The K-12 Omnibus trailer bill language was released by the Department of Finance, which provides additional information on the Governor’s budget proposal. Key components include proposed amendments to the Learning Recovery and Emergency Block Grant as well as clarification around attendance recovery.

Instructional Continuity 

The Budget proposes the following statutory changes:

  • Allow LEAs to add attendance recovery time to the attendance data submitted to the Department of Education, both for funding purposes (ADA reporting) and chronic absenteeism (individual student attendance reporting).
    • Attendance recovery programs can take the form of Saturday school, intersessional school, or before/after school, and would be exempt from minimum day requirements.
  • Require LEAs to provide students with access to remote instruction or support to enroll at a neighboring LEA for emergencies lasting 5 or more days.
  • Encourage LEAs to provide hybrid or remote learning opportunities to students unable to attend school.

 

Trailer bill language provides the following clarification on attendance recovery:

  • Recovery shall not result in the crediting of more than the equivalent of 15 days of attendance for in a school year and shall not be credited with more than one day of attendance for any calendar day.
  • ADA earned may be generated in increments of 15 minutes, as documented by the teacher of each attendance recovery classroom. Credit would be provided with a full day of attendance once the amount of time that student participates in an attendance recovery program exceeds the applicable minimum day minutes requirements.
  • Program shall be under the immediate supervision and control of a teacher employee of the LEA.
  • On or before June 30, 2025, CDE shall develop and maintain on its webpage guidance to support LEAs in creating and implementing high-quality attendance recovery programs, in conjunction with before and after school programs and intersessional programs.
  • Commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year Guide for Annual Audits, shall incorporate verification of the adoption of the policies, including loss of apportionment for attendance and found to be noncompliant, unless compliance verification for those policies is already included in the audit guide.

(Section 15, Pages 50-52, Instructional Continuity and Attendance Recovery (Amends Education Code Sections 46010, 46111, 46300, 46300.1, 46300.2, 46300.6, 46393, 51747, 51749, 51749.5, 51749.6, and Adds Education Code Sections 46210, 51742, 51742.5, 51743, 51743.5, and Uncodified Section))

 

Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant

The budget proposes statutory changes to include focusing the use of unexpended allocated Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant funds to address the needs of students most impacted by learning loss, based on an assessment of needs and incorporated into the existing Local Control and Accountability Plan development process and clarify that the allowable uses of the funds include professional development aligned to the new mathematics framework as well as tools for staff to recognize and offer mental health support to students.

 

Trailer bill language provides additional information regarding the needs assessment including:

  • Beginning July 1, 2024, an LEA receiving apportionments shall develop a needs assessment regarding the use and expenditure of any unencumbered block grant funds and ensure that the needs assessment include a review of each of the following metrics:
    • Assessment of academic performance in English Language and Arts (ELA) including across school sites and at the LEA level, based on the performance of student groups identified in the “Very Low” or “Low” status levels on the California School Dashboard; and all students within the LEA whose scale score places them in the lowest achievement level or on the low end of the second-lowest achievement level.
    • Assessment of chronic absenteeism, including at across school sites, and at the LEA level based on the performance of student groups identified in the “Very High” or “High” status levels on the California School Dashboard or, for high schools, at comparatively low levels of performance based on reports on the department’s website.
    • CDE is to provide written technical assistance for schools and LEAs that describes how to use local metrics.
    • LEAs may contract with a third-party to develop or otherwise support the development of the needs assessment.
  • On or before January 31, 2025, the instructions developed by the state board shall specify that expenditures of all funds received by the LEA that are not encumbered as of July 1, 2024 shall be included in the LCAP for the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028. The instructions shall be updated to address the following:
    • Require identification of all planned expenditures using the LCAP within the description of actions and analysis of the implementation of those planned expenditures in the Annual Update.
    • Require identification of at least one metric to monitor the impact of each identified action or service and require the LEA to articulate the rationale for selecting among the permissible use of funds.
    • For the 2027-28 plan, require LEAs to review the rationale for selecting among the permissible use of funds included in the 2025-26 plan in order to assess the overall effectiveness.

(Section 3, Pages 11-13, Learning Recovery Supports (Amends Education Code Sections 32526, 52073.3, 52075 and Adds Education Code Section 52064.4))

 

LAO Report

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has released a new report, Key Fiscal and Policy Issues Facing California, with a variety of interesting figures and observations regarding the complex policy issues facing California. Specifically pertaining to K-12 education, the report recognizes the following questions the Legislature will need to consider:

  1. How Will the Legislature Prioritize Among Its Educational Objectives?
  2. How Will the Legislature Align Its Fiscal and Policy Decisions With Its Educational Objectives?
  3. How Could the Legislature Improve the Ways It Measures Educational Access and Outcomes?
    1. The Legislature puts testing, data, and reporting requirements in place to track educational access and outcomes, with the overarching goal of conducting effective oversight and improving educational programs.
    2. The Legislature may want to continue looking for ways to make these assessment tools and data as reliable and meaningful as possible and also continue exploring ways to make longitudinal and cross-segment data more consistent and readily available.