Existing law requires, on or before July 1, 2014, the governing boards of school districts and county boards of education to adopt local control and accountability plans using a state template adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the local control and accountability plan to include, among other things, a description of annual goals for all pupils and specified subgroups of pupils to be achieved for each state priority, as specified, including, among other state priorities, parental involvement and school climate.
This bill would establish the Community Engagement and School Climate for Continuous Improvement Initiative as a grant program for purposes of improving school conditions and climate. The bill would require a school district or
charter school that chooses to apply for one of 30 competitive grants of up to $1,000,000 to submit an application to the State Department of Education to receive funding. The bill would require a school district or charter school that is not awarded a grant under that provision, but chooses to apply for grant funding of up to $45,000, to submit an application to the department. The bill would require a county office of education that chooses to apply for grant funding of up to $250,000 to submit an application to the department. The bill would require a school district, charter school, or county office of education to include in its application information about how it proposes to use the grant to improve community engagement and school climate, as provided. The bill would require the department to award grants in accordance with specified criteria.The bill would require a school district, charter school, or county office of education that receives a grant to
provide a local contribution of matching expenditures equal to at least 25% of the total grant award it received. The bill would require a grant recipient to submit an evaluation of the activities it undertakes with a grant to the governing board of the school district, the charter schools chartering authority, or the county board of education, as applicable, and the department, as provided. The bill would require the department to compile the information from these evaluations as part of an overall evaluation of the implementation of the grant program, and would require the department to submit a report to the Legislature on its findings on or before January 1, 2023.The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to facilitate the engagement of the broad range of stakeholders involved in the development of the statewide system of support to develop the California Student and Family Engagement and School Climate Roadmap, as provided. The This
bill would require, on or before March 1, 2019, the Superintendent to convene a technical design group to develop criteria for vetting and certifying school conditions and climate surveys, as provided. The bill would authorize, beginning in the 201920 school year, school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to use one of the states vetted school conditions and climate survey tools to survey pupils, families, teachers, classified staff, and administrators. The bill would make its provisions contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for its purposes.
