Improving School Climate through LCAPs

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids has published an analysis of the school climate priority in the Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) of the State’s 50 largest school districts, which represents over 40 percent of the state’s public school students. The analysis concluded that while some of the report findings are encouraging, there remains significant room for improvement.

Here, you can read two consecutive annual updates of the LCAPs for the same 50 large school districts. This is to assess whether LCAPs are improving in addressing the basic requirements of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) related to the school climate priority, where there is a need for further improvement, and whether districts are truly providing an adequate Annual Update. Under the LCFF statute, the annual update must include a review of the progress toward the goals included in the existing local control and accountability plan (LCAP), as well as an assessment of the effectiveness of the specific actions described in the existing LCAP toward achieving the goals, and a description of changes to the specific actions the school district will make as a result of the review and assessment.

The analysis found that 100 percent now include goals to decrease suspension rates, compared to 92 percent in first year LCAPs, and 84 percent of districts include evidence-based discipline strategies such as restorative justice, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and Social Emotional Learning, which is an increase from 70 percent in districts’ first year LCAPs.