Education finance: local control funding formula: low-income pupils: pupils experiencing homelessness.

Existing law establishes a public school financing 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 funding pursuant to the local control funding formula to include a base grant that in each fiscal year is adjusted for inflation by the percentage change in the annual average value of the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services for the United States, as specified. Existing law requires the local control funding formula to include, in addition to the base grant, supplemental and concentration grant add-ons that are based on the percentage of pupils who are unduplicated pupils, as defined to include English learners, pupils eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and foster youth, as specified. Existing law requires county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools to annually report their enrollment of unduplicated pupils to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as specified. Existing law requires pupils who are classified in more than one of these groups to be counted only once for these purposes. This bill would require, for the 2022–23 fiscal year, the inflation adjustment to the base grant for a school district or charter school to instead be 15%. For purposes of the local control funding formula, the bill would replace pupils who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals with low-income pupils, as defined to included pupils whose household income level is at or below 250% of the federal poverty level, as adjusted annually, or who is eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and would include pupils experiencing homelessness, as defined, in the categories of pupils who are unduplicated pupils for purposes of determining eligibility for supplemental and concentration grants. In order to determine income level, the bill would require a school to use an alternative household income data collection form for any pupil not determined to be eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as specified, and would require the State Department of Education to develop a sample form. The bill would place reporting requirements on local educational agencies to implement these provisions and would also make conforming changes. By imposing additional duties on county superintendents of schools, school districts, and charter schools related to unduplicated pupils, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the local control funding formula, in part, to be based on average daily attendance, which for school districts is based in part on the 2nd principal apportionment regular average daily attendance for the current or prior fiscal year, whichever is greater, and requires an adjustment for the calculation of average daily attendance for a sponsoring school district, as defined. Existing law requires the prior fiscal year average daily attendance for specified school districts to be increased by the prior fiscal year 2nd principal apportionment average daily attendance. This bill instead would require the calculation of the average daily attendance for school districts to also be based on the computation of the 2nd principal apportionment regular average daily attendance for the average of the 3 most recent prior fiscal years, if greater than that of the current or prior fiscal year, would specify the adjustments to be made to this computation for a sponsoring school district, and would also make conforming changes. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide 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 the statutory provisions noted above.