(a) The board may approve, in whole or in part, an application submitted by a school district under Section 17017 or 17020 in an amount not exceeding the amount applied for as the board may deem appropriate.

(b) The board may, upon approval of the application, in whole or in part, and subsequently from time to time, make apportionments of project funding not exceeding in the aggregate the total amount determined by the board under subdivision (a) for the portion or portions of the project for which the board determines the district is ready to proceed. Subsequent to the board’s approval of a project, any requirement imposed by the board that the compliance of the project with building cost or area standards and related guidelines adopted by the board be established as a condition of the apportionment of funds under this chapter shall be satisfied, as to a project for a self-certifying district, by the certification by the district of that compliance. In addition, the board shall not require that estimates of average daily attendance be updated as to that project more often than once every 12 months subsequent to the board’s approval of the project. The self-certifying district shall maintain documentation of the compliance certified pursuant to this subdivision as may be required by the board, and that compliance shall be subject to subsequent audit as the board may direct.

(c) Whenever a district files an application, the board shall require the district to submit to the board and the State Department of Education a five-year plan for construction and rehabilitation of school facilities, and to obtain the written approval of the department that the plan complies with standards that are established by the department for this purpose to ensure that the applicant district has adequately anticipated its school facilities needs and identified funding sources as necessary to meet those needs. The plan may be adjusted to reflect adjusted growth targets.

(d) The board shall not approve any application under this chapter after January 1, 1990, unless accompanied by a study examining the feasibility of implementing in the district a year-round multitrack educational program that is designed to increase pupil capacity in the district or in overcrowded high school attendance areas by at least 20 percent.

(e) The board may waive subdivision (d) or the requirements of Section 17017.7, or both, if a school district demonstrates that these requirements will result in a particular educational or financial hardship to the district. Further, the board shall waive subdivision (d), if it finds that there is clear hardship to a district due to declining enrollment or no growth.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 277, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative January 1, 1998.)