BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 63 (Wolk) - School Attendance: High Schools
Amended: As introduced Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 63 provides funding to a basic aid school
district that enrolls students who do not reside in an area that
includes either a unified or high school district. This bill
specifically provides 70% of the statewide revenue limit for
high schools for each unit of average daily attendance (ADA)
generated.
Fiscal Impact:
2013-14: Increasing funding to St. Helena Unified School
District (SHUSD) by approximately $4,100 per pupil, (70% of
the statewide average deficited revenue limit minus the $120
per pupil SHUSD currently receives) for each of the
approximately 77 pupils residing in an area that is not in a
high school or unified school district, will result in new
state Proposition 98 costs of approximately $315,000.
Future costs: Significant ongoing costs, likely in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the number of
students who enroll in SHUSD because they do not reside in a
high school or unified school district, as well as future
fluctuations of the statewide high school revenue limit and
the deficit factor.
Background: Existing law states that any person who is eligible
to attend high school and who does not reside in a high school
district or in a unified school district may attend high school
in any high school district or unified school district in the
county where he/she resides or in another county. (Education
Code � 48031).
Existing law authorizes inter-district transfers known as the
"school districts of choice" authorization in which the
governing board of a school district may declare the district to
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be a "district of choice" willing to accept a specified number
of inter-district transfers. A "district of choice" is not
required to admit pupils but those pupils that it does elect to
admit must be selected largely through a random process. (EC �
48300 et seq.)
For any school district of choice that is a basic aid district,
the apportionment for any ADA credited as a result of district
of choice, is 70% of the district revenue limit that would have
been apportioned to the district of residence. (EC � 48310(c)).
Proposed Law: SB 63 provides additional funding to a basic aid
school district that enrolls students who do not reside in an
area that includes either a unified or high school district. The
level of funding provided would be set at the equivalent of 70%
of the statewide revenue limit for high schools for each unit of
ADA generated. More specifically, this bill:
1) Requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) to compute an allowance, for a basic aid school, that
provides 70% of the statewide average high school revenue
limit per unit of average daily attendance, as specified.
2) Specifies for the purpose of this measure, a basic aid
school district means a school district that does not
receive revenue limit funding from the state, for any
fiscal year in which the measure is applied.
3) Requires the apportionment allowance computed under this
measure, to be computed only for school districts that
accept pupils residing in the territory, or within an
elementary school district, that was not within the
territory of either a high school district or a unified
school district during the 2012-13 fiscal year.
Staff Comments: This narrowly tailored bill would apply to high
school apportionment funding for students residing within two
basic aid school districts in Napa County, Howell Mountain
Elementary and Pope Valley Elementary school districts. These
districts are not incorporated into the boundaries of a high
school or unified school district. Under existing law, those
students are authorized to enroll in any district (with a high
school) of their choice. At present, most pupils matriculate
from the two elementary school districts to SHUSD, another basic
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aid school district, for high school. Under existing state law,
SHUSD (or any district these students choose to enroll is) is
required to accept them.
As a basic aid school district, SHUSD receives only $120 per
student in state funding, and that applies to students it is
required to admit under state law because they do not live in a
high school or unified school district - students from Howell
Mountain Elementary and Pope Valley Elementary school districts
If those same students chose to attend another high school that
was not in a basic aid school district, the receiving school
district would be apportioned its full revenue limit funding for
each of those students.
Under this measure, a student wishing to attend SHUSD would
generate 70% of the statewide average high school revenue limit:
approximately $4,215 per student. 70% of the statewide average
is significantly less than either a unified or high school
revenue limit (which the state would pay if those students
choose the attend school in a non-basic aid district) but over
$4,000 more than SHUSD receives under existing law. This bill
links ongoing funding for this category of students to the
statewide average revenue limit; as the average revenue limit
rises in the future, the apportionment to SHUSD would also rise.
Staff notes that as part of the 2013-14 Governor's Budget, the
Administration proposes to restructure the existing K-12 finance
system and to primarily fund schools using a new formula known
as the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF proposal
repeals revenue limit funding from statute and replaces it with
a new formula that seeks to fund school districts up to a target
funding level over a 7-year "roll out" period. School districts
(including SHUSD) that are already funded above their projected
LCFF target will be held harmless, but will not receive
additional funding until other school districts have met their
targets. It is unclear whether SHUSD could receive the
additional funding proposed in the bill is the LCFF is
implemented.
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