BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 403
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|Author: |Liu |
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|Version: |April 23, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: April 29, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Olgalilia Ramirez |
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Subject: California Community Schools Act
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes a local educational agency (LEA) or schools
to coordinate academic, social and health services for students,
families and community members in collaboration with community
partners to establish a California Community schools (CCS) and
requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to make
grants available to qualified recipients to enhance and expand
CCS, to the extent funds are allocated for this purpose.
BACKGROUND
The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
authorized the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE), to
support programs that improve the quality of elementary and
secondary education at the State and local levels and help all
children meet challenging academic content and academic
achievement standards. Additionally, the FIE provides funds to
the Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) program to encourage
coordination of academic, social, and health services through
partnerships among; 1) public elementary and secondary schools;
2) the schools' local educational agencies; and 3)
community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, and
other public or private entities. (Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 § 5411)
Services provided under FSCS may include: high-quality early
learning programs and services; remedial education, family
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engagement, including parental involvement, parent leadership,
family literacy, and parent education programs; community
service and service learning opportunities; programs that
provide assistance to students who have been chronically absent,
truant, suspended, or expelled; job training and career
counseling services; nutrition services and physical activities;
primary health and dental care; activities that improve access
to and use of social service programs, among other things.
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1. Authorizes and encourages a LEA or school to form a
community consortium in order to coordinate programs and
services for students, parents, and community members in
collaboration with one or more community partners for the
purpose of establishing a California Community School.
2. Requires all policies, guidelines, rules and regulations
adopted by the state board and the Superintendent pursuant
to this chapter to actively foster the formation,
development and operation of California Community schools
(CCS) and to support and encourage local educational
agencies (LEA's) to establish CCS.
3. Defines various terms for the purpose of this bill
including:
A. California Community School to mean "a
public school that participates in a community based
effort to coordinate and integrate, comprehensive
academic, family, social, and health services for
students, families, and community members through
community based organizations, public and private
partnerships with one or more community partners for
the delivery of community services."
4. Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
make grants available for establishing and supporting CCS,
to the extent state and/or private funds are available for
this purpose. Specifically, the SPI is required to:
A. Award grants for a period of three
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years and base renewal of awards on eligibility
established in this bill.
B. Require LEA's to provide a 25% match in
funds or in-kind services from allowable sources.
C. Restrict the use of funds for planning
to 30% of a grant award.
D. Seek funds from outside sources.
E. Provide technical assistance or through
referral to third-party, as specified.
F. Give priority to CCS serving high
percentages of unduplicated students.
G. Award grants to applicants for the
purpose of assisting public elementary or secondary
schools to function as CCS and perform all of the
following:
(1) Coordinate a minimum of three existing
community services or two additional community
services at one or more schools.
(2) Achieve performance goals by
integrating services to meet the holistic needs
of young people.
(3) Coordinate and integrate services
provided by local government agencies and
community based organizations with services
provided by specialized instructional support
personnel, if applicable.
5. Authorizes all LEA's to apply for a grant within the
timeline determined by the SPI and requires, as a condition
of receiving funds, applicants to include the following:
A. A memorandum of understanding between
all community partners and the local educational
agency (LEA).
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B. A description of the LEA's community
consortium, capacity to coordinate and provide
community services, components with the plan that
align with the local control and accountability plan
(LCAP).
C. A comprehensive plan describing; 1)
demographic characteristics of students; family and
school community; 2) the needs of students, families,
and community residents; 3) community assets; 4)
performance measures that monitor goal attainment; 5)
stakeholder surveys that measure student safety; 6)
school climate and connectedness; 7) funding sources
of community services and a plan for sustaining
services.
D. Yearly measurable performance goals
that are consistent with the following objectives:
(1) Increasing the number for families
served.
(2) School readiness, academic achievement
and college preparation.
(3) Physical, emotional, mental, and social
health of students.
(4) Safe schools and neighborhoods and
positive learning environment free from bullying
and harassment.
(5) Family support and engagement in the
education of the student.
(6) Career preparation.
(7) Community service engagement among
students.
6. Requires each grant recipients to do all of the following:
A. Conduct annual evaluations to measure
progress.
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B. Use evaluations to improve program
activities.
C. Make evaluation results available to
the public, as specified.
D. Collect and report data as required by
the department and the applicable local control and
accountability plan.
E. Develop a three-year plan in
collaboration with a community consortium for purposes
of aligning community services. The plan must include,
but is not limited, the following:
(1) A needs assessment of
students, parents, and local community.
(2) A resource map of
the school and community that identifies
potential community partners.
(3) A plan for
developing a community school infrastructure plan
that establishes; 1) teams to oversee operations,
school governance, and day to day service
delivery; 2) a system for resource sharing; 3) a
process for collective decision making and
cross-agency collaboration; 4) data collection
system based on shared outcomes and; 5) use of a
community school site coordinator to facilitate
partnerships, as specified.
7. Requires that funding for the program be considered
supplemental to federal, state, or local funds that would
otherwise be available for activities described in the
bill.
8. Requires the department to:
A. Evaluate and report on the
effectiveness of California Community schools (CCS) to
determine best practices, progress toward goal
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attainment, impact on student learning outcomes,
improving community and family engagement, decreasing
truancy, school dropout rate, the physical and mental
health of participants.
B. Make recommendations and report
findings to the appropriate legislative policy
committees by November 1, 2019.
9. Makes a number of declarations and findings related to
California Community Schools performing specified functions
and services including:
A. Actively partnering with its community
to leverage existing resources and identifying new
resources to provide enrichment, social services, and
additional life skill opportunities for students,
parents and community members.
B. Using school sites as hubs that foster
intentional collaboration and alignment among local
educational agencies (LEA's), local government
agencies, postsecondary education, community-based
organizations, non-profit organizations and businesses
that provide in-school supports and extended learning
opportunities outside of normal school hours to
improve educational outcomes.
10. Clarifies that a county community school cannot be
designated as a California Community School unless the
requirements outlined in this bill are met.
STAFF COMMENTS
1. Need for the bill. According to the author, by providing
in-school support, enrichment and extended learning
opportunities outside of normal school hours, students are
more successful academically, more engaged in their
communities, safer, and better prepared to make a
successful transition to adulthood. This bill seeks to
provide a state framework for implementing a community
school strategy that expands and enhances inter-agency
collaboration focused on student success, supporting
families and building healthier communities.
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2. Existing community school strategies. Many schools
voluntarily follow models of community school strategies
within the state, including Sacramento City Unified School
District (SCUSD), Ontario-Montclair School District, Bear
Valley Unified School District, Redwood City School
District, and Lake County Office of Education. These
programs are each profiled by the Partnership for Children
and Youth in their report on Community Schools: Aligning
Local Resources for Student Success (2013). The document
describes how existing community school efforts are
financed and how local government agencies partner to align
existing resources. As an example of how a community school
functions in SCUSD's Youth and Family Resource Centers
(resource center) is detailed below :
A. Services: SCUSD's Office of Integrated Support
Services (ISS) operates 19 resource centers in schools
throughout the district. These centers provide social,
emotional, behavioral and academic support to
students. Social workers, family advocates, interns
and community partners work directly with students and
families to address issues of concern, drawing on
school and community resources for additional support.
Services include:
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| Student Services | Family Services | School Services |
|--------------------+-------------------+-------------------|
|Advocacy |Case Management | Attendance |
|Counseling |ESL and | Services |
|Classroom Support | Citizenship | Community and |
|Conflict Resolution| Classes | School Safety |
|Dental Screening |Health Insurance | Crisis |
|Mentoring |Enrollment | Intervention |
|Recreational |Home Visits | Student |
| Activities |Immunization | Attendance |
|School | Clinics | Review Board |
| Supplies/Uniforms |Parenting Classes | Participation |
|Tutoring | Parent Leadership| Student Study |
| Youth Development | | Team |
| Activities | | Support |
| | | Suicide Risk |
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| | | Assessment |
| | | Translation |
| | | Services |
| | | |
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A. SCUSD Governance / Partnerships. Each resource
center is governed by a combination of site-level
management, district-level management and a
collaborative composed of school and community
stakeholders. At each site, a resource center
coordinator works closely with the principal to
identify students and families in need of support
(generally through the Student Study Team process),
and to identify strategies for addressing these needs.
The resource center coordinator directly supervises
resource center staff and interns, manages
relationships with community partners, and sits on
each school's site council.
B. SCUSD Funding. Resource centers do not receive
appropriations from the school district general fund.
Instead, services are funded by a variety of sources
and in-kind resources donated from the local
university and community organizations. The following
graph shows the various funding sources and the
activities and services funded:
(1) Funding sources and types:
(a) School Site Funding: Title 1
(main source), Economic Impact Aid, Quality
Education Investment Act.
(b) School District: LEA billing
option (Med-Cal) Targeted Instructional
Improvement Block Grant, McKinney Vento
(CDE).
(c) Educational
Related/Competitive Grants: Healthy Start
(CDE), School Community Violence Prevention
(CDE), Lifeline Mentoring (Federal).
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(d) Local Government/Partner
Agencies: Sacramento County Mental Health,
CSUS Dept. of Social Work (interns), over
120 community partners providing services.
This bill seeks to establish a grant program in order to enhance
inter-agency collaboration that offer support services for
students and families similar to the resource center profiled
above.
1. LCAP Priorities. Under the local control funding formula
(LCFF) local education agencies are required to complete a
local control and accountability plan (LCAP). The LCAP must
include districts annual goals in each of the eight state
priority areas which include, student achievement, student
engagement, student outcomes, school climate,
implementation of common core state standards, course
access, basic services, and parental involvement. This bill
seeks to align California Community School strategies with
similar provisions of the eight state priority areas
provided in the LCAP such as parent involvement, community
decision-making, prioritizing student engagement, and
school climate college and career preparation, among other
key areas.
2. Community Day schools. Existing law establishes Community
Day schools, which are schools for students who have been
expelled or who have had problems with attendance or
behavior. These particular schools are administered by
school districts or county offices of education and offer
classes, provide basic educational skill development, on
the job training, credit recovery assistance, tutorial
assistance, counselors and other professional assistance in
order to reinforce or reestablish educational development.
This bill specifies that a "California Community school"
should not be confused with a "California Community Day
school," however; nothing prohibits a Community Day school
from implementing the California Community school strategy.
3. Related and prior legislation
RELATED LEGISLATION
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SB 527 (Liu, 2015) specifies uses for the Safe
Neighborhoods and Schools Fund for the purposes of
rewarding school districts that have demonstrated a
commitment to, and developed a comprehensive plan for,
utilizing research-based strategies to increase attendance
rates, to reduce school removals of all types and referrals
to police, to address trauma, mental health needs and other
social and emotional factors that impact pupil outcomes
including community school strategies, among other things.
SB 527 is scheduled to be heard by this Committee on April
29.
PRIOR LEGISLATION
AB 2555 (Bocanegra, 2014) would have required the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, in collaboration with
various other state agencies and private organizations, to
develop a five-year plan for expanding cradle-to-career
initiatives in California that may include full-service
community schools, promise neighborhoods, wraparound
programs, wellness centers, and healthy communities
efforts. AB 2555 was held in the Appropriations committee.
SUPPORT
California Federation of Teachers
California School Based Health Alliance
Children Now
Los Angeles Education Partnership
Partnership for Children and Youth
Redwood City 2020
OPPOSITION
None received.
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