BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Dede Alpert, Chair
1999-2000 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 537
AUTHOR: Aroner
AMENDED: June 2, 1999
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: July 14, 1999
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:James Wilson
SUMMARY
This bill allows a school district that meets specified
criteria to receive a home-to-school transportation
allowance based upon an alternative formula.
BACKGROUND
Current law provides for partial reimbursement of the
actual costs of school districts that provide
home-to-school transportation. Due to the caps placed on
individual district reimbursement, and limited funding,
most districts do not receive full reimbursement of their
costs.
The law also allows school districts that meet specified
criteria to receive an annual supplemental allowance in
addition to the normal allowance of transportation funding.
To qualify for supplemental funding, a district must meet
the following criteria (which are set forth in Education
Code Section 41862):
1) The district must transport over 33% of their pupils.
2) The district's cost per mile may not exceed statewide
average, unless weather or terrain justifies higher
costs.
3) The district's prior year transportation costs per
pupil must exceed $130.
ANALYSIS
This bill:
AB 537
Page 2
1) Allows any school district that meets the following
criteria to receive a home-to-school transportation
allowance equal to the district's enrollment
multiplied times the statewide average per pupil
allowance for home-to-school transportation. To
qualify, a district must meet all of the following
criteria:
a) At least 50% of the district's pupils
qualify for free or reduced price meals.
b) The district's home-to-school transportation
entitlement was less than 15% of its approved
expenses in the documentation of the 1997-98
state apportionment.
c) The number of average daily boardings by
district pupils using public transit as
home-to-school transportation in 1997-98 exceeds
30% of the district's enrollment.
2) Limits the annual alternative allowance that may be
received by any district to no more than that
district's actual cost of that year.
3) Provides for the alternative home-to-school
transportation allowance to become effective for
1999-2000 and later years, only if funds are included
in the Budget Act for its purposes.
4) Limits the annual expenditure under this alternative
formula to a total of $500,000.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Who benefits? Previous analysts have indicated that
the West Contra Costa Unified School District
(formerly known as Richmond Unified) appears to be the
only district that would qualify to receive this
alternative transportation allowance. The Department
of Education reports that it cannot determine if West
Contra Costa is the only district because the
Department does not collect information on the number
of "daily boardings by pupils ?who use public
transit." The Department of Education does note,
however, that if the word "entitlement" is not
narrowly defined, that the West Contra Costa
district's 1997-98 "entitlement" will exceed 15% of
AB 537
Page 3
its costs, thus disqualifying the district. To avoid
such disqualification, the district's "entitlement"
would have to exclude the transportation funding it
received from transportation equalization formulas and
supplemental grant funding.
2) Why base the allowance on all students in the
district? The conventional home to school allowance,
inadequate as it may be, provides the lesser of the
district's costs or entitlement based on an historical
"base" year. No student count is used, and it may be
that the district doesn't know how many students are
transported through district subsidized arrangements.
Still, it seems strange to base a home-to-school
transportation allowance on a number of pupils who
may, or may not, be transported.
3)
AB 537
Page 4
Staff recommends the following technical amendments to make
the formula of the bill work as intended:
On page 2, line 7, after "(b)" insert: shall be
On page 2, line 9, after "the" insert: prior year
On page 2, lines 19 and 20 strike:
lunches according to data from the 1997
CBEDS.
And insert: meals reported in 1997 to the
Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
SUPPORT
None received
OPPOSITION
None received