School districts: equipment inventory.

Assembly Member Ward's proposal to modify California's school equipment inventory requirements would raise the minimum value threshold for tracked items from $500 to $1,500, while establishing an automatic adjustment mechanism to maintain the threshold's relevance over time.

Under the measure, school districts would continue maintaining detailed inventory records for equipment exceeding the new threshold, including each item's description, identification number, acquisition date, location, and original cost. The bill adds a requirement to document disposal information and permits districts to use reasonable estimates when original purchase costs are unknown.

The legislation tasks the Superintendent of Public Instruction with calculating biennial adjustments to the threshold based on inflation factors specified in the Education Code. These updated values, rounded to the nearest $50, would be published on the Department of Education's website to ensure districts have current compliance information. The measure maintains existing requirements for districts to use historical inventory systems, audit trace systems, or other state board-authorized tracking methods.