The Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) is all about ensuring community colleges are funded, at least in part, in how well their students are faring. It is upending how California’s community colleges receive state money by basing general apportionments – discretionary funds available to community college districts – on three calculations:
- A base allocation, which largely reflects enrollment.
- A supplemental allocation based on the numbers of students receiving a College Promise Grant, students receiving a Pell Grant and students covered by AB 540.
- A student success allocation based on outcomes that include the number of students who are earning associate degrees and credit certificates, transferring to four-year colleges and universities, have completed transfer-level math and English within their first year of college, have completed nine or more career education units and have attained the regional living wage.
The SCFF’s metrics are in line with the goals and commitment set forth in the California Community Colleges’ Vision 2030 and can have a profound impact closing achievement gaps and boosting key student success outcomes. It was created in coalition with organizations such as the Campaign for College Opportunity, Education Trust-West and other key stakeholders.
Resources
- General Frequently Asked Questions about the SCFF - July 2023 (PDF). Non-technical Frequently Asked Questions can be accessed here: SCFF Non-Technical FAQs - Updated December 2021 (PDF)
- Equity- and Student Centered Strategies in the Context of the SCFF (PDF). This document describes how colleges are maximizing equitable outcomes for students.
- SCFF Resource Estimator User Guide - November 2023 (PDF). This document provides districts with a planning tool that allows users to develop SCFF out-year projections by changing factors related to all components of the SCFF to estimate funding amounts.
- SCFF Resource Estimator Nuts & Bolts Webinar. This recording includes a high-level overview of the SCFF and instructions for accessing the Resource Estimator. The corresponding deck can be accessed here: SCFF Resource Estimator Nuts & Bolts Webinar (PDF).
- Procedure for Obtaining User Log-Ins to the SCFF Resource Estimator (PDF).
- SCFF Metric Definitions - Updated January 11, 2022 (PDF). Earlier Metric definitions can be accessed here: FY 2019-20 Metric Definitions - Updated December 2, 2019 (PDF)
- Updates on the SCFF (PDF). This document outlines updates to the SCFF following the 2019-20 budget.
Success Data
Current law requires the Chancellor’s Office, commencing with the 2019–20 fiscal year, to publicly post data used to calculate the supplemental and student success allocations. Data is sortable by community college district.
Annually, we will post on our website a preliminary version of the data for the most recently completed fiscal years by November 15, and a final version of that data by March 15. The SCFF Metric Definitions resource was reviewed internally and updated in January 2022. Although minor edits were made, no substantive changes have been made to the metric definitions since the FY 2019-20 implementation.
