California's Local Control Funding Formula or LCFF took a major step towards advancing equity.  But as LCFF came into existence 10 years ago, education and community leaders in the state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, recognized this new formula might not go far enough in helping to address deeply rooted inequities within its student population.  Through a unique partnership between the local community and school district, the groundbreaking Student Equity Need Index (SENI) was born.

In 2024, the SENI turns ten. It’s an example of a powerful partnership between students, parents, community advocates and school district leaders to drive resource equity. SENI is a research-based index that uses comprehensive academic and community-based indicators to rank schools from highest to lowest according to student need. With these rankings, LAUSD can more accurately understand the needs of its schools and equitably distribute funds to address them. 

In many ways, the SENI is a more robust precursor to the state's new Equity Multiplier,  adopted in the 2023 Budget Act, which will target some additional funding directly to schools.

In this episode, Pedro Salcido, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services and Operations for Los Angeles Unified School District, and Jessenia Reyes, Associate Director of K-12 Policy for the Equity Team at Catalyst California, take us deep inside the SENI.  They share with host Jason Willis how SENI was developed and how it evolved, the impact it has had to date, and how the district and community groups worked together and through some difficult tensions to build the system.

While the SENI originated in California’s largest school district, it’s an exciting homegrown model that districts around the state can learn from and potentially customize to better address their communities’ unique needs.

***Learn more about this topic in our Companion Brief.

About Our Guests

Jessenia Reyes is the Associate Director of K-12 Policy at Catalyst California, a systems change nonprofit organization, and part of the Equity Alliance for L.A.'s Kids that includes Community Coalition in South LA, Inner-City Struggle in East LA, and the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, which advocated for the SENI.

Pedro Salcido is the Deputy Superintendent of Business Services and Operations for Los Angeles USD, the state's largest school district. Prior to his current role, Pedro served as Chief of Staff managing all district academic and nonacademic operations and  initiatives. Among many other roles and accomplishments, he served as the leading staff member who developed and implemented the District’s SENI, an equity-based funding allocation that today has grown to distribute nearly $700 million to the neediest schools in the district..

Links
Catalyst California SENI page
LAUSD SENI page

Budgeting for Educational Equity podcast is presented by CASBO and WestEd. We are grateful to the Sobrato Family Foundation for additional support. Our series is written and produced by Paul Richman and Jason Willis. Music and editing  by Tommy Dunbar. Alyssa Perez and Hannah Jarmolowski at WestEd provide research and develop written briefs that go along with many episodes.