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Playing cards, quote attributed to Jack London: Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.

SDLA Compliance Resource

Complete Annual Facility Inspections and Good-Repair Ratings

An implementation guide for inspecting each school with the Facility Inspection Tool, correcting deficiencies, and reporting good-repair status in the SARC.

  • Facilities & Operations
  • Health & Safety
  • LCAP & Accountability
Date(s)Annually, scheduled locally so results are available for SARC preparation (SARCs are due February 1, 2027); deficiencies corrected promptly
Applies toSchool districts and county offices

In Plain Language: Schools must be kept in 'good repair' as defined in EC 17002. Districts inspect each school with the state Facility Inspection Tool (FIT), which rates systems such as roofs, restrooms, and safety as good, fair, or poor. The ratings and planned repairs go into the School Accountability Report Card, and facilities conditions are part of the Williams complaint process and county site visits.

Why this matters

FIT results appear publicly in the SARC and drive Williams complaints and county visits. Poor ratings without a repair plan are a facilities-funding and public-trust risk.

Joint ownership

District: facilities/maintenance inspects and repairs; the SARC coordinator reports. County office: visits certain schools and checks facilities data.

From site inspections to SARC-ready good-repair ratings: the SDLA ITO workflow

This workflow turns building inspections into public, actionable ratings. This SDLA ITO (Input, Transformation, Output) graphic shows how the inputs become the outputs in 9 steps.

SDLA ITO: 9 steps. Input: facility Inspection Tool; work-order history; site walkthrough photos. Transformation: inspect each school; create repair work orders; compute overall ratings. Output: completed FIT reports; sARC facility section; repair plan.
Read down each column, then move to the next: Input identifies what to collect; Transformation covers inspect each school; create repair work orders; compute overall ratings; Output delivers completed FIT reports; sARC facility section; repair plan. Inspect annually in time for SARCs due February 1, 2027.

Open the full-size workflow graphic

Implementation workflow

  1. Early fallPlan.Schedule inspections for every school.
  2. October–NovemberInspect.Complete FIT inspections and photos.
  3. ImmediatelyRepair.Fix urgent deficiencies and log work orders.
  4. December–JanuaryReport.Load ratings and repair plans into SARCs.
  5. By February 1Publish.Publish SARCs with current facility data.

Facility inspection checklist

  • Every school inspected with the current FIT.
  • Urgent deficiencies corrected promptly.
  • Ratings and repair plans in each SARC.
  • Reports retained for Williams and county visits.

Official guidance and help

Source review completed October 25, 2026. Verify the current FIT version and your county office's site-visit schedule.