Amended  IN  Senate  January 20, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  January 03, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  April 27, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 3


Introduced by Senator Caballero
(Principal coauthor: Senator Portantino)
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Quirk-Silva)

December 07, 2020


An act to add Section 42238.08 to the Education Code, relating to education finance.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 3, as amended, Caballero. Education finance: local control and accountability plan portal.
Existing law establishes a public school financing system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include, in addition to a base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, served by the county superintendent of schools, school district, or charter school. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt regulations that govern the expenditure of funds apportioned pursuant to the supplemental and concentration grant add-ons. Existing law requires the governing board of each local educational agency, as defined, to adopt and annually update a local control and accountability plan, as specified. Existing law appropriates $450,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Education for the 2020–21 fiscal year to support the alignment and integration of online platforms supporting the California School Dashboard, the Local Control and Accountability Plan Electronic Template System, and the School Accountability Report Card, as provided.
This bill would require the State Department of Education to develop, on or before July 1, 2023, a local control and accountability plan portal that will allow comprehensive analysis by policymakers of actions, expenditures, and progress on metrics included within local control and accountability plans adopted by local educational agencies. The bill would require the portal to include a tracking mechanism for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to use to report the types of services on which they spend their supplemental and concentration grant funds. Commencing January 1, 2024, the bill would require each local educational agency to annually report to the department the types of services on which it spends its supplemental and concentration grant funds using the portal developed by the department. The bill would require the department to make corresponding changes to the Local Control and Accountability Plan Electronic Template System, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, California pupils are facing impacts from educational disruption unlike anything we have ever seen in our state. The consequences of shuttered schools, uneven distance learning opportunities, and a severe economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic fell disproportionately on California’s most vulnerable pupil populations — English learners, low-income pupils, and foster youth. In a state where only 31.3 percent of Black pupils and 37.3 percent of Latino pupils met standards in English before the pandemic, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic disruptions will only exacerbate existing opportunity gaps.
(b) During this critical time, it is more important than ever to ensure that funding meant to support our most vulnerable pupils will be used for that purpose. Ensuring that supplemental and concentration grant funds are always used to support targeted pupils will safeguard resources needed to meet their unique needs, assist efforts to address the learning loss that has occurred, and ensure the promise of the local control funding formula in times of increases and reductions.
(c) In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature unanimously approved Assembly Bill 1835 of the 2019–20 Regular Session (AB 1835), authored by then Assembly Member Dr. Shirley Weber. This bill would have required local educational agencies to identify unspent supplemental and concentration grant funds by annually reconciling and reporting to the State Department of Education their estimated and actual spending of those moneys. The bill would have also required unspent supplemental and concentration grant funds to be expended to increase and improve services for high-needs pupils and would have required each local educational agency to report the amounts of unspent funds in its local control and accountability plan.
(d) Although the Governor vetoed AB 1835 and substituted a remedy included in the Budget Act of 2021, that remedy was only a partial solution to the problems addressed in AB 1835 and one that failed to institute important and necessary transparency and accountability measures.
(e) The problems AB 1835 sought to resolve have been well documented. In 2019, at the request of the Joint Committee on Legislative Audit, the California State Auditor released a report that made the following findings:
(1) The California State Auditor found that the state’s approach to the local control funding formula has not ensured that funding benefits intended pupil groups and closes achievement gaps.
(2) The California State Auditor found that school districts do not always include clear information in their local control and accountability plans regarding their use of supplemental and concentration grant funds.
(3) The California State Auditor found that policymakers and stakeholders lack adequate information to assess the impact of supplemental and concentration grant funds on the educational outcomes of the intended pupil groups.
(f) The California State Auditor concluded that the state should collect additional data so it can better determine how local control funding formula funding affects educational outcomes for high-needs pupils, and to know if further action is needed to ensure pupils receive the services they need.
(g) In addition to the California State Auditor’s report, in 2021, the Public Policy Institute of California studied several large school districts and issued a report that concluded concluding that only about 55 cents of every supplemental and concentration grant dollar was spent on the intended pupils — English learners, low-income pupils, and foster youth — and that there was a great deal of variation in how school districts spent the remaining 45 cents of every supplemental and concentration grant dollar. Most alarming was that one-quarter of the school districts spent less than their full local control funding formula base grant and none of their supplemental and concentration grant funds. Based on its analysis, the Public Policy Institute of California made the following recommendations:
(1) The state needs to improve tracking and transparency because many educational partners lack full information and understanding about how funding for high-needs pupils is allocated.
(2) The state should consider funding mechanisms based on school need rather than district need because many concentration schools are located in districts that do not receive concentration grants.
(3) The state should consider increasing supplemental grants, lowering the threshold for concentration grants, or both of those, so funding for high-needs pupils is targeted across a broader set of districts.
(h) In November 2021, Policy Analysis for California Education released a report titled, “What’s Next for the Local Control Funding Formula,” and identified four areas needing improvement. Among those four areas was strengthening transparency, engagement, and accountability to ensure that local control funding formula funding is appropriately used, there is access to clear fiscal data, and there is investment in programs to improve stakeholder engagement.
(i) The California system of support is focused on helping local educational agencies tap into rich resources so they can develop the skills and knowledge educators need to improve pupil learning. To better meet the needs of all pupils, particularly historically marginalized pupils, local educational agencies need support to share best practices to solve similar challenges.
(j) A system of local planning and accountability relies on local stakeholders having access to relevant, meaningful, and comparable information about goals, actions, services, expenditures, and outcomes.
(k) The state is providing almost $11.5 billion annually in supplemental and concentration grant funds without an understanding of how those funds are being used and if they are benefiting the targeted pupils.
(l) Chapter 24 of the Statutes of 2020 appropriated $450,000 to the State Department of Education, in partnership with the San Joaquin County Office of Education, for several projects to enhance information about education funding and outcomes, including collecting public input and beginning the development of a Local Control and Accountability Plan Electronic Template System to collect data from local educational agencies’ local control and accountability plans in a systematic way.
(m) A well-designed local control and accountability plan portal would benefit the system of continuous improvement by allowing local educational agencies to learn about what types of actions other local educational agencies are implementing to address specific goals.
(n) A well-designed local control and accountability plan portal will provide information to local stakeholders about the use of supplemental and concentration grant funds. Having consistent and transparent information about goals, actions, and outcomes across local educational agencies is an essential bridge for local communities and education partners to engage effectively in local planning and accountability processes.
(o) A well-designed local control and accountability plan portal will allow for state oversight of the use of supplemental and concentration grant funds, including oversight of any carryover funding.

SEC. 2.

 Section 42238.08 is added to the Education Code, to read:

42238.08.
 (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the state design and implement a local control accountability plan portal to collect data from local control accountability plans in a systematic and organized approach and then make that data available through various query tools. It is the intent of the Legislature that this data storage and query mechanism be designed to support a system of continuous improvement, support local community engagement, and provide state level oversight, and specifically do all of the following:
(1) Identify actions taken by local educational agencies that supported the meeting of local control accountability plan goals required by the 10 state priority areas, including closing achievement gaps for each of those priority areas, and local option outcome goals and gaps that plans proposed.
(2) Support community engagement by identifying best practices that local educational agencies use to promote authentic engagement, and provide both standardized and customizable query tools for parents, community groups, and education partners to understand how their local educational agencies are using local control funding formula funds, and how those actions compare to other local educational agencies, including local educational agencies serving nearby geographic areas or serving schools with similar demographics.
(3) Provide information to the Legislature and the administration on whether local control funding formula supplemental and concentration grant funds are being used to increase and improve services as required by statute, and ensure that all schoolwide and districtwide uses of local control funding formula supplemental and concentration grant funds are used on effective, or the most effective, actions for low-income pupils, English learners, and foster youth, including closing achievement gaps in all state priority areas, and that these actions disproportionately benefit these pupil groups.
(b) (1) On or before July 1, 2023, the department shall develop a local control and accountability plan portal that contains a database connected to a data entry tool that will allow comprehensive analysis by policymakers of actions, expenditures, and progress on metrics included within local control and accountability plans adopted by local educational agencies.
(2) The design of the portal shall take into consideration the input provided during the public input process funded by Section 116 of Chapter 24 of the Statutes of 2020 and include opportunities to display or create reports based on information collected through the portal.
(3) The portal shall include a tracking mechanism for local educational agencies to use to report the types of services on which they spend their supplemental and concentration grant funds.
(c) Commencing January 1, 2024, each local educational agency shall annually report to the department the types of services on which it spends its supplemental and concentration grant funds using the local control and accountability plan portal developed pursuant to subdivision (a). The state board may amend the local control accountability plan template adopted pursuant to Section 52064, if necessary, to facilitate this reporting requirement.
(d) To the extent necessary to implement subdivision (b), the department shall make corresponding changes to the Local Control and Accountability Plan Electronic Template System to support the collection of data through the local control and accountability plan portal and shall work with stakeholders to develop a list of common uses of supplemental and concentration grant funds to help to simplify and standardize the reporting and tracking mechanism.
(e) For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school.

SEC. 3.

 If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.