AB 2496

The Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, an initiative approved by the voters as Proposition 98 at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, amended the California Constitution to, among other things, require school districts maintaining an elementary or secondary school to adopt a school accountability report card for each school. The act also requires, by statute, the governing boards of school districts maintaining an elementary or secondary school to annually issue a school accountability report card that includes certain information for each school in the school district, publicize those reports, and notify parents and guardians of pupils that a hard copy of those reports is available upon request, as specified. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, in collaboration with, and subject to the approval of, the executive director of the State Board of Education, to develop and maintain the California School Dashboard, a web-based system for publicly reporting performance data on the state and local indicators included in evaluation rubrics. Existing law requires a local educational agency to develop annually a summary document known as the local control funding formula budget overview for parents. Existing law requires, before the governing board or body of a local educational agency considers the adoption of a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) or an annual update to the LCAP, certain things to occur, including that the superintendent of the school district, the county superintendent of schools, or the charter school present a report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview for parents on or before February 28 of each year at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board or body of the local educational agency, as specified. This bill would require the department, on or before March 1, 2027, to develop a crosswalk that indicates where information comparable to what is required to be included in the school accountability report card can be found on the California School Dashboard or another internet website, web page, or system managed by the department, as provided. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2029, to certify that all data elements required to be included in the school accountability report card, except specified data elements, are either available in a substantially similar, but not necessarily identical, way on the department’s internet website or other public data source, or are in progress toward being available on the department’s internet website. The bill would require the department, within 60 days of the state board’s certification, to update the crosswalk as part of an internet website that includes a history of the school accountability report card. This bill would also authorize, instead of require, the above-described report on the annual update to the LCAP and the local control funding formula budget overview to be presented, as provided.