BILL NUMBER: SB 403 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Liu
FEBRUARY 25, 2015
An act to add Chapter 19 (commencing with Section 53310) to Part
28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of, and to repeal Section 53320 of, the
Education Code, relating to community schools.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 403, as introduced, Liu. California Community Schools Act.
Existing law authorizes a county board of education to establish
and maintain one or more county community schools, and authorizes a
county board of education to enroll certain pupils in county
community schools, including, but not limited to, a pupil who has
been expelled, as specified.
This bill would establish the California Community Schools Act,
which would authorize a local educational agency or school and one or
more community partners, as defined, to form a community consortium
to establish a community school with an integrated focus on
academics, health and social services, youth and community
development, and parent and community engagement, as specified. The
bill would require the State Department of Education, subject to
appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or the
availability of funds from private sources, to make community school
grants available to qualified recipients to fund community schools
and to enhance programs at community schools. The bill would
establish qualification requirements for grant applicants, and would
require grant recipients to comply with specified requirements,
including, among others, conducting periodic evaluations. The bill
would require the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence
and the department to provide technical assistance to local
educational agencies, as specified. The bill would require the
department, on or before November 1, 2019, to report specified
information relating to the formation and operation of community
schools to the education policy committees of the Legislature.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) All children are capable of success.
(b) Schools are the centers of vibrant communities.
(c) Strong families build strong educational communities.
(d) Children succeed when adults work together to foster positive
educational outcomes.
(e) Schools work best when families take active roles in the
education of children. Children are more successful in school when
families and teachers are supported to work as partners.
(f) Hunger, homelessness, health issues, and a lack of access to
intervention and enrichment activities inhibit learning. Schools are
limited in their ability to dedicate time and resources to provide a
wide range of opportunities and supports to ameliorate the impacts of
child poverty, creating an opportunity gap that inhibits children
from succeeding in school.
(g) A community school is a traditional school that actively
partners with its community to leverage existing resources and
identify new resources to support the transformation of the school to
provide enrichment, social services, and additional life skill
opportunities for pupils, parents, and community members at large.
Each community school is unique because its programming is designed
by and for the school staff, in partnership with parents, community
stakeholders, and pupils in response to the needs of the local
community.
(h) Using schools as hubs, community school strategies foster
intentional collaboration and alignment among school districts;
state, county and city government; and postsecondary education,
community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, and business.
By providing in-school supports, enrichment, and extended learning
opportunities outside of normal school hours pupils are more
successful academically, more engaged in their communities, safer,
and better prepared to make a successful transition to adulthood.
(i) The community schools approach is based on a whole child
approach and youth development principles to improve pupil engagement
and build a positive nurturing school climate. Research shows that
community schools have a powerful positive impact on pupils, as
demonstrated by increased academic success, increased attendance,
improved pupil engagement, decreases in grade retention and dropout,
and decreased behavioral problems with a resulting improvement of
school climate.
(j) The integrated pupil support model of a community school
embraces a whole child perspective that recognizes the importance of
a child's health and safety, socioemotional development, behavior,
and relationships to his or her educational success. The study
recognizes that educational success is affected by multiple contexts,
in and out of school. Research clearly indicates that the likelihood
of academic success, especially for disadvantaged pupils, is
enhanced by a more comprehensive set of supports and opportunities.
(k) The local control funding formula calls for a level
educational playing field for high need pupils, which is a key focus
of community schools. Local control and accountability plans take a
holistic view of pupil outcomes, as do community schools. In addition
to pupil achievement, new state priorities and local control and
accountability plans add involvement of parents and the community in
decisionmaking, and prioritize pupil engagement, school climate,
college and career preparation, and other key areas that are highly
aligned with community school strategies.
(l) Successful community schools currently exist in California and
throughout the nation, and should be models for replication.
California schools have benefited from the federal Full Service
Community Schools Program, the federal Promise Neighborhood
Initiative, and from the national community schools movement that has
been recognized by the National League of Cities and the National
School Boards Association. These programs recognize that community
schools are a fundamental equity strategy to address disparities.
(m) Community schools are cost effective because they leverage
existing resources provided by local, regional, state, federal,
nonprofit, and private sources and align and connect programs to the
schools, where the pupils are already congregated and where parents
and the broader community can be engaged.
SEC. 2. Chapter 19 (commencing with Section 53310) is added to
Part 28 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Education Code, to read:
CHAPTER 19. CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
Article 1. Definitions
53310. This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the
California Community Schools Act.
53311. As used in this chapter, the following definitions apply:
(a) "Community consortium" means a partnership established between
a school or a local educational agency and one or more community
partners for purposes of establishing, operating, and sustaining a
community school.
(b) "Community partner" means a provider of one or more community
services or a community organization nonprofit or business entity
with a mission and record of improving conditions in the community.
(c) "Community school" means a public and private partnership to
coordinate educational, developmental, and family engagement and
support, before school and after school programs, and health services
during school and nonschool hours for pupils, families, and local
communities at a public school with the objectives of reducing
absenteeism, increasing pupil engagement and connectedness, improving
academic achievement, building stronger relationships between
schools, pupils, parents, and communities, and improving the skills,
capacity, and well-being of the pupils, families, and surrounding
community residents.
(d) "Community services" includes all of the following:
(1) Primary medical and dental care that is available to pupils
and when possible community residents.
(2) Mental health prevention and treatment services that is
available to pupils and, when possible, community residents.
(3) Academic enrichment activities designed to promote a pupil's
cognitive development and provide opportunities to practice and apply
academic skills.
(4) Programs designed to increase school attendance, including
reducing truancy and early chronic absenteeism rates.
(5) Youth development programs designed to promote young people's
social, emotional, physical, and moral development, including arts,
sports, physical fitness, youth leadership, community service, and
service learning opportunities.
(6) Early childhood education, including prekindergarten, Head
Start, and Early Head Start programs.
(7) Programs designed to do all of the following:
(A) Facilitate parental involvement in, and engagement with, their
children's education, including parental activities that involve
supporting, monitoring, and advocating for their children's
education.
(B) Promote parental leadership in the life of the school and
community.
(C) Build parenting skills.
(8) Expanded learning opportunities for all pupils, including
before and after school enrichment programs, workplace learning
opportunities, and postsecondary partnerships.
(9) Schoolage child care services, including before school and
after school services and full day programming that operates during
school holidays, summers, vacations, and weekends.
(10) Supports to meet fundamental material needs of homeless and
disadvantaged pupils.
(11) Youth and adult job training services and career counseling
services.
(12) Programs that provide assistance to pupils who have been
truant, suspended, or expelled and that offer multiple pathways to
high school graduation, a General Education Development (GED), or
other alternatives to high school completion.
(13) Adult education, including instruction in English as a second
language, adult literacy, computer literacy, financial literacy, and
skills training.
Article 2. General Provisions
53312. (a) Local educational agencies and schools are authorized
and encouraged to form community consortiums with a variety of
community partners to establish a community school or schools with an
integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and
community development, and parent and community engagement that will
lead to improved pupil learning, stronger families, and healthier
communities.
(b) The community schools, formed pursuant to this chapter, shall
strive to become centers of their communities by providing programs
and services for persons of all ages, serving pupils, parents, and
community members throughout the day, including evenings, weekends,
and summer.
53313. The state board and the department shall support and
encourage local educational agencies in the creation of community
schools. All policies, guidelines, and rules and regulations adopted
by the state board pursuant to this chapter shall actively foster the
formation, development, and operation of community schools.
53314. The department may seek funds from nonprofit and private
donors and grants to fund local educational agencies' efforts to
create and support community schools.
53315. The department and the California Collaborative for
Educational Excellence shall assist local educational agencies by
providing technical assistance directly or through referral to
third-party technical service providers. A resource and referral
directory shall be established and maintained by the department when
funds become available, either through state appropriations or other
funding and support.
53316. Subject to appropriation in the annual Budget Act or the
availability of funding from private sources for creation and support
of community schools, the department shall make community school
grants available to fund community schools and to enhance programs at
community schools.
53317. A request for proposal process shall be used in awarding
grants under this chapter. Proposals may be submitted on behalf of a
school, a local educational agency, or a consortium of two or more
schools or local educational agencies. Proposals shall be evaluated
and scored on the basis of criteria consistent with this chapter and
other factors developed and adopted by the state board.
53318. In order to qualify for a grant under this chapter, a
school or local educational agency shall have, at a minimum, the
following components or plan to develop the following components as a
part of the grant proposal in order to sustain a system for
alignment of school and community resources with the needs of pupils
and families:
(a) A local advisory group comprised of school leadership,
parents, and community stakeholders that establishes school specific
programming goals, assesses program needs, and oversees the process
of implementing expanded programming.
(b) A program director or resource coordinator who is responsible
for establishing the local advisory group, assessing the needs of
pupils and community members, identifying programs to meet those
needs, coordinating partnerships and services with community
partners, developing the before and after school, weekend, and summer
programming, and overseeing the implementation of programming to
ensure high quality and robust participation.
(c) A collaborative governance structure for the effective
braiding of school and community resources and family and community
engagement.
(d) Expanded learning opportunities for all pupils, such as before
and after school enrichment programs, workplace learning
opportunities, and postsecondary partnerships.
(e) Access to onsite, coordinated support services for pupils and
families, such as physical and mental health services through
school-based health centers or programs, social services, and youth,
family, and community engagement and development designed to
holistically address the mental, emotional, and physical health of
pupils and to support the acceleration of academic achievement.
(f) Maintenance of attendance records in all programming
components.
(g) Maintenance of measurable data showing annual participation
and the impact of programming on the participating children and
adults.
(h) Documentation of true collaboration between the school and
community stakeholders, including local governmental units, civic
organizations, families, businesses, and social service providers.
(i) A nondiscrimination policy ensuring that the community school
does not condition participation upon race, ethnic origin, religion,
sex, or disability.
53319. A grant recipient under this chapter shall do all of the
following:
(a) Conduct periodic evaluations of the progress achieved with
funds allocated under a grant, consistent with the purposes of this
chapter.
(b) Use the evaluations to refine and improve activities conducted
with the grant and the performance measures for the activities.
(c) Make the results of the evaluations publicly available,
including providing public notice of the availability.
(d) Identify best practices and lessons learned for the purpose of
helping other local educational agencies and schools in the
formation of community schools and to revise the community school
policies of the state board and the department.
53320. (a) The department shall study and report on the formation
and operation of community schools, including, but not limited to,
all of the following:
(1) Best practices that can be replicated by other local
educational agencies and schools desiring to form community schools.
(2) Whether community schools have improved pupil learning, family
and community engagement, school effectiveness in decreasing truancy
and the dropout rate, and physical and mental health of the pupils
and other members of the community.
(3) Whether community schools have met their educational and
community goals.
(b) The department shall report its findings and recommendations
to the education policy committees of the Legislature on or before
November 1, 2019.
(c) Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this
section is repealed on November 1, 2020.