Comprehensive Support and Improvement

School Eligibility and Exit

CSI School Eligibility and Exit Criteria

California will use the California School Dashboard (Dashboard) to determine school eligibility and exit criteria from CSI. School eligibility and exit are determined for the following categories:

1. CSI-Low Graduation Rate
   
   
2. CSI-Low Performing (Not less than the lowest-performing five percent of Title I-funded schools)
   

For specific CSI eligibility and exit criteria, please reference the Dashboard Technical Guide:

• 2025 California School Dashboard Technical Guide: ESSA School Support (DOCX)

School Eligibility Data Files

ESSA Assistance Status Data Files

For information about TSI and ATSI, please visit the CDE Targeted/Additional Targeted Support and Improvement web page.

Additional Information

Information pertaining to all closed out CSI LEA and COE subgrants can be found on the CSI LEA Archives and CSI COE Archives web pages.

Senate Bill 101 (2025 Budget Act), consistent with the ESSA State Plan approved by the State Board of Education, requires that funding eligibility determinations be made on a formula basis, with no provision for discretion or exception. Therefore, there is no appeal process for eligibility determinations. LEAs who fail to submit and certify accurate data will be provided with technical assistance focused on the LEA’s data management process pursuant to California Education Code Section 60900(f).

For additional questions, please contact the Accountability Development and Policy Analysis Unit by email at Dashboard@cde.ca.gov.

Planning Requirements

School Plans

School planning and LEA assistance for each school that meets the criteria for CSI will be incorporated into the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and school planning processes.

Assembly Bill 716 , signed by the Governor on September 18, 2018, and codified in the California Education Code sections 64001–65001, streamlines and aligns state and federal planning processes. Effective January 1, 2019, this law renames the Single Plan for Student Achievement to the School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA). Additionally, the law contains the following key provisions:

• Allows the SPSA to meet ESSA requirements for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement planning
  
  
• Allows single school districts and charter schools to utilize the LCAP to serve as the SPSA, provided that the LCAP meets the ESSA school planning requirements and the stakeholder requirements established in subdivision (a) of Section 52062
  

Additional Planning Flexibility

1. Beginning with the release of the 2022–23 ESSA Assistance Status Data File, Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) Community of Practice (CoP) schools eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria with less than 100 enrolled students in the prior school year, have the option to forgo all CSI planning and implementation activities. For more information, please review the DASS CoP tab.
   
   
2. Furthermore, LEAs with DASS CoP schools eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, have the option to utilize the LCAP to meet CSI planning requirements. However, DASS CoP schools eligible under the CSI Low Performing criteria, must continue to use the SPSA (or an alternative that meets federal planning requirements) to meet CSI planning requirements, unless they are a single school district or charter school as noted above.

Addressing CSI Planning Requirements through the LCAP

To support LEA school planning efforts for single school districts, charter schools, and LEAs with DASS CoP schools eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, the CDE developed a CSI Planning Summary that explains how to use the LCAP to meet CSI planning requirements.

Additionally, LEAs with schools that meet the criteria for CSI will continue to complete the CSI prompts located in the Plan Summary of the LCAP, as applicable.

More information on how to address the CSI planning requirements through the LCAP can be found on the DASS CoP tab.

Federal planning requirements are established in the California Education Code Section 64001 .

Federal Requirements

Section 1111(d) of the ESSA requires the State to notify each LEA that serves schools that meet the criteria for CSI.

Upon receiving notification from the State, and in partnership with educational partners and for each school that meets the criteria, the LEA shall:

• Locally develop and implement a plan for the school to improve student outcomes
  
  
• Approve each plan
  
  The Plan must:
  
  
  • Be informed by all State indicators, including student performance against State-determined long-term goals;
    
    
  • Be based on a school-level needs assessment;
    
    
  • Include evidence-based interventions; and
    
    
  • Identify resource inequities, which may include a review of LEA- and school-level budgets, and address those inequities through implementation of the plan.

Additional Information

LCAP and SPSA instructions for CSI are located on the LCAP web page.

Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) Community of Practice (CoP)

Overview

DASS schools serve California’s highest risk students. To reaffirm California’s commitment to the DASS program and to distinguish the uniqueness of these schools and the students they serve, DASS schools that meet eligibility criteria for CSI Low Graduation Rate or CSI Low Performing, are referred to as DASS CoP schools beginning with the 2022 California School Dashboard (Dashboard).

At the September 2022 State Board of Education (SBE) meeting (DOCX), the SBE which serves as the state education agency (SEA) granted approval for DASS CoP schools identified under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria to implement differentiated improvement activities. The approvals granted by the SEA at the September 2022 SBE meeting are effective with the release of the 2022 Dashboard and corresponding 2022–23 ESSA Assistance Status Data File.

Additionally, DASS CoP schools that meet the eligibility criteria for CSI Low Graduation Rate, and that predominately serve students returning to education after having exited secondary school without a regular high school diploma or who, based on their grade or age are significantly off track to accumulate sufficient academic credits to meet high school graduation requirements, have the flexibility to participate in differentiated CSI activities per ESSA, Section 1111(d)(1)(C)(i).

Differentiated Improvement Activities

Based on ESSA Section 1111(d)(1)(C)(i-ii) and approvals granted by the SEA, DASS CoP schools identified under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria are permitted to implement the following differentiated improvement activities:

Differentiated Improvement Activity 1

Based on ESSA Section 1111(d)(1)(C)(ii),

Any LEA with a DASS CoP school/s/ identified under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, with less than 100 enrolled students in the prior school year, has the option to forgo implementation of all CSI-related improvement activities pursuant to ESSA Section 1111 (d)(1)(B), for its DASS CoP CSI Low Graduation Rate school/s/ only.

What this means:

1. LEAs that exercise this flexibility do not have to develop or implement a CSI plan for its DASS CoP school eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria.
   
   
2. LEAs that choose to forgo the development or implementation of a CSI plan at its DASS CoP school eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria as described above, will also forgo the CSI funding associated with that specific school/s/.
   
   
3. Before deciding to forgo school improvement activities at its DASS CoP schools eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, LEAs are strongly encouraged to make this decision in collaboration with the DASS CoP CSI Low Graduation Rate school/s/ and its educational partners.
   
   
4. LEAs that exercise this flexibility are required to add the following statement to Prompt 1 of the CSI section of the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Summary:
   
   

   [NAME OF SCHOOL/S/], a Dashboard Alternative School Status Community of Practice school eligible for Comprehensive Support and Improvement Low Graduation Rate with less than 100 enrolled students, in collaboration with its local educational agency and educational partners, will forgo all improvement activities and applicable funding pursuant to the flexibility allowed by the Every Student Succeeds Act and approved by the California State Board of Education.

Differentiated Improvement Activity 2

Based on ESSA Section 1111(d)(1)(C)(i),

Any LEA with a DASS CoP school/s/ identified under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, regardless of the number of students enrolled, has the option to use the LEA’s LCAP to meet its CSI planning requirements. CSI planning requirements can be found on the Planning Requirements tab.

Guidance on Using the LCAP to Address CSI Planning Requirements for DASS CoP Schools

LEAs that choose to meet the CSI planning requirements for a DASS CoP school eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria must ensure that it addresses each of the CSI planning requirements within the LCAP. As a reminder, the CSI plan must:

1. Be developed in partnership with the school and educational partners;
   
2. Be based on a school-level needs assessment;
3. Be informed by all state indicators, including student performance against state-determined long-term goals;
4. Include evidence-based interventions; and
5. Identify resource inequities and address those inequities through implementation of the plan.

While the following provides guidance as to how each requirement may be addressed within the LEA’s LCAP, LEAs have local flexibility in determining how best to address the CSI plan requirements within the LCAP.

If an LEA is a traditional school district with DASS CoP school/s/ eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, all prompts in the CSI section of the LCAP Plan Summary must be completed.

If an LEA is a single school district or direct-funded charter school with DASS CoP school/s/ eligible under the CSI Low Graduation Rate criteria, prompts two and three of the CSI section of the LCAP Plan Summary must be completed. Single school districts and direct-funded charter schools do not need to complete the first CSI prompt (“Schools Identified”).

Addressing Requirement 1: Partner with the school and educational partners in the development of the CSI plan

The LEA must provide an explanation of how it worked with the DASS CoP school and meaningfully engaged its parents, students, and other educational partners in the development of the CSI plan. The LEA may provide this description in the second and third prompts of the CSI Summary or in the Engaging Educational Partners section of the LCAP.

Addressing Requirements 2 and 5: The plan must be based on a school-level needs assessment and must identify resource inequities

The LEA must describe how the school-level needs assessment informed the development of the plan and must identify resource inequities that were identified during the school-level needs assessment. The LEA may provide these descriptions in the Reflections on Identified Needs in the Plan Summary section, in the second CSI prompt within the Plan Summary section, and/or, in the explanation of why the LEA has developed a particular goal.

Addressing Requirements 3 through 5:

The LEA has the following options to address Requirements three through five:

• Option A: The LEA may develop a specific goal to address the identified needs of the DASS CoP school; or
  
  
• Option B: The LEA may address the identified needs of the DASS CoP school within one or more of the current goals in the LCAP.

Regardless of which option the LEA chooses, the LEA must address each of the following requirements within the applicable goal/s/:

• At a minimum, the goal/s/ must include measures of progress for each of the state indicators that lead to the school being eligible for CSI, including disaggregated measures of progress for student group/s/ served by the school, if applicable. LEAs are encouraged to include additional measures of progress related to the needs identified in the school-level needs assessment, which will enable the LEA to determine the effectiveness of actions in making progress towards addressing the identified needs.
  
  
• The goal/s/ must include evidenced-based actions designed to address the needs identified during the school-level needs assessment. The goal must also include actions to address resource inequities that were identified during the school-level needs assessment.
  
  
• LEAs are encouraged to note action/s/ funded with CSI funds within the description of the action.
  
  
• In the subsequent year, the LEA must provide an analysis of the implementation and effectiveness of these actions as part of the Goal Analysis.

For more information about how to address CSI planning requirements through the LCAP, please visit the CSI Planning Summary web page.

Information pertaining to all closed out CSI LEA subgrants can be found on the CSI LEA Archives web page.

For Frequently Asked Questions related to DASS CoP, please visit the Technical Assistance tab.

Resources

CDE Continuous Improvement Resources

CDE DASS

CDE Active DASS Schools

CDE Planning Summary

CDE ESSA

CDE ESSA Assistance Status Data Files

CDE Local Control and Accountability Plan

CDE September 2022 State Board of Education meeting, Item 3 (DOCX)

Funding

Local Educational Agencies

The ESSA provides resources and assistance to LEAs to improve student achievement and outcomes in schools that meet the criteria for CSI.

Eligibility

LEAs with schools that meet the criteria for CSI are eligible to receive funding.

School Eligibility Data Files

ESSA Assistance Status Data Files

Fiscal Information

CSI LEA Fiscal Information

Applications for Funding

CSI LEA Applications for Funding

Authorized Use of Funds

CSI LEA Authorized Use of Funds

Related Content

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 as amended by ESSA in 2015 (PDF; 3MB)

County Offices of Education

Consistent with the system of support goal to build the capacity of LEAs to support their schools, the California Budget Act appropriates ESSA funding to COEs for the purpose of supporting the statewide system of technical assistance and support for LEAs within its county that serve schools that meet the criteria for CSI.

Eligibility

A COE with at least one LEA in its county that serves schools that meet the criteria for CSI is eligible to receive funding.

Data Files

ESSA Assistance Status Data Files

Fiscal Information

CSI COE Fiscal Information

Program Information

CSI COE Program Information

Applications for Funding

CSI COE Applications for Funding

Related Content

ESEA of 1965 as amended by ESSA in 2015 (PDF; 3MB)

Monitoring

The CDE is responsible for conducting compliance monitoring for LEAs with schools eligible for improvement under the ESSA through the Federal Program Monitoring (FPM) process. Such compliance monitoring is conducted by the Title I, Part A Monitoring and Support Office and the Professional Learning Support and Monitoring Office using the School Support and Improvement (SSI) Program Instrument and the Supporting Effective Instruction (SEI) Program Monitoring Instrument, respectively. Additionally, the CDE provides focused compliance technical assistance and support for LEAs selected for FPM reviews.

Compliance Monitoring Information and Resources

Title I, Part A Monitoring and Support

Provides compliance monitoring technical assistance and support for LEAs with Title I, Part A programs and offers information to prepare for reviews, with links to training materials and other relevant topics.

Title I, Part A Monitoring and Support

SSI Program Instrument (DOCX)

SSI Program Instrument Checklist (DOCX)

For questions related to SSI compliance monitoring, please contact the Title I Monitoring and Support Office at TIMSO@cde.ca.gov.

Title II, Part A Monitoring and Support

The SEI Program Monitoring Instrument is inclusive of Title II, Part A federal and state legal requirements organized into statutory core items and supporting items arranged under seven general CDE dimensions. During monitoring reviews, the SEI Program Instrument is used to determine whether an LEA is meeting the requirements of program items during the CDE FPM process.

Title II, Part A – Supporting Effective Instruction

SEI Instrument 2025–26 (DOCX)

LCAP Federal Addendum – Title II, Part A – Prioritizing Funding
Provides guidance and criteria for LEAs to address the LCAP Federal Addendum provision related to Title II funding being prioritized to CSI and TSI sites.

SEI 02 FPM Presentation (PPTX)
Webinar resource with instructions, criteria, and guidance for LEAs to meet federal program requirements.

For questions related to SEI compliance monitoring, please contact the Professional Learning Support and Monitoring Office at TitleII@cde.ca.gov.

Resources

Program Contacts

• For questions regarding ESSA school support criteria and determinations for CSI, please contact the Accountability Development and Policy Analysis Unit by email at Dashboard@cde.ca.gov.
  
  
• For questions regarding the CSI funding application process and programmatic implementation, please see the FAQs below or contact the School Improvement and Support Office (SISO) by email at SISO@cde.ca.gov.
  
  
• For information regarding the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and school planning processes please contact the Local Agency Systems Support Office by email at LCFF@cde.ca.gov.
  
  
• For questions related to School Support & Improvement compliance monitoring, please contact the Title I Monitoring and Support Office at TIMSO@cde.ca.gov.
  
  
• For questions related to Supporting Effective Instruction compliance monitoring, please contact the Professional Learning Support and Monitoring Office at TitleII@cde.ca.gov.

Webinar Resources

Webinar resources related to the ESSA for CSI, TSI, and ATSI for LEAs and COEs.

CDE ESSA School Support Webinar Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Please visit the new ESSA School Support FAQs web page for technical guidance and support.

Program Resources

• CDE ESSA School Support Webinar Resources
  
  
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as amended by ESSA in 2015 (PDF; 3MB)
  
  
• CDE ESSA
  
  
• California School Dashboard
  
  
• CDE Active DASS Schools
  
  
• CDE DASS
  
  
• CSI Plan Summary
  
  
• Planning for the LCAP and School Plan
  
  
• CSI-Low Graduation Rate FAQs
  
  
• Dashboard Technical Guide
  

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Other Related Resources

• Evidence-Based Interventions Under the ESSA (PDF)
  
  
• CDE Evidence-Based Interventions Under the ESSA
  
  
• CDE Continuous Improvement Resources
  
  
• Ways 2 Equity Playbook

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