Building Accountability in California: A Review of State Standards and Requirements for K-12 Public School Facility Planning and Design

This study aims to inform the California Department of Education (CDE) in ensuring the standards contained in Title 5 appropriately promote the planning and design of healthy, safe and educationally suitable K-12 school facilities. The study gathers and analyzes K-12 facility standards in ten case study states across the country to understand state policy trends and best practice in the field. The findings further the development of state policies by providing information about existing policies and standards that promote sound K-12 school facility planning and design. The ten case study states are: California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. For each state, an in depth review of state-level school facilities standards and interviews with directors and/or staff in the state program was completed. This report briefly describes the policy and regulatory content of California's Title 5. It then presents summary analysis of the findings focusing on the targeted state policy areas (educational space, minimum essential facilities, indoor human comfort/environmental quality, school site size, planning process, maintenance, and charter schools). The summary analysis identifies lessons from the field on the role of states in setting standards for K-12 facilities planning and design. The report discusses the ways in which the standards structure public accountability and presents implications for California policy based on the findings. A separate Appendix document contains more detailed description of each states' standards in the targeted policy areas and can be found online at http://citiesandschools.berkeley.edu/school-facilities. Appendix A: Research methods is included in this document. [The research and writing of this report was assisted by Ruth Miller, Mark Leinauer, and Deborah L. McKoy. Appendices are contained in the companion document ED573797.]