BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1221 (Hancock) - After School Programs
Amended: March 27, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 7-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2014 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 1221 modifies various requirements for
participation in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers
(21st CCLC) program and the After School Education and Safety
(ASES) program.
Fiscal Impact: This bill may result in a loss of state General
Fund savings, to the extent that its creation of new types of
grants and of a minimum grant level allow more ASES funds to be
expended that could otherwise revert to the General Fund for
other Proposition 98 educational purposes.
Cost pressure: The ASES and 21st CCLC grant programs are
highly competitive funding sources with supplemental
school-site based programs. A small fraction of applicants
actually receive funding, and there is more demand each year
than can be funded. This bill creates new grants to draw
from the same funding source, which puts pressure on the
existing funding. The bill also creates a minimum grant
funding level that is higher than small programs would have
been awarded under the existing per-pupil funding formula,
which adds pressure on an existing source that is already
insufficient to fund most requests.
Minor cost savings: To the extent that the new reporting
requirements streamline the California Department of
Education's (CDE) grant monitoring activities, there will be
minor workload savings to the department.
Background: The 21st CCLC and ASES programs are both school-site
based programs operating outside of school hours, and are
administered by the CDE. The 21st CCLC is a federally funded
before and after school program that provides disadvantaged K-12
students with academic enrichment and support. It is very
similar to the state-funded ASES program, and 21st CCLCs often
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operate in tandem with ASES programs. Programs are funded
through a highly competitive grant process. In 2013-14,
applicants requested over $122 million in 21st CCLC program
funding, and a total of $22 million was awarded. Of the 122
applications submitted, 30 applications were funded (operating
at 172 school-sites).
ASES programs receive direct state grants, where attendance is
projected and grants are funded up-front, in three 1-year
increments. Each school that establishes an ASES program is
eligible to receive a 3-year direct grant that is awarded in
three 1-year increments and is subject to semiannual attendance
reporting and other requirements. ASES receives $550 million
annually, from the General Fund.
The maximum annual direct grant awarded an after school program
is $112,500 for each regular school year for elementary schools
and $150,000 for middle schools (based on a formula of $7.50 per
student per day of attendance, at a maximum of $37.50 per
student per week). The maximum total annual grant for a before
school program is $37,500 for each regular school year for
elementary schools and $49,000 for middle schools (based on
formula of $5 per student per day of attendance, at a maximum of
$25 per student per week).
Schools are also eligible for a supplemental grant to operate a
3-hour program in excess of 180 days or during any combination
of summer, intersession, or vacation for the lesser of $7.50 per
student per day or 30% of the total grant amount awarded to the
school per school year. Supplemental grants are also available
to operate a 6-hour program providing a maximum of 30% of the
total grant amount. (Education Code � 8482-8484.6)
Proposed Law: This bill makes changes to both the ASES and 21st
CCLC programs, and creates new funding options for schools
competing for grant funding through those programs.
With regard to ASES, this bill: 1) establishes a new minimum
grant, as specified; 2) establishes maximum total summer grant
amounts for 3-hour programs; 3) modifies the maximum summer
grant for 6-hours programs; 4) authorizes funding for
transportation to be provided to an ASES program operated in a
qualifying rural area; and, 5) changes references of "direct
grants" to "after school grants" and of "supplemental grants" to
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"summer grants."
With regard to 21st CCLC, this bill: 1) gives priority to grant
applications that will provide year-round expanded learning
programs, but allows grants for a summer-only component; 2)
provides greater flexibility for using funds previously
earmarked for family literacy programming; and, 3) modifies
criteria used in determining priority funding, and deletes a
requirement for outcome-based data to be annually submitted to
CDE, as specified.
This bill changes reporting requirements and procedures for ASES
and 21st CCLC, and
requires the CDE to submit a biennial report to the Legislature
related to the students attending expanded learning programs,
and the quality of those programs.
Staff Comments: This bill is unlikely to result in direct state
costs, because its changes impact two fixed "pots" of grant
money: state ASES funds and federal 21st CCLC funds. Certain
changes required in this bill, such as program performance goals
and grant application contents, could change grant award
outcomes for individual programs. In a competitive grant
process, changes to grant priorities necessarily affect the
distribution of resources, but it is not clear what the effects
would be for the existing grantees. Of particular fiscal note
among the ASES and 21st CCLC changes proposed, however, is the
creation of three new "types" of grants (two ASES and one 21st
CCLC) that would ostensibly be funded within the existing funds.
Staff notes that ASES funding is continuously appropriated
outside of the annual Budget Act, but that the Legislature and
Governor could choose to augment the amount guaranteed by
Proposition 49 in the state's annual budget process.
The bill's first new type of grant is its "minimum grant amount"
for ASES programs. This bill would set a funding floor for each
program based on the attendance rate for 20 students, regardless
of the number of students that actually attend. The bill's
intent is to fund a baseline cost for administering a program
(i.e. staff costs), to address the difficulty of running a small
(low-attendance) program based on a dollar amount per attendee.
This change would enable programs that serve less than 20
students to receive grant funding sufficient to cover their
relatively higher overhead costs. It is likely to result in
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additional grant applications from programs that could not have
afforded to operate otherwise, and create additional cost
pressure on ASES funds. Staff notes that this could also result
in a program serving 10 students receiving the same grant amount
as a neighboring program serving double the number of students.
This second type of new grant is the authorization for ASES
funding to be used for "transportation grants" of up to $25,000
for each qualifying rural school-site. Dedicated transportation
funding will likely allow more isolated programs to generate
higher attendance, and more remote school-sites to be able to
offer ASES programs. It is unclear how the CDE will administer
the transportation grants, how extensive the grants will be, and
the degree to which these grants will put cost pressure on
program funds. Funding new transportation grants from a pot of
money that already has far more grant applications than can be
funded creates cost pressure on those funds, but CDE
implementation will determine the precise level of that impact.
The third type of new grant is the authorization of applicants
for 21st CCLC grants to apply for summer-only program funding.
This change will result in additional grant applications that
were previously not allowed, by permitting funding for a summer
program that is not tied to a school-year program. Because the
bill specifies that priority will be given to programs that
offer school-year and summer programs (which are the only
allowable summer grantees), the effect of this change is
unclear.
Author's amendments limit transportation grants to a maximum of
$15,000, and further limit grants to the amount actually spent
by the districts receiving grants. The amendments also limit
reporting requirements, and make clarifying program changes.