Education trailer bill fleshes out LCFF, LCAPs
Published: October 1, 2013
Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 97, the education trailer bill that provides technical and clarifying changes arising from the earlier budget trailer bills and budget, on Sept. 26. The K-12 related portions of the trailer bill deal primarily with the Local Control Funding Formula and the Local Control and Accountability Plans that school districts and county offices of education are required to develop as a means of involving stakeholders in the design of goals, actions and use of funds in order to improve student outcomes. The Web page www.csba.org/LCFF explains those provisions in detail.
This analysis focuses on new LCFF and LCAP developments from the trailer bill. A more extensive version, citing specific Education Code changes, giving other details and addressing additional trailer bill changes, is at www.csba.org/LegislativeNews.
Budget adoptions and LCAP: The trailer bill amends Education Code to specify that a district budget shall not be adopted or approved by a county superintendent of schools before an LCAP (or LCAP update) is approved. If a county superintendent disapproves a district budget solely because he/she has not approved the LCAP (or LCAP update), the county superintendent shall not require a budget review committee to be formed.
In addition, the state superintendent of public instruction shall not approve a county’s budget before an LCAP (or LCAP update) is approved. If the state superintendent disapproves a budget solely because he/she has not approved the LCAP (or LCAP update), the state superintendent shall not require a budget review committee to be formed.
JPAs and direct appropriation of categorical funding: For joint powers authorities that administer either home-to-school transportation or regional occupational centers or programs, the trailer bill requires the state superintendent to sustain specified funding at fiscal year 2012-13 levels through 2014-15.
ROC/P MOEs: For fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15, districts and county offices of education must at a minimum sustain the same level of expenditure for ROC/Ps as was expended in the 2012-13 fiscal year. SB 97 clarifies that a district or county office may jointly meet this MOE requirement so long as the total amount of expenditures by the district and county office equals or exceeds the total amount required to be expended pursuant to the MOE.
Unduplicated student counts: The trailer bill clarifies that district, county superintendent and charter schools’ annual reporting of unduplicated counts of enrolled pupils who are classified as English learners, eligible for free and reduced-price meals, and foster youth—the student groups that figure into LCFF concentration and supplemental grant funding—shall be done within timeframes and procedures established by the state superintendent.
Necessary Small Schools: The amount of NSS funding received by a school district in 2012-13 is included within the district’s hold-harmless calculation. This is of particular import to those unified districts that received the NSS high school adjustment because the district had only one high school.
The bill analysis also clarifies that NSS average daily attendance does not count for purposes of base funding but does count for supplemental and concentration funding, and that an NSS containing grades 7-8 is funded at the elementary NSS rate for those grades, not the high school rate, consistent with existing law.
LCAP provisions: The LCAP template to be developed by the State Board of Education shall, in addition to minimizing duplication of effort at the local level, include guidance on two elements: listing and describing expenditures for implementing the specific actions included in the LCAP for each fiscal year, and listing and describing expenditures that will serve low-income students, foster youth, English learners and those redesignated as fluent English proficient.
SB 97 also adds a third element to the county superintendent reviews of district LCAPs, and state superintendent reviews of county office LCAPs: In addition to determining that LCAPs adhere to the state template and that the LEA budgets include expenditures sufficient to implement the LCAP, they must determine that the LCAPs (or LCAP updates) adhere to the expenditure requirements of the adopted regulations regarding supplemental and concentration funds.
The trailer bill also:
- States that the specific actions included in an LCAP shall not supersede the provisions of an existing local collective bargaining agreement.
- Clarifies that pupil achievement goals shall include, as measures of career readiness and technical education, the percentage of pupils who have successfully completed career technical education sequences or programs of study that align with state board-approved CTE standards and frameworks.
- Clarifies that updates to LCAPs shall include changes to specific actions made as a result of review and assessment of goals and review of progress toward those goals.
- Adds local bargaining units to the groups that the district governing board and county superintendents must consult.
California Collaborative for Education Excellence: The trailer bill amends provisions related to the governance of the CCEE to require the state superintendent, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to contract with a local educational agency or consortium of LEAs to serve as the fiscal agent for the CCEE.
It also establishes a governing board for the CCEE, to be composed of:
- The state superintendent or his/her designee
- The president of the State Board or his/her designee
- A county superintendent of schools appointed by the Senate Rules Committee
- A teacher appointed by the speaker of the Assembly
- A superintendent of a school district appointed by the governor