How are school districts funded?

School funding is very complicated.  For the purpose of bargaining, our primary source of available dollars is from the general fund and is based on LCFF funding.  This is a little over simplified, but if you take our average daily attendance rate times the cost of living times the number of students, by grade level, with extra money for unduplicated pupils ... -the list and calculations continue.  Here is a slide from Sean Martin’s 1st Interim Budget presentation from the December 11, 2025 School Board meeting with more detailed calculations.  

Every district receives the same COLA, (CA statutory Cost of Living), so to compare ourselves to neighboring districts, we’ll focus on two critical parts of the calculation:  ADA and UPP.  ADA, average daily attendance, is officially established in P2 around March.  UPP is unduplicated pupil percentage; it is calculated by dividing the number of "unduplicated" high-need students (English learners, foster youth, and students eligible for free/reduced-price meals) by the total enrollment. A district's UPP determines the amount of supplemental and concentration grants in their LCFF funding; once the UPP is over 55% the additional funds are notable.  Most of FCUSD’s supplemental funding goes to the sites based on their number of UPP…in other words it is allocating the money to the students who earn it and need it.  This is separate from monies like Title 1 or Community Schools Grants which not part of the general fund.

Chapter	District	2024-25 enrollment	2024-25 ADA	UPP%*
FCEA	FCUSD	21,630	94.99%	39.61%
TRUE	Twin Rivers	22,562	91.3%	91.3%
EGEA	Elk Grove	63,159	92.7%	62.5%
NTA	Natomas	11,027	93.3%	69.6%
RTPA	Rocklin	11,597	95.49%	26.5%
SJTA	San Juan	39,199	92.5%	63.8%
SCTA	Sac City	26,415	91.2%	66%

*UPP is officially calculated as a three year average - this column is strictly from 2024-25 for comparison but is a close estimate