BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 298
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Date of Hearing: August 17, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 298 (De Leon) - As Amended: April 26, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill extends the operation of the Soledad Enrichment Action
(SEA) charter school approved by the Los Angeles County Board of
Education (LACBE) from June 30, 2013 to June 30, 2018.
FISCAL EFFECT
General Fund (Proposition 98) cost pressure of approximately $18
million to allow the SEA charter school to continue operating.
Existing law prohibits SEA from receiving average daily
attendance (ADA) funding for more than 2,000 pupils in a fiscal
year. According to the State Department of Education (SDE), SEA
enrolled approximately 3,393 students during 2008-09 but claimed
ADA funding for only 1,239 students. The significant difference
between enrollment and attendance is typical of community day
schools and occurs primarily because most community day schools
operate as a short-term placement for students.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . SB 1318 (Polanco), Chapter 58, Statutes of 1997,
permitted LACBE to authorize the SEA charter school and
provide the school the higher per-pupil funding levels
available through the community day school program. SEA is the
only charter school that also operates as a community day
school.
The SEA charter school serves approximately 2,600 at-risk
students each year at 19 sites located across the Los Angeles
basin. Most of these sites are located in neighborhoods
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served by the Los Angeles Unified School District, but SEA
also has school sites located in Compton, Montebello, and Long
Beach school districts. In total, it serves students from
approximately 30 school districts in Los Angeles County.
AB 177 (Bass), Chapter 525, Statutes of 2007, extended
statutory authorization for LACBE to authorize the SEA charter
school to operate as a community day school until June 30,
2013. This bill extends the authorization of the SEA charter
school until June 30, 2018.
2)SEA receives community day school funding . Current law
authorizes school districts and county offices of education
(COEs) to operate community day schools as an alternative to a
student's regular school. The Legislature established these
schools in the mid-1990s to give districts resources to
educate students who are expelled from school or who are
involved with local law enforcement agencies. Community day
schools were designed as short-term placement for students,
usually for one or two semesters, until they return to a
traditional school.
Community day schools operated by COEs received an average of
approximately $9,000 per average daily attendance (ADA),
roughly twice the amount provided to school districts for
regular students. This funding comes from three sources. The
first source is COE base revenue limit (general purpose
funding) for juvenile court programs. In addition, the
community day school programs provide COE programs other per
ADA amount (generally in excess of $2,000) as an incentive to
encourage programs to offer a six-hour instructional day
(programs do not receive this funding if a student leaves
school at the end of four hours).
The third source of funding derives from the ability of
community day schools to provide two hours of after school
funds for tutoring and recreational. Currently, community day
schools were eligible to receive $5.25 per student per hour of
attendance in after school classes, if the after school
program constituted the seventh and eighth hour of attendance
for students.
According to a 2007 Legislative Analyst report, "Compared to
community day schools operated by most school districts, SEA
charter school is quite large-the school's enrollment accounts
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for 8.5% of the state's total enrollment in community day
schools in 2005-06. The Los Angeles County Office of
Education (LACOE), which oversees the charter school, also
operates several other large community day schools. The
combined enrollment of the SEA charter school and LACOE
community day schools accounted for 28% of the state's total
enrollment in community day schools in 2005-06."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081