System of Support

Supporting local educational agencies and schools to help meet the needs of their students.

California's system of support is a key aspect of California's accountability and continuous improvement system. The goal of the system of support is to help local educational agencies (LEAs) and their schools meet the needs of each student they serve.

LEAs Eligible for Assistance

California's accountability and continuous improvement system, Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), is based on a three-tiered system:

Level 1 – Universal Support for All: No cost resources, tools, and assistance made available to all LEAs
Level 2 –Targeted Support/Supplemental (i.e., differentiated assistance): LEAs that meet the State Board of Education (SBE) eligibility criteria for additional support
Level 3 – Intensive Intervention (Direct Technical Assistance [DTA]): The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) provides more intensive support for eligible LEAs
State Level Intervention - The State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) may, with the approval of the SBE, intervene where the CCEE determines that the LEA meets specified criteria

Universal Support Priority Criteria

Universal support priority is not a new level of support, but, instead, is part of Level 1 – Universal Support for All.

The criteria for universal support priority use the differentiated assistance criteria. The only difference is that the universal support priority criteria only use results from the 2026 Dashboard. The universal support priority criteria are as follows:

The same student group has two or more Red (or for the English Learner Progress Indicator [ELPI], Red or Orange) state indicators on the 2026 Dashboard

LEAs meeting the universal support priority criteria are required to be prioritized for universal support offered by their county office of education (COE).

For more information on universal support priority entry, please see the LCFF Universal Support Priority Flyer (Coming November 2026).

Differentiated Assistance Criteria

The new differentiated assistance criteria for all LEAs are as follows:

The same student group had two or more Red state indicators (or, for the ELPI, Red or Orange) in each of the last three Dashboard years (2024, 2025, and 2026)

LEAs eligible for differentiated assistance will receive support for three years (2026, 2027, 2028).

For more information on differentiated assistance entry, please see the LCFF Differentiated Assistance Flyer.

Direct Technical Assistance Criteria

For the 2026 DTA eligibility determinations, LEAs must meet the following criteria in three out of four years (i.e., 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026):

Student group performance in two or more LCFF State Priority Areas

For more information on the LCFF State Priority Areas, please visit the Local Control Funding Formula Priority Area web page.

LEAs eligible for DTA will receive support for three years (2026, 2027, 2028).

LEAs Eligible for Assistance Data Files

The data files for LEAs eligible for assistance can be accessed on the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) web page.

Schools Eligible for Assistance

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) school support determinations under Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) and Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) will be made following the publication of the 2026 Dashboard. These determinations will mark the first year of California’s three-year eligibility cycle for both CSI and ATSI. More information regarding ESSA school support determinations will be released in December 2026.

Dashboard Technical Guide

More detailed information on how California makes assistance determinations for LEAs and schools can be accessed here:

2026 Dashboard Technical Guide

CSI-Low Graduation Rate

For 2026, any schools with a school-level combined four-and five-year graduation rate less than 68 percent over three years will be eligible for CSI-Low Graduation Rate.

Schools that remained eligible for CSI-Low Graduation Rate in 2025–26 will be evaluated following the publication of the 2026 Dashboard to determine continued eligibility or exit for CSI-Low Graduation Rate. Schools with a three-year combined four-and five-year graduation rate average at 68 percent or above are no longer eligible for CSI based on the CSI-Low Graduation Rate criteria and will exit.

CSI-Low Performing

California must identify at least five percent of Title I-funded schools for CSI-Low Performing using the following hierarchical criteria:

Criterion 1: All Red indicators
Criterion 2: All Red indicators except for one indicator of another Performance Color
Criterion 3: Five or more indicators where the majority are Red
Criterion 4: All Red and Orange indicators

Schools that remained eligible for CSI-Low Performing in 2025–26 will be evaluated following the publication of the 2026 Dashboard to determine continued eligibility or exit for CSI-Low Performing.

For more information on CSI-Low Performing entry and exit criteria, please see the ESSA Assistance Flyer (Coming December 2026).

CSI-Not Exiting ATSI

Schools that do not exit ATSI within four years will be eligible for CSI-Not Exiting ATSI. The CDE last made ATSI entry determinations in 2023–24. Schools that are still in ATSI in 2025–26 have been in ATSI for at least three years. Those ATSI schools that do meet the exit criteria based on the results of the 2026 Dashboard will move into CSI-Not Exiting ATSI category in 2026–27.

ATSI

Schools are eligible for ATSI if one or more student groups meet one of the criteria on the 2025 and 2026 Dashboards.

The student groups used for ATSI are:

Race/ethnicity (i.e., Black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American, Filipino, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, White, and two or more races)
Homeless Students
English Learner Students
Foster Youth Students
Student with Disabilities
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students

Schools that remained eligible for ATSI in the 2025–26 year will be evaluated following the publication of the 2026 Dashboard to determine continued eligibility or exit from the ATSI program.

For more information on ATSI entry and exit criteria, please see the ESSA Assistance Flyer (Coming December 2026).