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Sacramento City Unified School District said Thursday it made an error in its Proposition 28 spending report to the state and submitted a revised report showing it had spent its full allocation.
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The statement came after scrutiny over the district’s initial report, which indicated it had left unspent $1.8 million out of $6.3 million in state funding for school arts and music programs. It was the largest reported amount of unspent funding among California school districts.
Prop. 28 provides annual funding to school districts to expand arts and music education. Districts have up to three school years to spend each allocation, and any unspent money then reverts to the California Department of Education the following year.
“Upon discovering an error in how the district originally reported this spending, Sacramento City Unified amended its Prop. 28 funding report to the California Department of Education,” SCUSD wrote in a press release.
“The corrected expenditures report confirms that the district spent the full allocation from the state to support arts education for students and does not need to return any unspent funds.”
According to the district’s chief business officer Gerardo Castillo, Sac City Unified’s initial report included only its 2025-26 expenditures and left out spending from 2024-25. “It’s a clerical error,” Castillo said.
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Scott Roark, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education, confirmed that the district had submitted the revised report Thursday. The department does not approve or sign off on the reports, but independent annual audits determine whether the funds were spent as required by law, he added.
Prop. 28 allocates 1% of the state’s Prop. 98 funding to K-12 arts and music education. Districts generally must spend at least 80% of their allocation on arts and music staff, while using the rest for training, supplies, materials and arts partnerships.
Through the Prop. 28 funding, Sac City Unified said it has added 32.4 full-time-equivalent arts positions.
Sacramento City Unified faces a $222 million structural deficit, and its fiscal overseers have called for a “feasible” long-term plan to address the crisis.
This story was originally published October 22, 2026 at 4:32 PM with the headline “Sacramento City Unified says it mistakenly reported $1.8M in arts funds as unspent.”
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