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Grants to California K-12 school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education for programs to reduce school absenteeisim and dropout rates. An Intent to Submit must be submitted prior to the full proposal. Funding is intended to support initiatives that keep at-risk students in school such as social-emotional teaching strategies, culturally responsive approaches, extracurricular activities, bullying prevention education, and community-based family, health, and developmental services rendered on school premises.

The Learning Communities for School Success Program (LCSSP) provides funds to local education agencies (LEAs) to support programs aimed at improving student outcomes by reducing truancy and supporting students who are at risk of dropping out of school or are victims of crime. The goals of the LCSSP are to support evidence-based, non-punitive programs and practices aimed at keeping the state’s most vulnerable pupils in school.

Funded Program Activities - The LCSSP allows for a wide variety of programs and strategies to address the needs of K-12 vulnerable students. Allowable programs, include, but are not limited to:

- Establish/support community schools that participate in community-based efforts to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services at a school site to pupils, families, and community members.
- Implement programs and activities to improve attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism.
- Implement restorative practices to improve retention rates, reduce suspensions and other school removals, and reduce the referral of pupils to law enforcement agencies.
- Implement activities that advance social-emotional learning, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), culturally responsive practices, and trauma-informed strategies.
- Establish partnerships with community-based organizations to support the implementation of evidence-based, non-punitive practices that further the goals of keeping the state’s most vulnerable students in school.
- Increase staffing within a LEA whose primary purpose is addressing ongoing chronic attendance problems.

Students in elementary school, and especially kindergarten to third grade, who are chronically absent, are documented to have a much higher rate of dropping out of school by age eighteen. Programs raising awareness of the effects of chronic absenteeism on young children would be an appropriate use of LCSSP grant funds.

Early intervention with students in middle school who are demonstrating disruptive behavior, trauma, or mental health challenges can be critical in reducing their risk of dropping out. Addressing the factors that are contributing to chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy, including suspension and expulsion, may benefit these students. The students also may benefit from referrals to school-based health centers, school nurses, school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, and other pupil support personnel for case management and counseling.

Community supports that help the high school student learn how to avoid behavior that results in dropping out and entering the school-to-prison pipeline can help that student lead a successful and productive life. Ensuring that these students are identified as early as possible to provide applicable support services and interventions may be the key to their graduation from high school. Engaging in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, such as mentoring, tutoring, the arts, service learning, career education, and others, are known to increase pupil connectedness to school.

Examples of allowable proposed grant programs and activities include, but are not limited to:

- Implementing programs directed at students in elementary school, especially kindergarten to third grade, who are chronically absent.
- Implementing positive-disciplinary measures, including restorative justice practices and referrals to School Attendance Review Boards (SARBs), as an alternative to suspensions and expulsions.
- Developing and implementing early intervention programs with students in middle school who demonstrate disruptive behavior, trauma, or mental health challenges.
- Developing and implementing early intervention programs for chronically absent and habitually truant students, including suspension and expulsion that provide referrals to school-based health centers, school nurses, school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, and other pupil support personnel for case management and counseling.
- Establishing community support and partnership programs that promote co-curricular and extracurricular activities, such as mentoring, tutoring, the arts, service learning, career education or others, to increase pupil connectedness to school.
- Implementing youth development strategies that promote the three protective factors—caring relationships, high expectations, and meaningful participation.
- Developing partnerships among LEA homeless liaisons and with community supports to connect homeless children, youths, and their families to resources and services that meet their needs.
- Implementing bullying prevention programs (including cyberbullying) that include prevention and education.
- Implementing strong School Wellness Policies that comply with the federal mandates required in the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010.

Program outcomes in the LCSSP application can target, but are not limited to, improvement in pupil engagement; improvement in school climate; and expansion or maintenance of evidence-based, non-punitive practices.

A LEA that receives a LCSSP grant is required to use the grant funds for planning, implementation, and evaluation of activities in support of evidence-based, non-punitive programs and practices to keep the state’s most vulnerable pupils in school.

Allowable Grant Fund Expenditures:

- LEA employees working on LCSSP grant activities.
- Contracted services and direct service providers.
- Direct costs associated with programmatic interventions, such as training and release time, project materials and supplies, and services required by project staff, service providers, parents, and students.
- Reasonable and necessary travel costs for staff training and on-site technical assistance. Travel costs related to the project shall be reimbursed at rates not greater than those established in bargaining unit agreements to which the LEA is subject.
- Noncapitalized equipment costs of less than $5,000 per item. Equipment purchased with grant funds may only be used by personnel assigned to the program. The amount budgeted for individual equipment cannot exceed the percentage of time the person using the equipment is assigned to the program. Funds from other sources must contribute to equipment costs designated for shared-use with other programs and costs are to be prorated.
- The percentage used to determine indirect costs is not to exceed the CDE-approved Indirect Cost Rate.