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 SB 298 (De Leon) Page 1 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. SB 298 (De Leon) Page 2