diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index ca5b383..e7d9066 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
  * Fixed cqlshlib.test.remove_test_db (CASSANDRA-12214)
 Merged from 2.1:
  * cannot use cql since upgrading python to 2.7.11+ (CASSANDRA-11850)
+ * Allow STCS-in-L0 compactions to reduce scope with LCS (CASSANDRA-12040)
 
 
 3.8
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/LeveledCompactionTask.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/LeveledCompactionTask.java
index 39c5d64..c633937 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/LeveledCompactionTask.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/LeveledCompactionTask.java
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
     @Override
     protected boolean partialCompactionsAcceptable()
     {
-        return false;
+        return level == 0;
     }
 
     protected int getLevel()