For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:

(a) “Economically disadvantaged pupils” means either of the following, whichever is applicable:

(1) Pupils described in Section 101 of Title I of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6333(c)(1)(A)(B)). Counts of the pupils described in this paragraph shall be the counts used in the current year apportionment calculations for purposes of Title I of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.).

(2) (A) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for a small school district and for a juvenile court school operated by a county superintendent of schools, the product of the number of pupils eligible for participation in the free meals program for the prior fiscal year, as defined in subdivision (d), and the free meals adjustment factor. The free meals adjustment factor is the quotient, rounded to two decimal places, resulting from dividing the statewide total of economically disadvantaged pupils as defined in paragraph (1) by the statewide total of pupils eligible for participation in the free meals program for the prior fiscal year, as defined in subdivision (d).

(B) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) or subparagraph (A), for charter schools that are funded through the block grant funding model pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 47633) of Chapter 6 of Part 26.8 in the 2006–07 fiscal year, the department shall use counts as of October 2006 of pupils 5 to 17 years of age, inclusive, who are living with families whose annual income is at or below the federal poverty guideline, as collected through the first principal apportionment data collection process, as defined in Section 41601. Commencing in the 2007–08 fiscal year, the Superintendent shall use counts as of October of the prior year of pupils 5 to 17 years of age, inclusive, who are living with families whose annual income is at or below the federal poverty guideline, as collected through the first principal apportionment data collection process, as defined in Section 41601. For purposes of this subdivision, the department may use in the first year of operation of a charter school that is established on or after July 1, 2007, the current year counts of pupils 5 to 17 years of age, inclusive, who are living with families whose annual income is at or below the federal poverty guideline.

(C) The Superintendent may expand upon an existing process of collecting free or reduced price meal data in order to collect from small districts, as defined in subdivision (c), counts of pupils living with families whose annual income is at or below the federal poverty guideline.

(b) “English learner” means a pupil described in subdivision (a) of Section 306 or identified as a pupil of limited English proficiency, as that term is defined in subdivision (m) of Section 52163. Counts of the pupils described in this subdivision shall be the counts reported in the prior year language census.

(c) “Small school district” means a school district that has an annual enrollment of less than 600 pupils based on prior school year CBEDS data and is, for the purposes of this section, designated a rural school by the Superintendent based on the appropriate school locale codes, as used by the National Center for Education Statistics of the United States Department of Education.

(d) “Free meals” means the aggregate number of pupils meeting the income eligibility guidelines established by the federal government for free meals as reported for all schools for which the district is the authorizing agency.

(e) For purposes of subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), the count of economically disadvantaged pupils for a charter school that is operated pursuant to Section 47612.1 shall be calculated without regard to the age of the pupil. A pupil who resides in program housing shall be considered a family of one.

(Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 724, Sec. 26. (AB 1610) Effective October 19, 2010.)