Certification Box for Construction Projects

Use this DSA Certification Box link to access approval of plans, certified and uncertified school construction projects.

Note: Some web browsers do not fully support the sort feature within the Certification Box. In these cases, the sort option set on the first screen will carry the command to the subsequent folders.

APPROVAL OF PLANS

1. Click on the link in Access to Certification Box above to access the Certification Box web application.
2. Select the Approval of Plans folder.
3. Select the regional office (Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland) for the county in which the project is located. If you are unsure which is the relevant regional office, please check the California DSA Regions Map.  
4. After selecting the regional office, you will see a list of PDF files.
5. Projects are in numerical order.

CERTIFIED & UNCERTIFIED FOLDERS

1. Click on the link in Access to Certification Box above to access the Certification Box web application.
2. Next, select the regional office (Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland) for the county in which the project is located. If you are unsure which is the relevant regional office, please check the California DSA Regions Map.  
3. After selecting the regional office, you will see a list of school districts for that region.  
4. After selecting the school district, you can select the campus name.  
5. Projects are categorized as either Occupied Without Certification or Certified Projects.  Select the appropriate category.
6. A list of all project numbers missing documentation will appear in the Occupied without Certification folder for the selected campus. (The process to complete the list of archived projects is still ongoing. Contact DSA.)

1. To request access to upload certification documents to a DSA Certification Box for a project that is OCCUPIED WITHOUT CERTIFICATION, complete and submit a DSA Certification Box Access Request.

   a. If you need access to upload documents for a project under construction, please contact the regional office in which the project is located using this link: Contact Us (ca.gov)
   
2. An electronic invitation containing instructions to set up a Box account will be sent via email. Please refer to the DSABox External Library for additional information.
    

Note: some older projects have been realigned to other school districts, renamed, or closed. In such instances, these projects still require certification by the state.

For detailed information on the re-examination process, please refer to PR 13-02: Project Certification Process (PDF).

RE-EXAMINATION FEE

No fee is required if a re-examination request is received within 12 months of the date of the DSA 301-N Notification.

A fee is required on a re-examination request if received 12 months after the date on the DSA 301-N Notification. Any subsequent request will require a fee. Fees are based on the following construction cost schedule:

• $500 re-examination fee — Projects up to $5 million

• $750 re-examination fee — Projects between $5 million and $50 million

• $1000 re-examination fee — Projects higher than $50 million

REQUEST DSA RE-EXAMINE A PROJECT

Requesting DSA to re-examine the project for certification requires the following actions: 

• Form DSA 302 must be completed, including checking "This is a Request for Re-examination."
  • The form must then be uploaded to the DSA Certification Box. 
  • A copy of the form must be sent electronically (email) to the appropriate DSA regional office as follows: 
  • Region 01: DSACertificationOakland@dgs.ca.gov
  • Region 02: DSACertificationSacramento@dgs.ca.gov
  • Region 03: DSACertificationLosAngeles@dgs.ca.gov
  • Region 04: DSACertificationSanDiego@dgs.ca.gov
  • If a re-examination fee is required, there are four options for payment.
  1. Complete payment by electronic check or credit card (instructions are in procedure PR 20-02: Online Payments for Plan Review Filing Fees, Plan/Field Review Fee Invoices, and Project Certification Re-Examination Fees). Email the receipt along with a copy of the form DSA 302: Response to DSA 301-P Notification of Requirements for Certification.
  2. Mail the fee along with a copy of the form DSA 302.
  3. Deliver the check to the appropriate DSA Regional Office along with a copy of the form DSA 302.
  4. Complete payment by electronic check or credit card through a third-party software run by Fiserv at DSA Filing, Invoice & Re-Exam Fees and email the receipt along with a copy of the form DSA 302.
   

  Note: Do not send an email to the regional office until all re-examination fees have been paid and required documents have been uploaded to the DSA Certification Box.