CSBA’s Research and Education Policy Development (REPD) team has contributed to the creation of new resources to inform local educational agency leaders on critical topics including state and federal reporting requirements and late start implementation.
The brief “Drowning in Documentation: Reporting Requirements for California LEAs” and fact sheet “The impact of an unfunded mandate implementation: Findings from a CSBA study on ‘late start’” are both available on CSBA’s website.
“The REPD team is committed to providing CSBA members with timely and relevant resources,” said Senior Director Mary Gardner Briggs. “This overview of the reporting requirements is a visual way of communicating concerns our members have been raising, and we already have reports of this document’s use in local and statewide advocacy with legislators.”
Reporting requirements
In addition to their ultimate responsibility of preparing young people for successful, post-TK-12 lives, LEAs must comply with an ever-growing list of mandated state and federal reports, data submissions and planning documents.
Government officials rarely phase out reporting requirements — even when they are duplicative or no longer actively reviewed by the requesting agency — and continue to add new ones as programs are introduced.
Preparing the extensive number of plans and reports draws resources away from LEA staff’s responsibilities and disproportionately burdens the state’s smaller school districts and county offices of education. While medium and large LEAs can retain anywhere from a handful to dozens of employees to who can work on these documents, in very small LEAs, the superintendent and/or principals have to juggle the tasks with their administrative and leadership duties or hire outside consultants.
Smaller LEAs and those with fewer resources also often miss out on applying for public funding via discretionary grants as they can’t take on the workload, which creates opportunity gaps.
Efforts related to completing reporting requirements can distract from initiatives around school improvement and climate at LEAs of all sizes. And with so much time dedicated to compiling data, it may not even be reviewed or used effectively.
“Given the number of requirements and deadlines, leaders’ focus can shift towards compliance, at the expense of strategic efforts to improve student experiences and outcomes,” Briggs said. “Time is a finite resource, and neither the state nor LEAs have sufficient people or time to use the data in a truly strategic and cohesive way.”
Drowning in Documentation includes a breakdown of required plans, reports or data submissions by content areas and specifies whether they are tied to the state or federal government or both.
“This document reflects the minimum reporting and plan requirements,” Briggs said. “Many districts and county offices also have additional reports and plans associated with state and federal discretionary programs, as well as outside grants. We also omitted human resources and accounting documents not associated with educational requirements.”
Briggs emphasized that CSBA recognizes the importance of data, planning and accountability.
“Certainly, the underlying intent for most of these reports is to ensure public resources are used effectively and advance the educational quality that California’s students receive. But this expanding list of requirements has become unmanageable,” she said. “Our document presents the mandates in a way that makes the fragmentation and administrative burden clear as we advocate for smarter, more coherent strategies to accountability.”
CSBA is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1315, which would require the California Department of Education to produce a report on the number of state and federal reports LEAs must produce to identify where efforts could potentially be condensed and whether some reports could be eliminated.
Late start
The first state in the country to mandate later school start times for middle and high schools, California chose to align itself with research that finds early schedules can negatively impact adolescent sleep patterns and overall well-being.
SB 328, which was opposed by CSBA due to its one-size-fits all approach and infringement on local control, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 and required LEAs to establish later start times (no earlier than 8 a.m. for middle schools and 8:30 a.m. for high schools) by the 2022–23 academic year.
Since implementation, the Legislature hasn’t reviewed the initiative or made an effort to address LEAs’ lingering policy concerns. CSBA’s research team opted to conduct a holistic project throughout 2023–24 to measure the law’s impact at the local level.
The findings of a statewide survey that received 325 responses and represented more than 200 LEAs are detailed in the fact sheet.
“Many school leaders who responded to this study reported that implementing later school start times was going well with no major concerns. At the same time, we had important concerns about implementation, which have real implications for LEAs, students and staff,” said CSBA Principal Research Manager Jeremy Anderson, the fact sheet’s author. “The most alarming issue is students missing afternoon instructional time due to later school days and extracurricular activities, especially with learning recovery efforts taking place. Other standout issues included before- and after-school transportation and staffing.”
The bill is another example of a mandate that is passed without consideration for the supports that LEAs need to make it successful.
“At the end of the day, districts need more local flexibility and support on start times. Many of those who responded to our survey supported this mandate’s purpose but needed more resources to implement it with fidelity so that students receive the benefits of a more aligned sleep schedule,” Anderson said. “CSBA is going to consider ways to help alleviate the policy pressures of SB 328 and would like to see future mandates consider what flexibility and structural supports LEAs need to benefit California students most directly before they are enacted.”
