EFC is expected family contribution. You get the federal EFC by filing the FAFSA. Did your daughter currently in CC not need any financial aid? You fill out the application with your income and assets, and the computer generates the EFC. From that you can figure out if you are entitled to federal grants and subsidized loans. Some schools also use the information to calculate if they will give you some of their own financial aid.
There is a second application for financial aid used by mostly private colleges, the CSS. It is much more involved and the schools decide if you qualify for aid. Just to complicate things, some schools also generate their own number and call it an EFC.
Going to public schools OOS usually doesn’t yield great financial aid. Oregon, Washington and Maryland are not schools that meet full financial need. You have great options in California. The first thing you should do is steer your kids away from OOS public schools.