System of Support

California is in the midst of implementing a new public school accountability system based on the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which overhauled public school finance and accountability. A key part of California’s new approach is a refocused system of support for local educational agencies (LEAs) (school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education [COEs]), which is based on a three-level framework:

• Support for All LEAs and Schools (Level 1): Various state and local agencies provide an array of resources and voluntary assistance that all LEAs may use to improve student performance at the LEA and school level and narrow disparities among student groups across the LCFF priorities, including recognition for success and the ability to share promising practices.
• Differentiated Assistance (Level 2): County superintendents, the California Department of Education (CDE), charter authorizers, and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) provide differentiated assistance for LEAs, in the form of individually designed assistance, to address identified performance issues.
• Intensive Intervention (Level 3): The State Superintendent of Public Instruction or, for charter schools, the charter authorizer may require more intensive interventions for LEAs with persistent performance issues over a specified time period.

Each of the three levels represents a type of assistance available or provided to LEAs, not a status or label applied to LEAs.