BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 298 (De Leon)
          
          Hearing Date: 05/26/2011        Amended: 04/26/2011
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 9-0
          _________________________________________________________________
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: SB 298 extends the authorization sunset for the 
          Los Angeles County Board of Education (LACBE) to charter the 
          Soledad Enrichment Action Charter School (SEA) until June 30, 
          2018.
          _________________________________________________________________
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14     Fund
           
          SEA sunset extension                Potentially substantial 
          on-going costs         General*                                  
                              
                                                                      
          * Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding 
          guarantee
          _________________________________________________________________
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.

          SEA began as the Soledad school in 1972, an "Alternative 
          Education Program-Independent Study Program" in the Los Angeles 
          Unified School District (LAUSD).  When the program expanded to 
          locations outside city boundaries, it transitioned to become an 
          "Alternative Education-Community School Program" under the 
          purview of the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE).  

          Twenty-five years later, after charter schools began to be 
          established in California, teachers working under the 
          county-sponsored program elected to become a charter school.  
          However, at that time county offices of education were only 
          authorized to approve charter schools through an appeal process; 
          a new law was needed to allow the LACBE to authorize Soledad as 
          a charter school.

          In 1997, SB 1318 (Polanco) authorized a charter school to be 








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          chartered by the Los Angeles County Board of Education and 
          specifically allowed the charter school to receive the higher 
          per-pupil funding of county community schools. Soledad school 
          became SEA, and was funded at its previous level, higher than 
          other charter schools in Los Angeles County. The rationale was 
          that community day schools are typically operated by a county 
          office of education or a school district and serve mandatory and 
          other expelled students, students referred by a school 
          attendance review board, and other high-risk youths, which is 
          the population that SEA primarily serves. In the absence of this 
          legislation, SEA would have been funded at the regular charter 
          school rate when it became a charter.

          Subsequently, SB 1416 (Polanco, Chapter 467, Statutes of 2002), 
          extended this unique statutory authorization until July 1, 2008, 
          and AB 177 (Bass, Chapter 525, 2007) extended it again until 
          June 30, 2013. In the absence of these sunset extensions, SEA 
          would have had to either close, or apply for a charter under 
          current laws and funding formulas. LACBE could have, and can, 
          renew the SEA charter without benefit of special legislation, 
          but this legislation is necessary to continue the authority for 
          the SEA to be funded at the same rates for the same categories 
          of pupils as community schools and community day schools in Los 
          Angeles County.  

          This bill authorizes a charter school, operating under a charter 
          approved before June 1, 1997 by the LACBE to serve at-risk 
          pupils, to operate until June 30, 2018. SB 298 is so narrow as 
          to apply only to SEA. It maintains the current authorization for 
          the SEA charter school to be funded at the same rates for the 
          same categories of pupils as community schools and community day 
          schools in the same county. This bill further authorizes the SEA 
          charter school to operate one or more community day schools, and 
          be funded for not more than 2,000 units of average daily 
          attendance in any fiscal year, to the extent that funding is 
          appropriated for the purpose. While the funding formula is cost 
          neutral relative to the funding SEA currently receives, the 
          funding provided in SB 298 is in excess of charter school 
          funding. 













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