Bill No.: HB0127                  Drafter:  DRN

LSO No.:  11LSO-0124              Effective Date:  7/1/2011

Enrolled Act No.:  HEA0098

Chapter No.:

Prime Sponsor:     Select Committee on School Finance

Catch Title:       School finance recalibration.

Subject:  K-12 school finance.

Summary/Major Elements:

• Carries forward new cost basis established by consultants based upon research and practice

• Department of Education and Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB) work together to streamline teacher quality data efforts from recalibration work into a single data repository
• Provides for the continuation of one AWEC from the recalibration and an additional AWEC effective immediately, ending June 30, 2012
• Department of Education and PTSB will pay for positions out of existing resources
• $350,000 is provided for support and contract costs on data repository

• Block grant is now made available electronically by the Department of Education

• Reading Assessment and Intervention (changes in response from management audit committee report last year)
• Department of Education approves reading assessment instruments for consistency across state in reporting of longitudinal data
• Measures reading for students at the school-level in grades K-3, rather than only grade 1 and 2 and requires at least 85 percent of students read at grade level by the end of third grade
• Requires schools not meeting 85 percent goal to report to the Department of Education an improvement plan containing at a minimum: student teacher ratios and use of tutors and instructional facilitators

• School foundation program payments are modified for School Foundation Program Account cash flow purposes, as follows:
• Recapture Districts
• Recapture districts that have local revenues in excess of their guarantee by more than 300% pay 50% of their recapture amount in January 15 and balance by June 15
• Recapture districts that have local revenues in excess of their guarantee by less than 300% pay 40% of their recapture amount in January 15 and 60% of balance by June 15
• Entitlement Districts
• Entitlement payments are paid out in the following manner: 15% August 15, 10% September through April, and 5% May
• Advanced Payments
• Provides advance payments to recapture districts and entitlement districts that receive 20% or less of their guarantee from state revenue
• Advance shall not exceed 20% of district guarantee
• The advance will be paid September 1 and repaid December 15
• If not paid by December 15, interest starts to kick in at the rate of 6%, with repayment due by June 15
• School districts report monthly cash flows for school year 2010-11 to the Department of Education by July 31, 2011 for use by the JAC and JEC during the interim

• Student-teacher ratios of 16:1 for grades K-3
• Imposes specified student-teacher ratios for grades K-3 of 16:1
• Calculation of the average class size to be across the district, excluding charter schools
• Waivers are approved by State Superintendent of Public Instruction for circumstances related to school facility capacity, student performance, demonstration of positive student achievement, or for other reasons related to the delivery of the education program to students
• Starting school year 2011-12, the Department of Education will provide reports to school districts and the first waivers will be eligible for school year 2012-13

• School configurations for funding based off prior year configuration

• Average salaries for staff are those adopted into law that have been adjusted by the External Cost Adjustment in prior years

• Assessment component in model will not be adjusted further by the external cost adjustment

• Implements a monitoring process effective through next model recalibration (subsection “(u)”)
• JEC receives a series of component monitoring reports providing information on model cost-based levels vs. model funding levels
• Based on reports, JEC reports any need for adjustment to JAC when establishing an ECA
• JAC develops ECA recommendation to Legislature, and has ability to target adjustment by component when deemed necessary

• Prohibits school districts spending block-grant funds on student drug testing if districts do not have prior approval of student’s parents

• Retirement reimbursement for special education and transportation exclude “employee share” increase from 2010 Budget Session

• Instructional Facilitators (IF) funded at a percentage basis of 60% rather than a dollar amount to keep the number of IF positions predictable to school districts
• Increase of $4.5 million in supplemental budget bill
• Any unexpended funds revert from school districts back to school foundation program account

• Section 3 – Carries out the monitoring process by LSO reports to JEC and JAC prior to November 1, 2011

• Section 6 - Model components forwarded in legislation through "ATTACHMENT A"