BILL NUMBER: SB 586 CHAPTERED 10/10/99 CHAPTER 680 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 10, 1999 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 6, 1999 PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 8, 1999 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 3, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 2, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 16, 1999 AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 28, 1999 INTRODUCED BY Senator Costa and Assembly Member Alquist (Coauthor: Senator Johnston) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Reyes, Scott, and Torlakson) FEBRUARY 23, 1999 An act to amend Section 2550 of, to amend and repeal Section 2551 of, and to add Section 2567 to, the Education Code, relating to education finance. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 586, Costa. School finance: equalization adjustments. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to make certain computations to determine the amount to be allocated for direct services and other purposes provided by county superintendents of schools and to determine each county superintendent's revenue limit for county superintendent responsibilities and direct services. Existing law sets forth a method for equalizing the revenue limits for county offices of education for the 1995-96 fiscal year. This bill would repeal, as of January 1, 2000, the existing formulas for determining each county superintendent's revenue limit for county superintendent responsibilities and services. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion equalization funding for the 1999-2000 fiscal year to certain county offices of education in prescribed amounts. The bill would make a conforming change to existing law regarding the computations to be made by the Superintendent of Public Instruction to determine the amounts to be allocated for direct and other services provided by county superintendents of schools. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) County offices of education provide critical services to school districts, including education technology programs, reading initiative programs, school safety, staff development, and district accounting and administrative programs. (2) The Governor's 1999 Special Session on Education produced four important major education reforms benefiting California's pupils and teachers, which will require assistance from county offices of education for their effective implementation. (3) All school districts should receive appropriate financial and administrative support from county offices of education in the implementation of these fiscal and academic accountability reform initiatives. (4) Every school district, regardless of size or location, should receive an appropriate and equitable level of services from its county office of education. (5) As a result of past inequities in funding for county offices of education, the general purpose revenues of individual county offices of education vary as much as 300 percent within similar size counties, thereby limiting the ability of the lowest funded counties to provide services to their respective districts. (6) School districts have received almost six hundred million dollars ($600,000,000) in equalization funding in recent years, while county offices have not received any equalization funding. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature by amending Sections 2550 and 2551 of, and adding Section 2567 to, the Education Code in the act adding this section, to assist those counties that are below the statewide average in general purpose funding, so that all school districts receive appropriate assistance from their county offices of education in the implementation of the Governor's 1999 reform measures, including school accountability, the high school exit examination, peer assistance and review, reading development and early intervention, schoolsite safety, academic assistance, and fiscal accountability and oversight measures established pursuant to Chapter 1213 of the Statutes of 1991 and Chapter 650 of the Statutes of 1994. SEC. 2. Section 2550 of the Education Code is amended to read: 2550. For each fiscal year, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall make the following computations to determine the amount to be allocated for direct services and other purposes provided by county superintendents of schools: (a) For programs operated pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 14054, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall: (1) Determine the allowances that county superintendents received per unit of average daily attendance in the prior fiscal year. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall increase each amount by a percentage equal to the inflation allowance calculated for the current fiscal year pursuant to Section 2557. (2) Multiply each amount determined in paragraph (1) by the actual number of units of average daily attendance in the prior fiscal year for programs maintained by each county superintendent. For purposes of this paragraph, the number of units of average daily attendance shall include only units generated by elementary districts with less than 901 units of average daily attendance, high school districts with less than 301 units of average daily attendance, and unified school districts with less than 1,501 units of average daily attendance within each county superintendent's jurisdiction. (b) For programs operated pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 14054, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall: (1) (A) For the 1999-2000 fiscal year, determine the rate per unit of average daily attendance calculated for each county office of education pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 2567 and increase each rate by a percentage equal to the inflation allowance calculated in Section 2557. (B) For the 2000-01 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, determine the allowances that county superintendents received per unit of average daily attendance in the prior fiscal year. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall increase each amount by a percentage equal to the inflation allowance calculated for the current fiscal year pursuant to Section 2557. (2) Multiply each amount determined in paragraph (1) by the units of average daily attendance in the current fiscal year for programs for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, maintained by each county superintendent. For the purposes of this paragraph, average daily attendance shall include only the total units of average daily attendance credited to all elementary, high school, and unified school districts within each county superintendent's jurisdiction and to the county superintendent. SEC. 3. Section 2551 of the Education Code is amended to read: 2551. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall perform the computations prescribed in this section to determine each county superintendent's revenue limit for county superintendent responsibilities and district services: (a) For the 1981-82 fiscal year, the superintendent shall add to the revenue limit amount computed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 2551 for the 1980-81 fiscal year, the revenue limit amount computed pursuant to Section 2552 for the 1980-81 fiscal year reduced by 55.9 percent. This adjusted revenue limit shall then be increased by the inflation allowance calculated in subdivision (a) of Section 2557. (b) For the 1981-82 fiscal year and for each fiscal year thereafter, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall increase the amount calculated in subdivision (a) by the amounts computed according to Sections 2507.5 and 2510. (c) The total amounts for each program calculated pursuant to subdivision (a) may be used for any of the services or programs specified in this section, or Section 2552 as it read prior to the enactment of this act. (d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 1999, and as of January 1, 2000, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2000, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed. SEC. 4. Section 2567 is added to the Education Code, to read: 2567. (a) To compute, pursuant to subdivision (b), a rate per unit of average daily attendance for county offices of education for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall use the amounts listed below, which amounts shall be used for the purposes of school accountability, pursuant to Chapter 3 of the Statutes of the 1999-2000 First Extraordinary Session; the high school exit examination, pursuant to Chapter 1 of the Statutes of the 1999-2000 First Extraordinary Session; peer assistance and review, pursuant to Chapter 4 of the Statutes of the 1999-2000 First Extraordinary Session; reading development and early intervention, pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Statutes of the 1999-2000 First Extraordinary Session; schoolsite safety, pursuant to Chapter 51 of the Statutes of 1999; education technology, pursuant to Chapter 650 of the Statutes of 1994; and fiscal accountability and oversight, pursuant to Chapter 1213 of the Statutes of 1991 and Chapter 650 of the Statutes of 1994: Alameda .......................... $163,978 Butte ............................ 30,655 Calaveras ........................ 28,351 Colusa ........................... 27,915 Contra Costa ..................... 408,814 El Dorado ........................ 33,672 Fresno ........................... 631,164 Glenn ............................ 9,823 Humboldt ......................... 36,030 Imperial ......................... 153,282 Kern ............................. 33,367 Kings ............................ 76,689 Lassen ........................... 13,869 Los Angeles ...................... 1,701,296 Madera ........................... 71,248 Merced ........................... 75,750 Nevada ........................... 39,754 Orange ........................... 408,142 Placer ........................... 693 Sacramento ....................... 573,462 San Benito ....................... 32,298 San Bernardino ................... 586,611 San Joaquin ...................... 329,422 Shasta ........................... 53,678 Solano ........................... 271,764 Stanislaus ....................... 316,300 Sutter ........................... 76,383 Tehama ........................... 33,828 Trinity .......................... 4,370 Tulare ........................... 402,307 Tuolumne ......................... 23,559 Ventura .......................... 85,842 Yolo ............................. 36,230 Yuba ............................. 34,624 __________ $6,805,170 (b) For purposes of subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 2550, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall compute a rate per unit of average daily attendance for each county office of education as follows: (1) For each county office of education, the sum of the following amounts: (A) The amount, if any, listed for the county office of education in subdivision (a). (B) The amounts received by the county office of education in the 1998-99 fiscal year for the apportionments set forth in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of Section 2561. (2) Divide the amount computed pursuant to paragraph (1) by the 1998-99 countywide average daily attendance.