A special education local plan area submitting a local plan, pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 56195.1, which includes all of the school districts located in the county or counties submitting the plan, except those participating in a countywide special education local plan area located in an adjacent county, and which meets the criteria for special education local plan areas with small populations set forth in Section 56212, is eligible to request that designation in its local plan application.

This section shall become operative on July 1, 1998.

An eligible special education local plan area, which submits a local plan under the provisions of Section 56211, may request designation as a necessary small special education local plan area if its total reported units of average daily attendance in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, is less than 15,000, and if it includes all of the school districts located in the county or counties participating in the local plan, except those districts participating in a countywide special education local plan area located in an adjacent county that also meets the criteria of this section.

This section shall become operative on July 1, 1998.

For the 2020–21 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, a necessary small special education local plan area, as described in Section 56212, shall receive, in addition to the funding it received in the 2019–20 fiscal year, an additional funding amount equal to the sum of both of the following: