Education finance: local control funding formula.

(1) Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of any county contiguous to an adjoining state to grant permission to pupils residing in the county to attend elementary school or high school in a school district of the adjoining state and to provide for the transportation of the pupils to the school. Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to pay for the tuition and transportation of these pupils from the county school tuition fund and requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion an amount to each county superintendent of schools sufficient to pay for these expenditures. This bill would repeal the provisions requiring the county superintendent of schools to pay for the tuition and transportation of pupils attending school in a school district of an adjoining state from the county school tuition fund and would require the Superintendent to apportion an amount to each county superintendent of schools sufficient to pay for the tuition and transportation of those pupils for the 2014–15 fiscal year only. The bill would require the attendance generated by a pupil who was granted permission by a county superintendent of schools to attend school in an adjoining state to be credited to the pupil's school district of residence. (2) Existing law establishes a public school system that requires state funding for county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to be calculated pursuant to a local control funding formula, as specified. Existing law requires the local control funding formula, in part, to be based upon the percentage of unduplicated pupils enrolled in the school district or charter school and defines unduplicated pupils to include, among other pupils, pupils eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as defined. Existing law requires the annual reporting of the enrollment of unduplicated pupils, including pupils eligible for free and reduced-price meals. This bill would authorize a school to establish a base year free and reduced-price meal eligibility process, pursuant to which the eligibility is determined for all enrolled pupils at least once every 4 years if the school participates in a specified federal alternative that provides free meals to all enrolled pupils at a school. The bill would require a school using this alternative to maintain information on each student's income eligibility status and to annually submit pupil data records showing each pupil's eligibility for free or reduced-price meals. This bill would revise the definition of foster youth, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to calculate, for each county superintendent of schools, school district, and charter school, a base entitlement for the transition to the local control funding formula that includes, among other things, the sum of the amounts of funding received from appropriations contained in certain budget items of the Budget Act of 2012. The bill, commencing with the 2014–15 fiscal year, would require a certain portion of the base entitlement for school districts and charter schools to be adjusted to reflect the exclusion of one-time redevelopment agency liquid asset recovery revenue. The bill would require certain figures and calculations used in the local control funding formula to be considered final, as of specified times, for purposes of certain certifications made by the Superintendent. The bill would, for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 fiscal years only, and for purposes of assuring the continuity of essential induction and training services for beginning teachers, require the Alameda County Superintendent of Schools to withhold $581,540 from the local control funding formula apportionments of the Newark Unified School District, and to instead allocate those funds to the Alameda, Berkeley, San Leandro, and San Lorenzo Unified School Districts, as specified. The bill would state the findings and declarations of the Legislature as to the necessity of a special law with respect to these school districts. The bill would also make numerous changes to conform existing provisions to the requirements of the local control funding formula. This bill would require the Superintendent to compute a reduction to a school district's local control funding formula if the Superintendent makes specified determinations relating to class size. As part of the local control funding formula, existing law provides a school district or charter school state-aid funding of no less than the sum of certain amounts received in the 2012–13 fiscal year, including, among other amounts, the 2012–13 fiscal year funding allowance provided for qualifying necessary small elementary schools and necessary small high schools. Existing law defines a necessary small high school as either (1) a high school with an average daily attendance of less than 287 pupils that meets specified conditions, or (2) a high school maintained by a school district for the exclusive purpose of educating juvenile hall pupils or pupils with exceptional needs. This bill would expand the definition of a necessary small high school to include a high school maintained by a school district for the exclusive purpose of educating juvenile hall pupils or pupils with exceptional needs and, until July 1, 2017, a high school maintained by a county office of education for the exclusive purpose of educating foster youth if certain requirements are satisfied, and a high school maintained by a unified school district as the only comprehensive high school if the high school has an average daily attendance of less than 286 pupils and the school district has 50 or fewer pupils per square mile of school district territory, as measured by the number of pupils residing in the district. (3) Existing law provides to a basic aid school district that was entitled to a specified reimbursement because a court order directs pupils to transfer to that school district as part of the court-ordered voluntary pupil transfer program, for those transferred pupils, either 70% of the school district local control funding formula base grant, or 70% of certain entitlements, that would have been apportioned to the school district from which the pupils were transferred. Existing law provides to a basic aid school district that is sponsoring a charter school for a pupil of the charter school who resides in, and is otherwise eligible to attend, a school district other than a basic aid school district, either 70% of the school district local control funding formula base grant, or 70% of certain entitlements, that would have been apportioned to the school district that the pupil resides in and would otherwise have been eligible to attend, as specified. Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to accept interdistrict transfers and provides to a school district of choice, as defined, that is a basic aid school district for those pupils admitted by the school district of choice either 70% of the school district local control funding formula base grant, or 70% of certain entitlements, that would have been apportioned to the school district of residence, as specified. Existing law, the Open Enrollment Act, authorizes the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school, as defined, to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district of enrollment, as specified, and requires a school district of enrollment that is a basic aid school district, to receive for those pupils enrolled in the basic aid school district pursuant to the Open Enrollment Act either 70% of the school district local control funding formula base grant, or 70% of certain entitlements, that would have been apportioned to the school district of residence, as specified. This bill would, in all of the instances described above, provide to the basic aid school district only 70% of the school district local control funding formula base grant that would have been apportioned to, (A) for a court-ordered voluntary pupil transfer program, the school district from which the pupils transferred, (B) for a charter school sponsored by a basic aid school district, the school district that the pupil resides in and would otherwise have been eligible to attend, and (C) for a school district of choice or the Open Enrollment Act, the school district of residence, if the entitlements for that school district include funding for necessary small schools, as specified. (4) Existing law requires the Fallbrook Union High School District to enter into an interdistrict attendance agreement with the Capistrano Unified School District to allow up to 150 pupils, at the request of each pupil's parent or guardian, to attend schools of the Capistrano Unified School District when the pupils reside in the San Onofre housing area of the Marine Corps Base, Camp Joseph H. Pendleton, and requires the Fallbrook Union High School District to pay tuition to the Capistrano Unified School District for the attendance of these pupils only in the amount of the state apportionments paid to the Fallbrook Union High School District for the attendance of these pupils plus a specified amount. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion to the Capistrano Unified School District a certain allowance for educating secondary pupils attending the Capistrano Unified School District pursuant to the interdistrict attendance agreement. This bill would repeal the requirement for the Superintendent to apportion that allowance for educating secondary pupils attending the Capistrano Unified School District pursuant to the interdistrict attendance agreement and would require the amount of state apportionments provided to the Fallbrook Union High School District and the Capistrano Unified School District for the 2012–13 fiscal year pursuant to these provisions to be included in certain computations made for purposes of the local control funding formula. (5) Existing law requires a sponsoring local educational agency to annually transfer to each of its charter schools funding in lieu of property taxes, as specified, and provides that these requirements do not apply for pupils who reside in, and are otherwise eligible to attend a school in, a basic aid school district, but who attend a charter school in a nonbasic aid school district. In regard to these pupils, existing law requires the sponsoring basic aid school district to transfer to the charter school a certain amount of funds, as specified. This bill would authorize a county charter program school to seek in lieu property tax reimbursement from a pupil's school district of residence in certain instances, as specified. (6) Existing law, on or before July 1, 2014, requires the governing board of each school district and each county board of education to adopt a local control and accountability plan and requires the governing board of each school district and each county board of education to update its local control and accountability plan before July 1 of each year. Existing law requires the charter of a charter school to include a reasonably comprehensive description of certain annual goals and the specific annual actions to achieve those goals and requires the charter school to annually update those goals and specific annual actions. Existing law requires the State Board of Education to adopt templates for use by a local educational agency in developing its local control accountability plan and by a charter school in developing its annual goals and specific annual actions to achieve those goals. Existing law requires the state board to adopt the templates in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, and authorizes the board to adopt emergency regulations for purposes of implementing those provisions. This bill would authorize an alternative procedure for the adoption of the templates if certain requirements are met and would deem the adoption of regulations for adopting the templates an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or general welfare. (7) Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools to approve a local control and accountability plan or annual update to a local control and accountability plan for each school district within the county, as specified. Existing law, if a county superintendent of schools has jurisdiction over a single school district, requires the Superintendent to designate a county superintendent of schools of an adjoining county to perform these duties. The bill would, if a county superintendent of schools has jurisdiction over a single school district, require the Superintendent to perform the duties of the county superintendent of schools related to approval of a local control and accountability plan or annual update to a local control and accountability plan. (8) This bill would require the State Board of Education, working in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to report to the Legislature no later than February 1, 2015, regarding the status of implementation of the local control funding formula. (9) This bill would appropriate $4,747,914,000 from the General Fund for the transition to the local control funding formula calculation for the funding of elementary and secondary education. (10) Funds appropriated by this bill would be applied toward the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution. (11) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.