Butte County Office Of Education

Butte County Office of Education Butte County Superintendent of Schools Division is a U.S. state government educational entity headquartered in Oroville, California, that acts as a grant recipient to federal education and behavioral health agencies. The organization receives 91% of its federal awards as a sub-recipient through the California Department of Education and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), with minimal direct prime grant activity.

The vendor's federal footprint centers on K-12 education and mental health funding flowing through California's education bureaucracy. Its top customer by award count is the Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (35 awards), followed by the Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (11 awards) and the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (3 awards). The National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition each account for 2 awards. These five customer agencies represent 93% of recent awards. The organization's sub-recipient work spans Title I school improvement grants, special education (IDEA) funding, English Language Learner (ELL) programs, pandemic relief (COVID-19 response funds), homeless youth education assistance, child care development block grants, and community learning center enrichment programs — all flowing down from California as the intermediate grantee.

Butte County Office of Education holds two direct prime federal grants. The more recent is a $970,000 four-year project grant from SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CFDA 93.532), awarded September 30, 2026, for the Butte Resilience Initiative (BRI), a behavioral health system embedded in 30 school sites across 9 local educational agencies in Butte County. BRI partners with Innovative Strategies Group and Feather River Tribal Health to deploy licensed and associate clinicians using the School Wellness Integration Model (SWIM), transitioning clinical services from grant-funded positions to Medi-Cal billing for sustainability over a four-year performance period running through September 29, 2030. The initiative will serve an estimated 3,688 K-12 students and staff in Year 1, scaling to 10,698 by Year 4 (cumulative 29,066 unduplicated individuals), addressing a region where half of county K-12 students report chronic sadness or hopelessness (compared to 37% statewide) and the suicide death rate runs 60 percent above state average. The second prime grant is a July 2024 award from the National Endowment for the Arts for staff salaries and administrative costs supporting a collective impact initiative focused on rural school districts in Northern California, with performance ending June 30, 2025.

Activity has grown consistently over the past three years — two awards in 2021, four in 2023, eighteen in 2024, nineteen in 2025, and thirteen through September 2026. Combined dollars obligated across all 57 awards total $71 million. Sub-recipient awards flow primarily through the California Department of Education (evidenced by multiple awards for Title I improvement, IDEA special education, ELL, COVID-19 response, homeless education, school breakfast, and community learning center programs), with one notable sub-award under San Diego State University Foundation (December 2025) for a Co-PI role managing grant administration and project activities across multiple county offices of education, including Butte County Office of Education, San Diego County Office of Education, Orange County Department of Education, and Inyo County Office of Education.