What is LCAP in California?

LCAP Funding in California?

We’ve been hearing a lot about LCAP in California. It stands for the Local Control and Accountability Plan. These plans represent a big change in how California manages its school finances. To understand LCAP, you need to know another acronym: LCFF, which stands for Local Control Funding Formula. LCAPs are the central documents for making sure that local control over funding (LCFF) for schools is spelled out clearly and follows the law based on the 2013-14 California state budget that was passed with bi-partisan support and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

The LCFF calls for school districts to set both district-wide and school-wide goals and spells out the specific action steps needed to achieve those goals for all students but especially for English Learners, foster youth, and low-income students. All members of the school community must be involved in developing, reviewing and supporting the LCAPs: parents, students, community members, school employees and other stakeholders.

The LCAP is designed to provide school districts and their communities with more local control and make it easier to respond to the needs of their students. At the same, the LCAP makes school districts more accountable to provide the necessary programs and resources to create a level playing field for all students. Finally, for the first time ever the LCAP gives parents access to the school district’s budget and planning process and allows parents to help determine its local priorities and approach.

The LCAP is measured according to eight priorities:

1. Student Engagement
2. Parent Involvement
3. School Climate
4. Student Outcomes
5. Student Achievement
6. Course Access
7. Implementation of State Standards
8. Basic Services

The law also has minimum requirements that districts need to follow in oder to engage with parents and the local community:
• A public review of the LCAP including a hearing where the public can comment on the plan.
• If a district has at least 15% of its students who are English Learners, it will need to work with an English Learner advisory committee who can help provide input for the LCAP.
• The district also has to solicit input from a parent advisory committee composed of parents of English Learners, low-income students and foster youth.
• The Superintendent of each district must notify the community about opportunities to comment on the proposed LCAP. All comments require a response in writing.

The Latino Family Literacy Project is an excellent solution for the Parent Involvement portion of the LCAP for better student achievement with Spanish speaking parents and students to improve reading and vocabulary.

Each school can send 3-4 staff from each school site to attend an in-person workshop in their area, or the district can host a workshop at their district to make it a cohesive district training. Alternately, the online webinars offered for Staff Development will train staff to use one of the age-specific programs to implement with Spanish-speaking parents. At least one of the staff trained will need to be bilingual (Spanish/English) to facilitate the program with Spanish-speaking parents.

For more information, visit the California Department of Education or click here to read the FAQ’s.

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