family Size.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4978

Preliminary Assessment of Significant Changes to State's Technology Project Approval and Oversight Processes

Apr 29, 2025 - New PDL Process Could Improve Technology Project Outcomes … Based on our preliminary assessment of the new PDL process, we acknowledge that PDL —in concept —could improve the outcomes of GenAI (and potentially other) technology projects.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5034

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - This improves the budget ’s bottom line. School and Community College Spending Higher by $5   Billion. Reflecting these higher revenue estimates, the administration ’s estimates of constitutionally required General Fund spending on K ‑14 education is $4.7  billion higher than our November estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2025-26 Budget: In-Home Supportive Services

Mar 6, 2025 - The administration has noted that because undocumented individuals remain ineligible to be IHSS providers, and a majority of IHSS recipients receive services from a family member, recipients with undocu mented family members may have a more difficult time securing an eligible provider.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5009

The 2025-26 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 19, 2025 - As shown in Figure 3, the Governor ’s budget proposes over $1.5  billion in total funds ($137  million General Fund) for other CDSS-administered food assistance programs and pilots in 2025-26 (some federal or state food programs, like the California Department of Education ’s Universal Meals Program, are administered by other departments).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4971

The 2025-26 Budget: Child Welfare

Feb 13, 2025 - Funds must be used for services/items that meet an assessed need and must (1)  promote inclusion in the community, (2)  increase safety in the home environment, and/or (3)  facilitate age-appropriate participation or autonomy in making decisions that improve physical or behavioral health outcomes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4962

The 2025-26 Budget: The California State Payroll System IT Project

Mar 7, 2025 - Past examples of such projects include the Financial Information System for California and underscore the need for signific ant and thorough planning and execution of change management activities from the outset of the project.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5011

The 2025-26 Budget: CWS-CARES [Publication Details]

Mar 5, 2025 - This post provides our analysis of the administration’s 2025-26 proposal for the Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System information technology project.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5006