The 2021-22 Budget: Public School Restrooms Feminine Hygiene Products Mandate

analysis full gutter The 2021-22 Budget: Public School Restrooms Feminine Hygiene Products Mandate MARCH 2021 The Commission on State Mandates (the Controller’s Office (SCO) pays claims from funds Commission) recently found new requirements to appropriated in the state budget. The SCO audits offer feminine hygiene products in public school some claims and reduces payments accordingly. restrooms to be a reimbursable mandate. In this As an alternative to the claims-based process, the post, we provide background on state mandates state in 2012-13 created a K-12 mandates block and the Commission’s recent decision, share grant. The block grant provides upfront per-student our assessment, and provide an associated funding in lieu of submitting claims. Currently, all recommendation. This post fulfills a requirement for active K-12 mandates are included in the block our office to analyze new mandates, as specified in grant. Most districts and COEs participate in the Section 17562 of the Government Code. block grant rather than the traditional claims-based process. The per-student rates vary, with funding Background per K-8 student ($32.18) roughly half of the rate Constitution Requires the State to Reimburse for high school students ($61.94). The higher Local Governments for Mandated Activities. high school rate is in recognition that the most State law tasks the Commission with determining expensive K-12 mandate—related to graduation whether new state laws or regulations affecting requirements—is specific to high school programs. local governments create state-reimbursable The Commission Recently Found New mandates. Typically, the process for determining Feminine Hygiene Product Requirements in whether a law or regulation is a state-reimbursable Public School Restrooms to Be a Mandate. In mandate takes several years. State law further May 2019, the Commission found that requirements requires our office to analyze any new mandates added by Chapter 687 of 2017 (AB 10, C. Garcia) identified by the Commission as a part of our impose a reimbursable state-mandated program, annual analysis of the state budget. In particular, beginning January 1, 2018. The mandate requires state law directs our office to report on the certain schools to stock 50 percent of restrooms annual state costs for new mandates and make with feminine hygiene products (defined as recommendations to the Legislature as to whether tampons and sanitary napkins) at all times at no the new mandates should be repealed, funded, cost to students. The mandate applies to schools suspended, or modified. Below, we discuss the that enroll any students from grades 6-12 and Public School Restrooms, Feminine Hygiene have a student body where more than 40 percent Products mandate. of students are low income. In order to comply Districts Receive Reimbursement Through with the mandate, schools can file reimbursement Mandates Claims Process or Block Grant. claims for costs related to (1) stocking 50 percent The state reimburses school districts and county of restrooms with feminine hygiene products, offices of education (COEs) for mandated activities and (2) purchasing and installing (or retrofitting or either through a claims-based process or from repairing) dispensers for feminine hygiene products, the K-12 mandates block grant. Under the state’s to the extent that the school is not already traditional mandate reimbursement process, equipped with a sufficient number of dispensers in districts submit claims for the actual cost of their restrooms to comply with the mandate. performing each mandated activity. The State 2021-22 LAO Budget Series 1 analysis full gutter Commission Estimates Ongoing Statewide Assessment Mandate Costs of $2.2 Million. In December Commission’s Adjustments to Installation 2020, the Commission published a statewide Costs Are Reasonable. We find the Commission’s cost estimate that projects the ongoing costs adjustment to installation costs—which assume of the mandate. The estimate uses claims data that the first year of claims will be much higher than submitted to the State Controller for 2017-18 ongoing costs—to be a reasonable approach for (reflecting a half-year of costs) and 2018-19. The projecting ongoing mandate costs. The dispensers data consisted of 169 reimbursement claims (97 for purchased for this purposes tend to have a relatively 2017-2018 and 72 for 2018-2019) submitted by long shelf life and can be used for many years. 115 school districts and COEs, representing a Thus, district costs will likely be much lower than the total of 1,410 eligible schools. The Commission amounts claimed in 2017-18 and 2018-19. estimates ongoing costs to be $2.36 per female Reported Costs May Be Slightly Overstated. student in grades 6-12 (the target student group). The Commission used per-student cost estimates This estimate includes the following components: from 2018-19 claims data as the basis for developing • Stocking Restrooms With Feminine Hygiene an ongoing statewide estimate. In reviewing the Products. For 2018-19, the Commission unaudited claims data from the Controller, however, found the cost of stocking restrooms we found numerous districts with per-student with feminine hygiene products to be claims that far exceed the averages. For example, $1.90 per female student in grades 6-12. The the 15 percent of claims with the highest per-pupil Commission’s estimates assume these costs costs were more than three times the average of all continue in future years. claims. Given these numbers, we think the average • Purchasing and Installing Dispensers. costs reported by districts filing initial claims is likely For 2018-19, districts submitted claims for higher than the average cost incurred by all districts purchasing and installing suitable dispensers required to undertake the mandated activities. for feminine hygiene products equivalent to Removing these higher claims from the data reduces $3.70 per female student in grades 6-12. the per-student costs by roughly 25 percent. Given that these claims incorporate upfront Commission Undercounts Female Student implementation costs—related to ensuring Enrollment in Applicable Schools. To extrapolate sufficient restrooms have dispensers its ongoing per-pupil costs statewide, the installed—these first-year costs will decline Commission multiplies its per-student rates by its in future years. The Commission found that estimate of female student enrollment in grades districts that filed claims for this activity in 6-12 at schools with 40 percent or more low-income both 2017-18 and 2018-19 had a roughly students (about 919,000). Their estimates were 90 percent reduction in costs in the second developed using school-level data from the California year. Accordingly, the Commission estimates Department of Education (CDE) that includes the the ongoing costs to be $0.37—10 percent of share of low-income students in each school, but the costs reported by school districts. does not include school-level enrollment by gender. • Indirect Costs. The Commission found that To calculate total enrollment of female students indirect costs associated with complying with at eligible schools, the Commission applied the the mandate were 4 percent of total costs— statewide share of K-12 enrollment attributed to equivalent to $0.09 per pupil. female students in grades 6-12 (27 percent in 2019-20) to total enrollment in eligible schools. To develop a statewide estimate for ongoing Using more detailed CDE data that allowed us to costs, starting in 2019-20, the Commission applies see school level enrollment by gender, we found the $2.36 rate to its estimate of female students that eligible female pupil enrollment for 2019-20 was in grades 6-12 at schools with 40 percent or more 1,150,000. This higher enrollment number suggests low-income students (about 919,000), for total that the Commission’s calculations underestimate statewide costs of $2.2 million. statewide costs. 2021-22 LAO Budget Series 2 analysis full gutter We Estimate Statewide Costs of $2.1 Million. schools have access to feminine hygiene projects To develop our cost estimate, we begin with the free of charge, we recommend the Legislature add Commission’s estimate—$2.36 for each female the mandate to the K-12 mandates block grant. In student in grades 6-12—and make a 25 percent tandem, we recommend increasing the block grant reduction given some claims appear overstated. funding by $2.1 million based on our statewide This results in a rate of $1.86 per student. cost estimate. To derive the new per-student block We then multiply this rate by our estimate of grant rates, we recommend increasing the high 2019-20 enrollment data for female students in school rate more than the K-8 rate, as the mandate grades 6-12 (about 1,150,000). This results in total applies to all high school grades but only a portion statewide costs of $2.1 million. of grades K-8. Accordingly, we recommend increasing the high school block grant funding rate Recommendation by $0.47 per student and the K-8 rate by $0.29 per Add Mandate and $2.1 Million to K-12 student. Mandates Block Grant. Given the intent of Chapter 687 was to ensure students in certain LAO Publications This report was prepared by Michael Alferes, and reviewed by Edgar Cabral and Anthony Simbol. The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) is a nonpartisan office that provides fiscal and policy information and advice to the Legislature. 2021-22 LAO Budget Series 3