Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Updates
Welcome to “Equity in Action: Community Guide for LCAP Updates.” This guide offers insights and tools for community engagement in California’s educational equity efforts, focusing on the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) updates.
In 2013, parents, students, grassroots, and state equity advocates were pivotal in securing a huge step forward for racial equity in California’s K-12 education system. State leaders applied the values and priorities of California’s communities of color with the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) by sending more funding to school districts for students who have not received the support they need from their schools and districts. By providing additional funding for students learning English, living in poverty, with unstable housing, and impacted by the foster care system, the state’s legislature and governor signaled that districts should be doing more to support students at the margins of opportunity to close the gaps in outcomes – such as supporting academics, reducing suspensions, and improving attendance – between them and their peers. However, a decade later, we still see the racial inequities in academic outcomes that existed before LCFF. Black, Native American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, and English learner students continue to lack the support they need to be successful academically.
While the state’s education leaders need to do much more to transform the education system to center the needs of marginalized students, the legislature and governor recently made changes to Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) that can be used to address racial disparities within districts. These plans, which document how districts plan to spend LCFF funding to meet state educational priorities and address the needs of Black, Native American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, and English learner students, include new opportunities for districts to create an intentional focus on better supporting and closing racial equity gaps.
Engage & Influence
Important LCAP Updates:
*Question to ask your district: How are LCAP goals and actions explicitly targeting the outcomes gaps in our district?
*Questions to ask your district: What student groups in our district are in the red? What actions are you planning to take to address their needs specifically? Have these actions been proven to be successful for these student groups? For schools in the red, how have you engaged community members at those school sites to address the schools’ need?
*Questions to ask your district: How will you share progress toward LCAP goals with the district community annually? How will community members – especially those from communities and families of color and English learners — be involved in this process?
Beginning 2023-24, the state will be sending additional funding directly to schools in acute need of support based on measures like whether a student’s parents finished high school, family income, and how many students have maintained enrollment in the same school over the school year. Districts must create focus goals in the LCAP for each school in their district that receives this funding and must engage members of these school communities in the LCAP planning process. Additionally, districts must include any student group at Equity Multiplier schools with a red Dashboard rating in the focus goals. The district must also address any issues with teacher qualification, preparation, and/or retention at Equity Multiplier schools in the LCAP if necessary.
*Questions to ask your district: Which schools in our district are Equity Multiplier schools? What policies, programs, and services are you planning to support students of color and English learners at Equity Multiplier schools?
*Questions to ask your district: What is your districtwide plan for supporting emergent bilingual students to acquire English? What actions are you including in the LCAP to meet the specific needs of LTELs?
How to get involved and influence your district’s LCAP:
