The California Alliance for Arts Education is proud to partner with Education Trust-West on LCAP Watch, an effort aimed at creating public transparency into school district plans and budgets. It will gather completed LCAPs in a central location online to facilitate analysis, monitoring and accountability around these plans.

According to Education Trust-West,

“When Governor Jerry Brown dramatically reformed school funding in 2013, he also required that school districts engage in an open, transparent, and public budgeting and planning process. A central component of this is the Local Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP. The LCAP is the district’s 3-year plan for how it will use state funding to serve all students, including low-income students, English learners, and foster youth.

In the LCAP, the district presents its goals, actions, and expenditures. The district must describe what needs each goal addresses and the metrics being used to measure progress. After 2014-15, districts will report how the actions presented in the LCAP have improved outcomes for students.”

LCAP Watch is managed by the Education Trust–West and represents a coalition of partner organizations, including the Alliance who share our commitment to transparency. Many of these partners have also helped make the content possible.

On August 15, the Alliance joined Ed Trust West, along representatives of Children Now, and California State PTA, to introduce the LCAP Watch website to legislative staff and policy makers at the State Capitol. The site includes a database of hundreds of LCAPs, and it encourages users to view and share LCAPs and closely study these plans. It also shares resources and best practices that support school districts and communities in developing strong LCAPs. In addition to helping school districts and their communities improve local planning, it is intended to inform policy work in Sacramento and strengthen our work to close opportunity and achievement gaps.

The partners share a commitment to the following principles:

 Local Control and Accountability Plans should be transparent to and easily accessible by the public

 Public engagement in district planning will improve schools for all students

Key Details:

 Launched July 8, 2014

 Managed by ETW, content populated in partnership with several other organizations

 Public repository for LCAPs (downloadable PDF/Word)

 Users may view or add plans; if user adds a plan, an administrator must review and approve before the plan shows up on public website (e.g. ensure accuracy of date, etc.)

 Resources will include LCAP guidance across a number of issue areas (e.g. school climate, student engagement, foster youth, and so on)