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California Department of Education
Official Letter
California Department of Education
Official Letter
December 12, 2018

Dear Select County Superintendents of Schools:

Second Special Advance Apportionment for Charter Schools,
Fiscal Year 2018–19

This special apportionment, in the amount of $80,209,286, is made in accordance with California Education Code (EC) sections 14041 and 47652 for fiscal year 2018–19. The purpose of this special advance apportionment (Charter School Special Advance) is to provide funding to charter schools that are newly operational in 2018–19 or continuing charter schools adding at least one new grade level this year.

This Charter School Special Advance is for the months of December 2018 and January 2019, and equals approximately 18 percent of the charter schools’ estimated funding for eligible average daily attendance (ADA) for the 2018–19 fiscal year. This Advance is calculated pursuant to EC sections 42238.02 and 42238.03, as well as Chapter 6 of Part 26.8 of the EC. The amount apportioned to each participating charter school and charter school-sponsoring local educational agency (LEA) is available on the California Department of Education (CDE) Charter School Special Advance Apportionment web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/specialadvance.asp [Note: The preceding link is no longer valid. Please visit https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/pa1819.asp.]. Note: as of 2018–19, the apportionment certification documents for both newly operational and significantly expanding grade level charter schools have been combined into one apportionment.

Local Control Funding Formula Entitlement Calculations

Newly Operational Charter Schools

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) entitlement calculations for new charter schools are based on the estimated ADA, enrollment, unduplicated pupil percentage (UPP), and district(s) of charter school physical location reported in the Charter School 20 Day Attendance Report data collection.

In accordance with the LCFF statutes, each charter school’s LCFF Transition Entitlement is based on the lesser of the charter school’s estimated 2018–19 Target or Floor. If funded on the Floor, the charter school’s entitlement includes Gap funding equal to 100 percent of the estimated LCFF Need (difference between the LCFF Target and Floor).

A new charter school’s Floor is determined based on the 2018–19 Floor and Gap funding rate per ADA of the school district in which the charter school is physically located. In addition, the UPP used for concentration funding included in the LCFF Target is capped at the lesser of the charter school’s own estimated UPP or the UPP of the district in which the charter school is physically located. If the charter school has more than one physical location, the location with the highest 2017–18 funding rate per ADA and district UPP is used. For additional information on 2018–19 LCFF funding, visit CDE’s Funding Rates and Information web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/ratesandinfo.asp.

Expanding Grade Level Charter Schools

The LCFF entitlement calculations for charter schools that are adding at least one new grade level are based on the ADA reported in the Charter School 20 Day Attendance Report data collection and on the UPP and the district(s) of charter school physical location reported at the Second Principal Apportionment in the prior year.

The methodology used to estimate the 2018–19 Target and 2018–19 Gap funding is consistent with the methodology used to calculate the regular 2018–19 Advance Principal Apportionment. For more information on the 2018–19 Advance Principal Apportionment calculations, refer to the letter on the CDE Principal Apportionment, Fiscal Year 2018–19 web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/advappt1819ltr.asp.

Education Protection Account

The LCFF state aid calculated for newly operational charter schools in this apportionment is reduced by $200 per unit of estimated ADA to reflect the 2018–19 Education Protection Account (EPA) revenues as established by Chapter 36 of Article XIII of the California Constitution. Expanding grade level charter schools will not receive an allocation of EPA for the additional grade levels until the third quarter payment, which will be based on data submitted for the First Principal Apportionment. The CDE will allocate EPA revenues on a quarterly basis, meaning LEAs will receive separate quarterly payments equal to 25 percent of their annual EPA entitlement (for new charter schools this means quarterly payments of $50 for each unit of funded ADA). The second payment will be made in December 2018. Note that future payments may be adjusted for ADA changes and previous over or underpayments of EPA funds. More information on the EPA is available on the CDE’s EPA web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/epa.asp.

Funding In-lieu of Property Taxes

Also included in this special apportionment is funding to sponsoring school districts that were not basic aid in the prior fiscal year to backfill their transfer to charter schools in-lieu of property taxes for the months of December 2018 and January 2019, which equals approximately 18 percent of the charter school’s projected total in-lieu of property taxes funding for the 2018–19 fiscal year. For most charter schools, EC Section 47632 defines the sponsoring LEA for most charter schools as the district that approved the charter, or in the case of a charter that was denied by a district and subsequently approved by a county office of education (COE), the district that initially denied the charter.

School districts that were basic aid in the prior year will not receive an advance apportionment of LCFF state aid for in-lieu of property tax. The amount of in-lieu these school districts are required to transfer for the months of December 2018 and January 2019 is provided on the Charter School Special Advance Apportionment Summary Excel file but an apportionment of LCFF state aid is not reflected in the Payment Schedule by Local Educational Agency Excel file available on CDE’s Charter School Special Advance Apportionment web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/chschspcadv1819.asp.

For a county program charter school whose students do not meet the criteria in EC Section 2574(c)(4), or for a countywide charter whose students reside in a district that was basic aid in the prior year, the sponsoring LEA is the district of residence for those pupils. This means some county-approved charter schools may have multiple sponsoring districts if the school has students who reside in different districts. The In-lieu of Taxes for Countywide and County Program Charter Schools Excel file provides this detail and is available at the web page address noted in the prior paragraph. For a charter that was denied by an LEA and subsequently approved by the State Board of Education (SBE), the sponsoring LEA is the LEA that initially denied the charter or the LEA designated by the SBE pursuant to EC Section 47605(k)(1).

Method for Receiving Charter School State Aid

Pursuant to EC Section 47651, for charter schools that elect to receive funding directly, the warrant is drawn in favor of the superintendent of schools of the county in which the LEA that authorized the charter is located, for deposit to the appropriate funds or accounts of the charter school in the county treasury. For all other charter schools, the funds are deposited in the appropriate funds or accounts of the LEA that authorized the charter. Please refer to the payment schedule for the amounts apportioned to the applicable charter schools and the charter schools’ sponsoring school districts.

The CDE estimates warrants will be issued by State Controller’s Office within three weeks of the date of this letter. For standardized account code structure coding, use Resource 0000, Unrestricted, and Revenue Object 8011, LCFF State Aid – Current Year.

County superintendents of schools were notified of this apportionment by email which was sent to the COE’s CDEfisc email address. The CDE requested that the email be forwarded to all affected school districts and charter schools in the county, and include the links to this letter and the apportionment schedule which are available on CDE’s web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/chschspcadv1819.asp.

What’s Next

Apportionments for the months of February 2019 through May 2019 will be revised based upon data submitted for the 2018–19 First Principal (P-1) Apportionment. ADA for the P-1 Apportionment must be reported to the CDE no later than January 15, 2019. CDE recently released a new web page located at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/specialadvance.asp that contains an overview of the Charter School Special Advance and apportionment timelines.

All communication related to the Principal Apportionment and LCFF funding is available on the CDE’s website, and funding-specific information is sent electronically via the CDE’s Principal Apportionment Section (PASE) listserv. The listserv provides LEAs and other interested parties important information, such as notifications regarding LCFF updates, software releases, key deadlines, reminders of due dates for submission of data, and any other pertinent topics related to the Principal Apportionment. If you do not already belong to the PASE listserv and would like to subscribe, send a "blank" message to: join-pase-contacts@mlist.cde.ca.gov.

If you have any questions regarding this apportionment or about funding for charter schools, please contact the Principal Apportionment Section by phone at 916-324-4541 or by email at PASE@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

 

Caryn Moore, Director
School Fiscal Services Division
Last Reviewed: Tuesday, February 07, 2023

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