AB 617 Program Clean Community School Initiative Applications Open 2/10/26 - All Applications Must Be Received Via South Coast AQMD’s AB 617 CAP Incentives Online Grant Management System

Location:	California
Posted:	Apr 2, 2026
Due:	May 7, 2026
Agency:	South Coast Air Quality Management District
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	D - Automatic Data Processing and Telecommunication Services R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Solicitation No:	PA2026-06
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

Bid Number	Title	Bidder's Conference	Closing Date	Contact Person	Document
PA2026-06	AB 617 Program Clean Community School Initiative Applications Open 2/10/26 - All Applications Must Be Received Via South Coast AQMD’s AB 617 CAP Incentives Online Grant Management System www.aqmd.gov/cappincentives DUE DATE EXTENDED TO 5/7/26 - 5:00 PM	None	5/7/2026 05:00 PM	Pedro Piqueras (909) 396-3314 Uyen-Uyen Vo (909) 396-2238	PA2026-06 PA2026-06 Amendment

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PA2026-06

2026

PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT

AB 617 PROGRAM

CLEAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL INITIATIVE

SOUTH COAST AQMD PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT

PA2026-06

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) is pleased to announce

the availability of funds for the Assembly Bill (AB) 617 Clean Community School Initiative.

AB 617 was signed into California state law in July 2017 and provides a community-focused

action framework to improve air quality and reduce exposure to criteria air pollutants and toxic

air contaminates in communities most impacted by air pollution. The AB 617 Program requires

the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and air districts, including South Coast AQMD, to

engage with community members of heavily impacted communities to develop strategies to

address air quality issues, strategies which include incentives for both mobile and stationary

sources. As part of AB 617, CARB and air districts including South Coast AQMD, are

implementing the Community Air Protection Program, which is centered on community-

informed local emissions and exposure reduction actions to help advance air pollution control

efforts, which include targeted incentive funding to accelerate the deployment of cleaner

technologies.

Also, CARB’s Statewide Strategy and Implementation Guidance on the AB 617 Program,

Blueprint 2.0, further focuses AB 617 commitments to implement community emission and

monitoring plans for the communities most impacted by air pollution and to provide additional

program support for Consistently Nominated Communities (CNCs) and Disadvantaged

Communities (DACs) as defined by SB 535 as communities based on geographic,

socioeconomic, public health and environmental hazard criteria.

The AB 617 Clean Community School Initiative is an incentive-based program focusing solely

on public school-related projects located in CNCs and DACs that can provide emission

reductions of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Particulate Matter (PM10) and Reactive Organic Gases

(ROG) from heavy-duty vehicles and other stationary equipment operating in California as early

and as cost-effectively as possible. The AB 617 Clean Community School Initiative will provide

financial incentives to equipment owners and operators to replace in-use heavy-duty school

buses with zero-emission school buses, charging infrastructure and other equipment technologies

and projects that are used and associated with public school-related activities, that will achieve

emission reductions that are real, surplus, quantifiable and enforceable.

SECTION I – PURPOSE

The purpose of this Program Announcement (PA) is to solicit eligible projects that are solely

associated with public schools located in a CNC or DAC. The list of projects is highlighted in

Section III – Funding Category and will include:

PA2026-06

1. School Bus Replacement (for Zero-Emission School Buses)

2. Charging Infrastructure

At least $30 million is available under this solicitation from the AB 617 Community Air

Protection (CAP) Incentive Funds. Of the $30 million:

1. $20 million is allocated towards School Bus Replacement

2. $10 million is allocated towards Charging Infrastructure

South Coast AQMD reserves the right to reallocate funding amounts for each category

depending upon program demands and priorities. All applications will be evaluated based on the

criteria set forth in this PA, the Carl Moyer Program Guidelines, the Community Air Protection

Incentive Guidelines, and any subsequent updates and modifications/advisories to the guidelines.

This PA generally identifies the equipment categories, project options and eligibility criteria to

qualify for grant funding. Any tax obligation associated with an award is the responsibility of the

grantee.

In the preparation of this PA, the words “Applicant” and “Recipient” are used interchangeably.

South Coast AQMD staff will evaluate all qualified applications and make recommendations to

the Governing Board for final selection of project(s) to be funded. Eligible projects for School

Bus Replacements will be processed after the application due date and will be based on the cost-

effectiveness of NOx, PM10 and ROG emissions reduced and other criteria as described in

Section VI (Application Evaluation/Recipient Selection Criteria). South Coast AQMD will

prioritize the selection of projects to reduce emissions in and around CNCs and DACs and low-

income communities located within the South Coast AQMD jurisdiction. While South Coast

AQMD encourages all eligible applications, this means that some projects may not be selected

based on their domicile address, regardless of their cost-effectiveness.

For this PA, 100 percent of South Coast AQMD’s AB 617 CAPP Incentive funds will be

targeted for projects that meet the criteria of a disadvantaged or low-income community projects

or are located within a CNC. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)

in the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) has developed the California

Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool: CalEnviroScreen Version 4.0

(CalEnviroScreen 4.0). The CalEnviroScreen 4.0 tool will be used by South Coast AQMD to

identify projects that qualify as a DAC, which is defined as scoring in the top 25th percentile and

will strive to maximize the benefits to these communities. All applications will be assessed with

the CalEnviroScreen tool to identify and verify if the project will benefit a DAC within the 25th

percentile. This tool is available at: https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report/calenviroscreen-

South Coast AQMD’s AB 617 Clean Community School Initiative is administered locally

through the Community Engagement and Air Programs division. Applicants may only be offered

partial funding due to cost-effectiveness or funding category limitations (i.e., caps), and not all

applications that meet the cost-effectiveness criteria may be funded.

SECTION II – LEGAL UPDATES AND DEFINITIONS

PA2026-06

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Applicant must address any potential conflicts of interest with other clients affected by actions

performed by the firm on behalf of the South Coast AQMD. Although the applicant will not be

automatically disqualified by reason of work performed for such firms, the South Coast AQMD

reserves the right to consider the nature and extent of such work in evaluating the application.

Conflicts of interest will be screened on a case-by-case basis by the South Coast AQMD General

Counsel’s Office. Conflict of interest provisions of the state law, including the Political Reform

Act, may apply to work performed pursuant to this contract. An example of a conflict of interest

may occur when a consultant applying on behalf of an applicant for funding under the Carl

Moyer Program is also contracted with South Coast AQMD.

COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS

Applicants must comply with all federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, codes and regulations.

If the application is eligible for funding, all vehicles and/or equipment to be purchased, or

installed must be compliant with all applicable federal, state, and local air quality rules and

regulations, and will maintain compliance for the full agreement term.

COMPLIANCE WITH LABOR LAWS

If an application is deemed eligible, the applicant will be required to provide any labor violations

that have occurred within the last three years to be further considered for an award. If awarded,

the recipient will be required to notify South Coast AQMD in writing if they have been found by

a court or federal or state agency to have violated labor laws. As part of their annual report, the

recipient will complete a yearly certification in which they will either state that they have not

been found by a court or federal or state agency to have violated labor laws or, if such violations

have been found, the recipient will give South Coast AQMD details about those violations in the

certification. If the recipient has previously provided that information to the South Coast AQMD,

they will be required to reattach that previous notification to the certification and provide any

additional details about those violations that have not previously been provided. The recipient’s

yearly certification will be due at the same time as the annual progress reports. South Coast

AQMD reserves the right to terminate the agreement with a recipient that has been found to have

violated labor laws, and the recipient may be required to return any and all agreement funds, as

determined by South Coast AQMD. The recipient will also ensure that these requirements are

included in all subcontracts.

STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE

Government Code Section 12990 and California Administrative Code, Title II, Division 4,

Chapter 5, require employers to agree not to unlawfully discriminate against any employee or

applicant because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical handicap, medical

condition, marital status, sex, or age. A statement of compliance with this clause is included in

all South Coast AQMD contracts.

PA2026-06

ECONOMIC SANCTIONS (RUSSIA/UKRAINE)

On March 4, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Oder N-6-22 (EO) regarding

sanctions in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Applicants who are considered eligible

for Carl Moyer Program funds under this Program Announcement and received executed

contracts from South Coast AQMD, are obligated to comply with existing economic sanctions

imposed by the U.S. government in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

DEFINITIONS

Alternative Fuel

Alternative fuels include compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen

(H2), liquid propane gas (LPG) and electric technologies. Experimental technologies and fuels

will be referred to CARB for evaluation and possible eligibility in the Program.

Consistently Nominated Communities

Under the AB 617 Program, a consistently nominated community is a community identified as

heavily impacted by air quality burdens and have been either self-nominated or recommended by

community-based organizations or an air district since 2018 and are not part of the six (6) AB

617-designated, CARB-approved communities located within the South Coast AQMD

jurisdiction. These six AB 617-designated communities are:

• East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce (ELABHWC)

• San Bernardino, Muscoy (SBM)

• Wilmington, Carson, West Long Beach (WCWLB)

• Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV)

• Southeast Los Angeles (SELA)

• South Los Angeles (SLA)

Disadvantaged Communities

According to state law (SB 535 De Leon, Statutes of 2012), CalEPA designates these

communities based on geographic, socioeconomic, public health, and environmental hazard

criteria. These criteria may include, but are not limited to, areas disproportionately affected by

environmental pollution and other hazards and areas with concentration of people that are of low

income, high unemployment, low levels of home ownership, high rent burden, or low levels of

educational attainment. The CalEnviroScreen 4.0 tool will be used by South Coast AQMD to

identify projects that qualify as a DAC, which is defined as scoring in the top 25th percentile.

This tool is available at: https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report/calenviroscreen-40

Equipment Replacement

Equipment replacement means the replacement of an older vehicle or piece of equipment that

still has remaining useful life with zero-emission technologies. For equipment replacement

project types, applicants must have owned and operated the old (i.e., existing) equipment in

California for the previous two years from date of application.

South Coast AQMD Jurisdiction

The South Coast AQMD is the air pollution control agency for all of Orange County and the

urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. This area of 10,743

PA2026-06

square miles is home to approximately 17 million people–about half the population of the state

of California. It is the second most populated urban area in the United States and one of the

smoggiest. Visit http://www.aqmd.gov/nav/about/jurisdiction for more information.

SECTION III – FUNDING CATEGORY

Project equipment must be domiciled within the South Coast AQMD jurisdiction and operate a

minimum of 51% of the time within the boundaries of the South Coast AQMD jurisdiction.

Below are the specific project categories identified for funding under this PA:

School Buses

1. Applicant Eligibility

Private transportation providers that own their own school buses and are contracted with and

service public schools located within a CNC and/or DAC are eligible to apply.

2. Project Eligibility

Existing School Bus Requirements:

South Coast AQMD is seeking applications from private transportation providers (that

own their own school buses and are contracted with public school districts) to replace

older school buses with combustion engines and with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating

(GVWR) of over 8,501 lbs. At a minimum, applicants will need to provide information

identifying each of the school buses proposed for replacement, as well as documentation

demonstrating current DMV registration, title, continuous CHP certification for the past

two years, and photos of the school bus VIN, GVWR, and engine tag. The school buses

proposed for replacement must be dismantled as required by the Carl Moyer Program

Guidelines.

Table 1, below, provides a summary of the key eligibility requirements for the existing school

buses proposed for replacement.

Table 1: Existing School Bus Requirements

1) Existing school bus must be diesel, CNG, or propane fueled

2) The existing school bus must have GVWR greater than 8,501 lbs.

3) The existing school bus must be currently registered with the DMV

4) Must be compliant with CARB’s Truck and Bus Regulation

5) Existing school buses must have a current, valid CHP certificate at the time

of application

6) Must have maintained continuous CHP Safety Certificates for at least the

past 2 years*

7) Must be willing to crush/dismantle existing school bus once replaced

* If lapse in the CHP safety certification exists, applicant must submit additional

information/documentation as determined by South Coast AQMD staff to demonstrate regular

use of the school bus.

All existing combustion school buses proposed for replacement must be in current use. The

This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.

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AB 617 Program Clean Community School Initiative Applications Open 2/10/26 - All Applications Must Be Received Via South Coast AQMD’s AB 617 CAP Incentives Online Grant Management System

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