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Stay updated on the latest legislative changes affecting K-12 education, including the 2014-15 operating budget, transportation funding, and policy legislation. Learn about bills with fiscal impacts and other important K-12 related bills.
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Legislative Update April 25, 2014 JoLynn Berge, OSPI 2014 Annual Conference
Agenda • K-12 Operating Budget • Pupil Transportation • General Apportionment • Policy Legislation • Bills with Fiscal Impacts • Other K-12 Related Bills • Community Eligibility Provision
2014-15 Transportation Funding • STARS Fully Funded. • Report 1026A, Line D.5. shows what you would have received this year. • Stay tuned for additional information.
Transportation --- Transition 2.0 • $558K statewide. • Only for those districts losing under STARS. • Only for districts with efficiency ratings over 95%. • OSPI process (to be determined) will be by application.
SHB 6552 – Improving Student Success • Increases funding in the 2014-15 school year as follows: Lab Science Class Size Enhancement, MSOC enhancement for Grades 9-12, Increased Prototypical High School Guidance Counselor Allocation. • Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) students benefit from these funding increases through the running start rate.
SHB 6552 – Lab Science Class Size • Provides an enhanced class size of 19.98. • Students generating additional teachers equals all 9-12 enrollment, including Vocational and Skill Center enrollment. • Multiply the student enrollment by 0.08333. • Enhancement calculation is as follows: (Enrollment * ((1/19.98)-(1/28.74))*(1 + 0.2))
SHB 6552 – MSOC Grades 9-12 • Students enrolled in grades 9-12 including CTE and Skill Center Students generate an additional $164.25 in MSOC. • This additional funding is provided through the general education allocation, and does not increase Vocational minimum expenditures or Skills Center allocations.
SHB 6552 – Guidance Counselors • Increases the allocation of guidance counselors per prototypical high school from 2.009 to 2.539. • Increases the other CIS per 1,000 funding ratio for Vocational programs from 2.02 to 2.72 and for Skill Centers from 2.36 to 3.06.
Impact on Running Start Rates • ALE enrollment generates a per student allocation based on the regular running start rate, even if the ALE enrollment is in a vocational or skill center program.
K-1 High Poverty Class Size “For grades K through 1 the superintendent shall, at a minimum, allocated funding to high poverty schools for the 2014-15 school year based on an average class size of 24.10 full-time equivalent students per teacher. The superintendent shall provide funding for a class size reduction in grades K through 1 to the extent of, and proportionate to, the school’s demonstrated actual average class size up to a class size of 20.3 full-time equivalent students per teacher.”
Policy legislation Bills with a fiscal impact
E2SHB 2207 – Basic Ed. Funding • Eliminates the reduction in state basic education funding that occurs in counties with federal forest lands. • Prohibits OSPI from offsetting basic education allocations with a district’s federal forest revenues if the school district has a poverty level of at least fifty-seven percent to the extent that those revenues do not exceed $70,000. • Provides that OSPI may offset the portion of revenues in excess of $70,000.
HB 2276 – Residential School/ESDs • Specifies that for the purpose of chapter 28A.190 the term school district includes any ESD that has entered into an agreement to provide a program of education for residential school residents or detention facility residents on behalf of the school district.
SHB 6552 – Other Provisions • Requires the OSPI to develop curriculum frameworks for a selected list of career and technical courses that may be offered by high schools or skill centers whose content is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is considered equivalent in full or in part to science or mathematics courses that meet high school graduation requirements.
SHB 6552 – Other Provisions • Requires districts to, at a minimum, grant academic course equivalency in mathematics and science for a high school CTE course from the list approved by the state board beginning with the 2015-16 school year, and requires school districts to make at least one CTE course available that is considered equivalent to a mathematics or science course, and provides a waiver opportunity from this requirement in the case of districts that have less than 2,000 students.
SHB 6552 – Other Provisions • Increases the instructional hours requirements for student in grades 9-12 from 1,000 to 1,080 beginning in school year 2015-16 and to 1,000 for students in grades 1-8, and specifies that these hours may be calculated using a district-wide annual average of instructional hours over grades one through 12 beginning in the 2015-16 school year. • Requires school districts to provide instruction that provides the opportunity to complete 24 credits for graduation beginning with the graduating class of 2019.
SHB 6552 – Other Provisions • Five day exemption for seniors is retained. • Eliminates the culminating project beginning with the class of 2015. • Requires the SBE to adopt rules to implement the career and college ready requirement. • Permits school districts to apply for a waiver to implement the career and college ready graduation requirements for the class of 2020 or 2021 instead of the graduating class of 2019. • Requires the WSSDA to adopt a model policy and procedure for granting waivers to individual students for up to two credits required for high school graduation.
Policy legislation Other K-12 Related Bills
2SSB 6062 – School Data Internet Access • Requires each school district to post a copy of its collective bargaining agreements on its website by September 1, 2014, and to update these documents within thirty days of there approval, renewal, or amendment. • Requires any school district with an associated student body program fund to publish fund and account information on both the district’s web site and the websites of each school with an account within the fund by August 31, 2014.
HB 2575 – Teacher Assignment Data • Requires that teacher course assignment information submitted to OSPI by school districts must include dates of teacher assignment and reassignment beginning in the 2014-15 school year.
SSB 6074 – Homeless Student Ed. Outcomes • Requires OSPI to work with organizations to develop or acquire a short video that provides information on how to identify signs that indicate a student may be homeless by July 1, 2014. • Requires OSPI to adopt and distribute to each school district best practices for choosing and training school district-designated homeless liaisons by July 1, 2014. • Requires school districts to strongly encourage all school staff to review the video posted on the OSPI website on an annual basis, and for every district-designated homeless liaison to attend training provided by the state to ensure that homeless children are identified and served. • Requires school districts to include information about services for homeless students in materials already made available at the start of the school year Adds “identified homeless status” to the categories of students districts must disaggregate dropout data by.
SB 6093 – Background Checks/ DEL Cards • Allows school district, ESD, WA State Ctr. for childhood deafness, school for the blind staff and their contractors who hold a valid portable background check clearance card issued by DEL to provide a copy of their WA State Patrol and FBI back ground report results to OSPI to satisfy their K-12 background check requirements.
SB 6128 – Student Medications Delivery • Requires that beginning July 1, 2014 any unlicensed school employee who is asked to administer medications or perform nursing services not previously recognized in law shall file a voluntary letter of intent stating their willingness to administer the new medication or nursing service. • Provides protections from liability for employees and the district. • Requires school districts to designate a licensed staff person to coordinate with students’ parents and health care providers and to train and supervised the unlicensed staff people who will administer medication or provide nursing services, and provides that these staff shall not perform such services until they have received this training.
SSB 6129 – Paraeducator Development • Requires the PESB to convene a work group to design program specific minimum employment standards professional development opportunities, and a career ladder, for paraeducators. • Requires that beginning in the 2015-16 academic year any community or technical college that offers an apprenticeship program or certificate program for paraeducators must provide candidates the opportunity to earn transferable course credits with the program, and that the programs must incorporate the standards for cultural competence developed by the PESB.
2SSB 6163 – Expanded Learning • Provides a definition of expanded learning opportunities (ELOs). • Creates the expanded learning opportunities council. • Requires OSPI to convene the council to advise the Governor, the Legislature and OSPI regarding ELOs. • Create the summer knowledge improvement pilot program.
SB 6321 – PERS, SERS, TRS Contribution Rates • Removes a statutory provision that allows members of plan 3 of the PERS, SERS, and TRS to select a new contribution rate option each year.
SB 6424 – Seal of Biliteracy • Establishes the Washington state seal of Biliteracy • Encourages school districts to award the seal to graduating high school students who meet the criteria established by OSPI. • Requires OSPI to adopt rules establishing criteria for awarding the seal, and specifies that the standardized high school transcript may include a notation of whether a student has earned the WA State Seal of Biliteracy. • Requires OSPI to submit a report to the Legislature that compares the number of students awarded the Seal of Biliteracy in the previous two school years and the languages spoken by those students to the number of students enrolled in or previously enrolled in the transitional bilingual instruction program.
SB 6523 – The Real Hope Act • Expands eligibility for the state need grant to include: • Any person who has completed their full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma in Washington. • Any person who has received the equivalent of a high school diploma; has lived in the state for at least three years before receiving the diploma or its equivalent; and has continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma or equivalent until they are admitted to and enroll in an institution of higher education.
Community Eligibility 2014 Annual Conference
What is the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)? • Section 104(a) of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Act) amended section 11(a)(1) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to provide an alternative that eliminates the need for household applications for free and reduced-price meals in high-poverty LEAs and schools. This alternative, which is now part of the NSLP, is referred to as the Community Eligibility Provision. 2014 Annual Conference
What is the Community Eligibility Provision? • To be eligible, LEAs and/or schools must meet a minimum level of “identified students” for free meals in the year prior to implementing Community Eligibility; agree to serve free breakfasts and lunches to all students; and agree to cover with non-Federal funds any costs of providing free meals to students above the amounts provided by Federal assistance. 2014 Annual Conference
What is the Community Eligibility Provision? • Reimbursement for each LEA or school is based on claiming percentages derived from the percentage of identified students, i.e., students certified for free meals through means other than individual household applications. The claiming percentages established in the first year for an LEA or school may be used for four school years and may be increased if the percentage of identified students rises for the LEA or school. 2014 Annual Conference
What is the intent of the CEP program? • To improve access to free school meals in eligible high poverty LEAs and schools. • To eliminate administrative burden of collecting household applications. 2014 Annual Conference
When did CEP start? • CEP was phased in over a period of three years in a limited number of States selected by FNS. • Will be available nationwide beginning July 1, 2014. • Currently LEAs and schools in Eleven States are participating: • District of Columbia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and Massachusetts. 2014 Annual Conference
What does the term “identified students” mean? • “Identified students” are students approved as eligible for free meals who are not subject to verification (i.e., in Community Eligibility schools, “directly certified” children). This definition includes students directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations; children experiencing homelessness and on the local liaison’s list; Head Start children; migrant youth; runaways; and non-applicants approved by local officials. Foster children who are directly certified. 2014 Annual Conference
What is the eligibility threshold for participation in Community Eligibility? • Eligibility is determined for an entire LEA, a group of schools within an LEA, or a single school within an LEA. To be eligible to participate in Community Eligibility, the percentage of identified students must be at least 40 percent of enrollment. An LEA may have some schools that participate in Community Eligibility and others that do not. 2014 Annual Conference
How is the percentage of identified students calculated for Community Eligibility? • The percentage of identified students is calculated by dividing the number of identified students by the student enrollment as of April 1 of the previous school year. 2014 Annual Conference
What are the eligibility requirements? • LEAs may elect CEP for: • all schools in the LEA • a group of schools or • an individual school • Eligible school or group of schools must have an identified student percentage of at least 40 percent. • LEAs will be required to submit by June 30 to begin CEP in the school year beginning July 1. • Election is an LEA level decision but requires concurrence from the State agency. 2014 Annual Conference
How are school meals reimbursed through Community Eligibility? • The percentage of identified students is multiplied by the 1.6 multiplier. This percentage is then applied to the total school breakfast and lunch counts to determine USDA reimbursement amounts. For example, if the percentage of identified students in a school is 62.5 percent (or more), the school’s reimbursement amount would be 100 percent (62.5 percent x 1.6 multiplier = 100 percent), and it would be reimbursed at the Federal “free” rate for each breakfast and lunch served. 2014 Annual Conference
How are school meals reimbursed through Community Eligibility? • Similarly, a school with 56.3 percent identified students would be reimbursed for 90 percent (56.3 percent x 1.6 multiplier = 90 percent) of the breakfasts and lunches served at the Federal “free” reimbursement rate; the remaining 10 percent would be reimbursed at the Federal “paid” reimbursement rate. 2014 Annual Conference
What is the function of the 1.6 multiplier? • The function of the 1.6 multiplier is to provide an estimate of the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals in participating Community Eligibility schools, groups of schools, or LEAs that is comparable to the poverty percentage that would be obtained in a non- Community Eligibility school. The number of students directly certified is a subset of the total number of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Using only the number of directly certified students would result in lower poverty percentages for Community Eligibility schools or LEAs. 2014 Annual Conference
Will the 1.6 multiplier change? • The Act requires that the multiplier remain at 1.6 through June 30, 2014. After this date, USDA has the authority to change the multiplier to a number between 1.3 and 1.6. Any change to the multiplier would be communicated by USDA well in advance of the effective date of the change. Schools and LEAs that elect Community Eligibility keep the same multiplier throughout the four-year Community Eligibility cycle. 2014 Annual Conference
USDA’s calculator for financial viability(Compare past reimbursement with the calculator’s projected reimbursement) 2014 Annual Conference
What are the impacts on state funding? • LAP • Full Day K • K-3 High Poverty • K-1 High Poverty • National Board Teacher Bonus 2014 Annual Conference
What are the impacts on state funding? • Districts could lose that percent of poverty eligibility that was generated by paper applications. • Under CEP, only those students that are directly certified would be flagged in CEDARS as low income. 2014 Annual Conference
State Economic Poverty Survey? • OSPI is currently meeting internally to determine whether a State Economic Poverty Survey should be available to be used by districts in lieu of free and reduced lunch paper applications. • Basic ed or local funds would need to pay for processing this survey. 2014 Annual Conference