Office of Senator Anthony J. Portantino
SB 98– Fact Sheet
Contact: Tara McGee – (916) 651-4025 or [email protected]
PROBLEM
California is one of six states that does not
consider enrollment figures for determining
state aid to school districts. Districts plan their
budgets and operations on enrollment but
receive funds based on attendance. For
example, if a school district enrolls 100
students but their attendance rate is 95%, the
school district must still prepare as if 100
students will attend class every day.
While school districts are morally and legally
required to comply with compulsory education
laws and conduct outreach to re-engage
students who are chronically absent or
habitually truant, California funds schools
based on average daily attendance (ADA). As
such, school districts do not receive funding if
a student does not attend school on any given
day despite having fixed educational,
programmatic and operational costs.
BACKGROUND
California has been using the Average Daily
Attendance (ADA) method for calculating
school funding for more than five decades.
ADA is the total attendance divided by the
number of school days in session. Only days in
which a student is under the guidance and
direction of certificated teachers are
considered “days in session.” ADA is always
equal to or less than enrollment because
students may be absent (whether excused or
unexcused). ADA is only used by California
and five other states (Idaho, Kentucky,
Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas) and is
perhaps the most inequitable method used to
fund public education.
Average Daily Membership (ADM, or
enrollment) is the current counting method
used by most states. ADM is an average of
the number of students enrolled in the public
school system over a period of time. Some
states take an enrollment census over a period
of a certain number of days during the school
year and some count every instructional day.
California compulsory education law requires
everyone between the ages of six and eighteen
years of age to attend school. Some students,
however, have a pattern of unexcused
absences. Current law includes robust
accountability requirements, including an
annual review of chronic absenteeism data and
consideration of the services and programs to
support students who are chronically absent or
habitually truant. School districts are also
required to provide truancy notifications to a
parent or legal guardian when students are
absent from school.
School districts are also required to implement
a system to accurately track pupil attendance
to raise the awareness of the effects of truancy
and chronic absenteeism, identify and address
factors contributing to habitual truancy and
chronic absenteeism, and ensure that pupils
with attendance problems are identified as
early as possible to provide applicable support
services and interventions. School attendance
review boards (SARBs) also exist composed
of school and community members who meet
regularly to diagnose and resolve persistent
student attendance or behavior problems.
Over the last decade, there have been several
legislative efforts to move away from
attendance-based funding system to one taking
student enrollment into consideration. In 2013,
the Legislature explored a bill that sought to
move in that direction. However, since it was
the same year the Local Control Funding
SB 98 (Portantino)
Additional Education Funding based on
Average Daily Membership (Enrollment)
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Office of Senator Anthony J. Portantino
SB 98– Fact Sheet
Contact: Tara McGee – (916) 651-4025 or [email protected]
Formula (LCFF) was adopted, the bill did not
move forward. In 2020, a bill proposed to
create a supplemental payment to school
districts on top of their LCFF allocation by
taking into account a school district’s
enrollment figures. As a result of the COVID-
19 pandemic, the Legislature did not hear the
bill. In 2022, SB 830 (Portantino) was
introduced and would provide additional
funding based on ADM. SB 830 passed the
Senate but never received a hearing in the
Assembly.
SUMMARY
SB 98 would define “average daily
membership” as the quotient of the
aggregate enrollment days for all pupils in a
school district or county office of education,
from transitional kindergarten to grade 12,
divided by the total number of instructional
days for the local educational agency (LEA) in
an academic year. LEA includes school
districts, county office of educations and
charter schools.
SB 98 would require a LEA to receive as
additional education funding the difference
between what it would have received under the
LCFF based on average daily membership and
what it would have received under the LCFF
based on average daily attendance for that
fiscal year. This includes the LCFF base grant
and both supplemental and concentration
grants. The data used to calculate additional
funding provided by this bill would be from
the same year or years that the LEA used to
determine their funding based on ADA.
In order for a LEA to be eligible for additional
educational funding, SB 98 would require they
submit to the SPI the average daily
membership for the prior academic year and to
demonstrate a maintenance of effort to address
chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy.
SB 98 would require LEAs to use at least 30%
of their additional education funding to
existing LEA expenditures to address chronic
absenteeism and habitual truancy.
EXISTING LAW
Existing law establishes a public school
financing system that requires state funding for
LEAs to be calculated pursuant to LCFF, that
includes ADA as a component of that
calculation.
Existing law requires the SPI, on or before
February 20 of each year, to make a first
principal apportionment of funds and, on or
before July 2 of each year, to make a 2nd
principal apportionment of funds to each LEA.
SUPPORT
California School Employees Association
(Sponsor)
Los Angeles Unified School District (Sponsor)
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony
Thurmond (Co-Sponsor)
Version: 1/30/2023