BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 403 (Liu) - California Community Schools Act.
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|Version: April 23, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 18, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill authorizes local educational agencies (LEAs)
and 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). This bill also 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.
Fiscal
Impact:
This bill results in a significant cost pressure to provide
funding to support this program. Considering the number of
requirements in order to apply and the bill's potential for a
large number of applicants, costs could be in the tens of
millions. However, costs per community school are likely to
vary widely based on such factors as local capacity to acquire
funding from community partners, services provided, and size
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of the program. See staff comments.
The California Department of Education (CDE) indicates that it
would incur an increase in workload of about $872,000 to
administer the program, provide technical assistance, and
complete a report on the program.
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
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.
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,
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community decision-making, prioritizing student engagement,
school climate college, and career preparation, among other key
areas.
Proposed Law:
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 of Education and the
Superintendent pursuant to this bill to actively foster the
formation, development, and operation of CCS and to support
and encourage LEAs to establish CCS.
3. Defines various terms for the purpose of this bill
including:
A. CCS 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 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 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
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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 activities, as specified.
5. Authorizes all LEAs 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 LEA.
B. A description of the LEA's community consortium,
capacity to coordinate and provide community services,
components with the plan that align with the 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 specified objectives.
6. Requires each grant recipients to do all of the
following:
A. Conduct annual evaluations to measure progress.
B. Use evaluations to improve program activities.
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C. Make evaluation results available to the public, as
specified.
D. Collect and report data as required by the CDE and the
applicable LCAP.
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 to,
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.
1. 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.
2. Requires the department to:
A. Evaluate and report on the effectiveness of CCS to
determine best practices, progress toward goal
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.
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Related
Legislation:1. 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 pending in this committee.
Staff
Comments: This bill results in a significant cost pressure to provide
funding to support this program. Considering the requirements
in order to apply and the bill's potential for a large number of
applicants, costs could be in the tens of millions.
As an example, Hoover Elementary Community School (Redwood City)
had a total cost of $557,000 in 2008-09 to provide an array of
services such as academic enrichment, health services, and life
skills. It drew from a number of revenue sources such as from
the private sector, the district, the city, the county, and the
state. The state portion comprised about 29 percent of total
revenue. Assuming this model (based on 2008-09 costs) is
applied to about 10 percent of LEAs that may apply for this
program, the cost pressure to fund this program would be in the
tens of millions.
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