BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 859
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( Without Reference to File )
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 859 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee)
As Amended June 12, 2014
Majority vote. Budget Bill Appropriation Takes Effect
Immediately
SENATE VOTE : Vote not relevant
SUMMARY : Provides the necessary statutory and technical changes
to enact the education-related provisions of the Budget Act of
2014. Specifically, this bill :
1)Appropriates $4.7 billion for school districts and charter
schools and $25.9 million for county offices of education
(COEs), allocated through the Local Control Funding Formula
(LCFF).
2)Makes the following adjustments to the LCFF calculations for
school districts, charter schools and COEs:
a) Authorizes schools participating in Provisions 2 or 3 of
the National School Lunch Program (which allow for free
meals to be provided to all enrolled pupils at schools with
very high poverty rates) to establish base-year student
eligibility for free or reduced-price meals no less than
once every four years, provided that they annually update
their counts of eligible students, as specified.
b) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI)
to revise a local educational agency's (LEA) three-year
rolling average number of unduplicated students by using
2014-15 student data in place of 2013-14, if doing so would
increase the local LEA's rolling average.
c) Expresses legislative intent to review, for each school
district and COE, the enrollment of unduplicated pupils for
the 2013-14 and 2014-15 fiscal years, and provide one time
funding, if necessary for those with higher enrollment of
unduplicated pupils in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14.
d) Specifies points-in-time when making calculations
related to the LCFF, in order to ensure calculations are
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not affected by future changes to average daily attendance.
e) Clarifies the definition of foster youth for purposes of
calculating unduplicated pupils.
3)Makes the following adjustments to the LCFF calculations for
charter schools:
a) Requires charter schools to annually report their
physical location to the California Department of Education
no later than November 30 of each fiscal year, and specify
when the physical location is considered final for funding
purposes.
b) Clarifies that all charter districts can receive
declining enrollment funding under the LCFF, rather than
under the former Charter School Block Grant.
c) Clarifies that for purposes of LCFF, charter districts
are treated as school districts.
d) Clarifies that a charter school located in a basic aid
district cannot receive in-lieu property tax payments in
excess of their entitlement.
e) Adds juvenile court students to the list of students for
which a county program charter can receive a county rate
and clarify LCFF apportionments for county students
attending a county program charter.
f) Allows county charter programs to seek in-lieu payments
from the district for students not covered by the county
rate, similar to COEs.
g) Clarifies that in-lieu payments for countywide charter
schools with students from basic aid districts are based on
a school district's prior year basic aid status.
4)Allows the State Board of Education, until January 31, 2018,
to adopt the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) template
pursuant to the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act process, with
specified restrictions, rather than the Administrative
Procedures Act.
5)Provides a one-time hold harmless for out-of-state tuition
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costs for 2014-15. This is in recognition that some districts
entered into out-of-state tuition contracts prior to the
passage of the LCFF. Following the 2014-15 fiscal year,
districts and COEs will be responsible for covering any
additional costs for students attending schools out of state
using their LCFF funds.
6)Revises the methodology for assessing penalties for exceeding
maximum class size limits based upon the new grade-level
funding rates under LCFF.
7)Requires, for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 fiscal years, the
Alameda County Superintendent to withhold a specified amount
from the LCFF apportionments of the Newark Unified School
District to be allocated to four specified school districts
that previously received these funds from Newark Unified
School District for purposes of beginning teacher induction
and training services.
8)Expands the definition of a necessary small high school, until
July 1, 2017, for high schools exclusively serving juvenile
hall students with exceptional needs, COE operated high
schools exclusively serving foster youth, and a high school
maintained by a unified school district as the only
comprehensive high school if the average daily attendance is
less than 286 students and the school district has less than
50 students per square mile of the school district.
9)Repeals the unique revenue limit funding adjustment related to
an inter-district attendance agreement between the Fallbrook
Union High School District and the Capistrano Unified School
District, which receive federal Impact Aid to offset the local
property tax revenue lost from federally owned land. Allows
these two districts to continue to receive federal Impact Aid,
while including the former revenue limit adjustment in the
district's LCFF funding.
10)Requires the State Board of Education, working in
collaboration with the Department of Education, to report to
the Legislature no later than February 1, 2015, regarding the
status of LCFF implementation.
11)Specifies that 2013-14 average daily attendance calculations
are final as of the second principal apportionment (P-2) for
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purposes of establishing Economic Recovery Targets (ERT).
Additionally, clarifies that the full ERT amount shall be
added on to the LCFF when the LCFF is fully implemented, and
that ERTs shall be subject to property tax offsets.
12)Removes one-time redevelopment agency (RDA) revenue from the
basic aid fair share calculation applied to categorical
programs, to ensure that no district receives less than it did
in 2012-13.
13)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to perform
the duties related to approving LCAP for counties with
jurisdiction over a single district, consistent with the
process for reviewing and approving a budget for these
districts.
14)Clarifies that county superintendents and school districts
may continue authorizing students to attend schools in
adjoining states and out-of-state tuition average daily
attendance is credited to the school district of residence.
15)Clarifies that homeless students served by a COE shall
generate LCFF funding at the largest (in terms of average
daily attendance) non-basic aid district serving the student's
grade level. This change will ensure that basic aid districts
(who are not receiving additional state funding for these
students) are not responsible for providing local property tax
dollars to the COE.
16)Clarifies that Supplemental Revenue Augmentation Fund (SRAF)
transfers should be reported to the State Controller's Office
(SCO) rather than the county auditor-controller, since SCO
implements the offset. Authorizes the Director of Finance to
determine the amount of restricted excess local property tax
revenue available for transfer to SRAF.
17)Conforms existing COE and four-day school week instructional
time requirements and penalties to the district instructional
time penalties under the LCFF.
18)Clarifies that various basic aid adjustments are based on
LCFF target base grants and not on necessary small school
funding rates.
19)Clarifies that COE Juvenile Court School funding is expended
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pursuant to LCAP.
20)Makes technical and conforming changes related to the LCFF.
21)Provides that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to
existing law.
22)Declares that it is to take effect immediately as a bill
providing for appropriations related to the budget bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Katie Hardeman / BUDGET / (916)
319-2099
FN: 0003977