J-13A Emergency Waiver - School Business Advisory Services

Request for Allowance of Attendance Due to Emergency Conditions (Form J-13A)

The request for Allowance of Attendance Data Due to Emergency Conditions (Form J-13A) is used to obtain approval of attendance and instructional time credit pursuant to a material decrease (EC 46392), school closure (EC 41422), or lost/destroyed records (EC 46391). This approval, along with other attendance records, serves to document a local educational agency’s (LEA) compliance with instruction time laws and provide authority to maintain school for less than the required instructional days and minutes without incurring a fiscal penalty to the LEA’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funding.

Independent Study Requirements

AB 130 modified the requirements for filing J-13A requests when they experience a material decrease in their average daily attendance (ADA) by adding EC 46393. This requires LEAs to include certification in their affidavits that they have a plan to offer independent study, and to include that plan with their affidavit and first J-13A waiver request submission to our office each fiscal year.

The plan shall comply with all of the following:

Applies to any student impacted by a closure of any reason identified in EC 46392 within ten days of a closure, including but not limited to, an epidemic
Requires reopening in person as soon as possible once allowable by a city or county health officer
Includes information regarding establishing master agreements in a reasonable amount of time

Please note that plans do not need to comply with new independent study requirements for: 1) live interaction by grade level, 2) synchronous instruction by grade level, 3) tiered reengagement, or 4) transition to in-person instruction within five instructional days upon request.

Submission Procedures

For each request the LEAs representative will complete the relevant sections of Form J-13A (Sections A-D). The governing board must then approve by completing Section E - Affidavit of School District, County Office of Education, or Charter School Governing Board Members. CDE no longer requires hard copy wet signatures as long as Government Code 16.5 requirements governing digital signatures are met. Scanned wet signatures are also acceptable. Please note that Charter Schools must submit their request to their authorizing LEA for approval, who will then forward it to our office for approval.

Once the majority of the governing board members have approved the request, the LEA should make a copy for their records and submit the request to our office. Do not send the form directly to the CDE. We will review the information submitted, along with supporting documentation, and forward to the California Department of Education (CDE) for approval. The CDE will then notify both our office and the requesting LEA of its approval status once their review is complete.

In the event of closure due to emergency conditions, there is no specific deadline to submit Form J-13A as there is not an immediate impact to LCFF funding. Therefore, there is not an urgent need to file Form J-13A in the midst of the emergency, though we recommend filing as soon as possible thereafter.