September 11, 2020

Dear Select County Superintendents of Schools:

First Special Advance Apportionment for Charter Schools, Fiscal Year 2020–21

This special apportionment, in the amount of $7,274,436, is made in accordance with California Education Code (EC) sections 14041, 43505 and 47652 for fiscal year 2020–21. The purpose of this special advance apportionment for charter schools (Charter School Special Advance) is to fund charter schools that are newly operational in Fiscal Year 2020–21.

This Charter School Special Advance apportionment is for the months of July 2020 through November 2020, and equals 37 percent of the charter schools’ estimated funding for the 2020–21 fiscal year. The apportionment is calculated pursuant to EC sections 42238.02 and 42238.03, as well as Chapter 6 of Part 26.8 of the EC. Additionally, as required by EC Section 43505, apportionments for newly operational charter schools in fiscal year 2020-21 will be based upon enrollment of the charter school as of information day, October 7, 2020, reduced by the 2019–20 statewide average rate of absence, in lieu of average daily attendance (ADA). For newly operational charter schools in Fiscal Year 2020-21, all subsequent references to ADA shall instead refer to the ADA proxy as calculated pursuant to EC Section 43505. 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) 2020–21 Charter School Special Advance Apportionment web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/chschspcadv2021.asp.

Local Control Funding Formula Entitlement Calculations

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) entitlement calculations for new charter schools are based on the estimated enrollment, unduplicated pupil count, and the school district(s) where the charter school is physically located as reported in the Pupil Estimates for New and Significantly Expanding Charter Schools (PENSEC) data collection.

The LCFF entitlement is comprised of the base, supplemental, and concentration grants. The base grant is calculated by multiplying the base grant per ADA rate by the estimated enrollment reported in the PENSEC report for each grade span, adjusted for the 2019–20 average rate of absence. Current year funding rates for the per-ADA base grants and supplemental and concentration grant factors used in the LCFF entitlement calculation are available on the CDE’s Funding Rates and Information web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/ratesandinfo.asp.

The Unduplicated Pupil Percentage (UPP) is used for the supplemental and concentration grant calculations. The UPP used for the concentration grant is capped at the lesser of the charter school’s own estimated UPP, the UPP of the authorizing school district or the UPP of the district in which the charter school is physically located. If the charter school has more than one reported physical location, the location with the greatest 2019–20 school district UPP is used.

Education Protection Account

The state aid calculated for newly operational charter schools in this apportionment is reduced by $200 per unit of estimated ADA to reflect the 2020–21 Education Protection Account (EPA) revenues as established by Chapter 36 of Article XIII of the California Constitution. 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 first payment will be made in September 2020. 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 of in-lieu of property taxes to charter schools for the months of August 2020 through November 2020, which equals 28 percent of the charter schools’ projected total in-lieu of property taxes funding for the 2020–21 fiscal year. For most charter schools, EC Section 47632 defines the sponsoring LEA as the district that approved the charter, or in the case of a charter that was denied by a school district and subsequently approved by a county office of education (COE), the district that initially denied the charter.

For a COE-approved charter school whose students do not meet the criteria in EC Section 2574(c)(4), a COE-authorized countywide, or a State Board of Education (SBE) authorized charter school whose students reside in a school district that was basic aid in the prior year, the sponsoring LEA is the district of residence for those pupils. That means some county- and SBE-approved charter schools may have multiple sponsoring districts if the school has students who reside in different districts.

School districts that were basic aid in the prior year will not receive an advance apportionment of state aid for backfilling in-lieu of property tax transfers. The amount of in-lieu these school districts are required to transfer for the months of July through November is provided on the Charter School Special Advance Apportionment Summary Excel file, including the In-lieu of Taxes for Countywide, County Program, and State Board of Education Authorized Charter Schools Excel file, but an apportionment of 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/chschspcadv2021.asp.

CDE has released an optional tool, In-lieu of Property Taxes Payment Calculator, to calculate the in-lieu of property taxes monthly payment pursuant to EC Section 47635(a). The calculator is available at: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/inlieucs.asp [Note: the preceding link is no longer valid].

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 school 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 school. Please refer to the payment schedule for the amounts apportioned to the applicable charter schools and the charter schools’ sponsoring school districts. The payment schedule is available on CDE’s web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/chschspcadv2021.asp.

The CDE estimates warrants will be issued by State Controller’s Office within two to 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/chschspcadv2021.asp.

What’s Next

Apportionments for the months of December 2020 and January 2021 for newly operational charter schools will be revised based on the information day enrollment as reported by the charter school; the payment for December and January should occur in late December. The enrollment count based on the informational day for the December 2020 payment must be reported to the CDE no later than October 31, 2020.

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 email at PASE@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Wendi McCaskill, Associate Director
School Fiscal Services Division

WM:ka