In a response to an administrative complaint brought by parents and community organizations, including CDF-CA, the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) has found that the Long Beach Unified School District misallocated $24 million in funds meant to increase or improve services for high need students last year. As a result, the school district will have to make significant adjustments to its education spending plan to provide increased services for students this school year.
While the California Department of Education has ordered districts to correct their spending, this is the first time that a county office of education has found that a district improperly credited itself as having spent funds for high need students, and called for the district to redress this error by increasing its expenditures to high need students in the subsequent school year.
The administrative complaint, brought under a process called the Uniform Complaint Procedure, was filed in April 2017 by parents Guadalupe Luna and Marina Roman Sanchez, and Latinos in Action-California and the Children’s Defense Fund-California, who are represented by non-profit law firm Public Advocates, Inc.
For now, the group must await a decision by the California Department of Education to know what the ultimate result will be of the April complaint and an August appeal.