Providing for the funding of prekindergarten through grade 12 education programs and services ARTICLE 1 - GENERAL EDUCATIONModifying the formulas for the determination of nonpublic pupil transportation revenue and for charter school general education revenue and setting the school district limited English proficiency revenue formula; changing compensatory revenue to basic skills revenue under certain graduation incentives and alternative programs provisions; modifying the calculation of integration revenue, providing for the use of adjusted pupil units; modifying the pupil unit count for prekindergarten students with a disability and for students in kindergarten and the primary grades; requiring compensation revenue pupil units for charter schools and contracted alternative programs in the first year of operation to be computed using data for the current fiscal year; modifying the calculation of adjusted pupil units, expanding use of the units and of pupil units served to charter schools and defining adjusted and resident marginal cost pupil units; including equity revenue in and eliminating graduation standards implementation revenue from the general education revenue formula, retaining the referendum offset adjustment; increasing the basic revenue formula allowance; modifying the determination of basic skills revenue, providing for the use of adjusted marginal cost pupil units instead of resident pupil units in the formula and in the determination of training and experience, supplemental, total operating cost and transition revenues and the supplemental levy and transition levy adjustment; providing for the calculation of sparsity revenue using pupil units served instead of resident pupil units; permanently eliminating the supplemental revenue reduction for certain school districts; authorizing the use of total operating capital revenue to purchase library technology; clarifying the calculation of the transition allowance; adjusting the supplemental and transition levy tax rates; recodifying the referendum offset adjustment portion of graduation standards revenue; providing equity revenue for certain school districts, providing for regional and district equity gaps and a district equity index and defining equity region for revenue computation purposes; specifying a learning and development revenue reservation requirement; reducing the general education tax rate; requiring the reservation of all basic skills revenue and extending the authority of school districts to reserve a certain percentage of compensatory revenue for school sites according to school board plan; basing the calculation of the referendum revenue allowance, referendum revenue and the referendum equalization levy on resident marginal cost pupil units, removing the subtraction from the percentage of the formula allowance used to calculate the referendum allowance limit, increasing the referendum equalization revenue formula and adjusting the referendum equalization levy tax rate; making permanent the retired employee health benefits levy; modifying certain aid and abatement adjustment requirements; requiring the payment of general education aid to the serving district; basing the general education aid reduction and increase requirements for the payment of aid for alternative attendance programs on referendum equalization aid instead of general education revenue minus basic skills revenue and clarifying the calculation of tuition amounts; eliminating the reduction in general education aid for pupils attending charter schools; delaying the repeal of certain education finance provisions and eliminating the repeal of learning year pupil units; clarifying certain revenue conversion, tax rate adjustment, equalizing factor and qualifying tax rate provisions; authorizing certain permanent fund transfers in independent school districts 882, Monticello, 624, White Bear Lake, 627, Oklee, 317, Deer River, 656, Faribault and 277, Westonka; authorizing independent school district 272, Eden Prairie to levy to rent or lease administrative space; authorizing independent school district 417, Tracy to levy to reduce the operating debt, requiring the district to establish a reserve account in the general fund and restricting use of levy proceeds to cash flow requirements; requiring the department of children, families and learning to adjust fiscal year 1999 pupil units for fiscal year 2000 to reflect the impact of the new adjusted and marginal cost pupil units; requiring and providing for an increase in the general education basic formula allowance based on forecast of a general fund surplus; increasing supplemental revenue for independent school districts 11, Anoka and 279 Osseo; increasing equity revenue for nonreferendum districts; requiring school districts to reserve certain amounts for class size or special education student to instructor ratio reduction or all day kindergarten; appropriating money to the department for general and supplemental education, transportation safety, enrollment options transportation and district cooperation revenue aids; repealing certain provisions providing for certain transportation revenue and aids, for assurance of mastery and graduation standards revenues, for AFDC pupil counts and for LEP programs revenue and aid ARTICLE 2 - SPECIAL PROGRAMSExpanding the school district AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) prevention and risk reduction program to include human papilloma virus (HPV) and sexually transmitted diseases (STD), requiring inclusion in programs of curriculum to help students abstain from sexual activity until marriage; requiring and providing for the board of teaching to adopt a separate licensure rule for teachers of oral aural deaf education programs; modifying the area learning center reserved revenue requirement for member school districts and expanding services access and program focus requirements of the centers to English language and literacy programs; providing for the recognition of integration aid; removing first grade preparedness pilot sites from the program upon fall of the percentage of children eligible for free or reduced price lunches below the state average; modifying the state total school to work program disabled revenue and increasing the state total limited English proficiency (LEP) program revenue; changing interdistrict desegregation or integration transportation aid from a grant program to a state aid program; eliminating the authority of the department of children, families and learning to pay lay advocate costs for special education dispute resolution; placing the responsibility for transportation to and from care and treatment facilities for pupils with a disability on the resident school district and restricting the transportation to regular district operating hours; requiring the commissioner of children, families and learning to develop a special education reciprocity agreement form specifying procedures for calculating special education tuition charges for students served in other states and for out of state students served in Minnesota; modifying certain provisions regulating the placement and transportation of children without disabilities, requiring commissioner approval of education programs for facilities licensure purposes; changing the name of the Faribault academies for the deaf and blind to the Minnesota state academies and the name of the board to the board of the Minnesota state academies, increasing board membership and clarifying the term limit, requiring the appointment of site councils, authorizing recommendations to the governor on board appointees from the site councils; requiring the state to reimburse school districts for the actual cost of providing instruction for all children placed in licensed facilities for care and treatment; including interpreter and transliterator fees in litigation and hearing costs for school district reimbursement purposes, changing the date for annual submission to the commissioner of unreimbursed costs lists and eliminating state aid for attorney fees; increasing the special education revenue program growth factor, eliminating the aid and levy percentage factors and adding the nonfederal share of certain medical assistance (MA) costs to the base revenue formula; changing state total special education revenue to aid and increasing the aid; defining average daily membership and program growth factor for special education excess cost revenue purposes, changing excess cost revenue to aid and providing for initial, state total and district special education excess cost aids; authorizing school districts to submit unreimbursed special education expenditures to the state for payment for disabled children placed in care and treatment facilities by court action in states without a reciprocity agreement; requiring the commissioner in cooperation with the commissioners of human services and corrections to develop and implement a uniform billing system for education services provided to students placed outside the home; expanding authorized uses of crime related costs levy proceeds; requiring and providing for forward shifted state aid payments for integration revenue and providing for recognition; resident district of homeless pupils to be the district of enrollment; placing responsibility for assessing or investigating allegation of child maltreatment in schools on the department of children, families and learning; exempting teachers of oral aural deaf education from demonstrating proficiency in American sign language (ASL); providing for the distribution of certain prior first grade preparedness program grant appropriations; requiring the commissioner of children, families and learning to convene a temporary task force to make recommendations on a system to approve education programs serving children at care and treatment facilities including detention facilities and report to the legislature by a certain date; appropriating money to the department for American Indian education and language and culture education programs, post-secondary and teacher preparation grants, scholarships, tribal contract schools and early childhood programs at tribal schools, for magnet school grants, for integration programs for minority fellowship and teacher incentives, teachers of color and cultural exchange grants, for special education, children with a disability, travel for home based services, special education excess cost, special programs equalization, integration and interdistrict desegregation or integration transportation aids, for career and technical programs for children with disabilities, for additional revenue for homeless students, for certain litigation costs, for court placed special education revenue, for the center for victims of torture, for adolescent parenting and first grade preparedness grants, for out of state tuition, for the uniform billing system, for state approval of education programs at care and treatment facilities and for a special education revenue adjustment for independent school district 535, Rochester; specifying certain reference change instructions to the revisor of statutes; repealing the expiration date and certain evaluation requirements under the first grade preparedness program, certain special education aid provisions and a certain provision providing for additional revenue for homeless students ARTICLE 3 - LIFEWORK DEVELOPMENTModifying the secondary vocational aid formula; extending the availability of a certain prior appropriation to the department of children, families and learning for a grant to independent school district 330, Heron Lake-Okabena to establish the southwest star concept school; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for secondary vocational aid, for youthworks programs, for education and employment transitions program grants, for the learn and earn graduation achievement program and for the school to work student organization foundation; specifying certain reference change instructions to the revisor of statutes; repealing a certain provision requiring and providing for the state to pay secondary vocational education program aids on a current funding basis ARTICLE 4 - FACILITIES AND TECHNOLOGYModifying debt service equalization eligibility criteria; increasing the debt service equalization revenue and modifying the equalized debt service levy formulas, eliminating a certain debt service equalization aid proration requirement, modifying the payment schedule and reducing appropriations for the aid; modifying the health and safety levy formula; reducing the average age of building space for school district qualification for participation in the alternative facilities bonding and levy program; authorizing school districts to issue bonds to prepay special assessments; increasing the limit on metropolitan magnet school grants and authorizing school district members of interdistrict desegregation magnet schools to enter into long term lease agreements as part of the magnet school program; modifying the school district and regional library telecommunications access grant programs, modifying grant priority and eliminating certain minimum capacity standards and network service and management agreements from program requirements and requiring grant clusters to file e-rate applications for grant related expenditures on behalf of participants; reducing the interactive television revenue levy and increasing the tax rate; authorizing the commissioner of finance to enter into written agreements or contracts relating to the continuing disclosure of information needed to facilitate the ability of school districts to issue debt obligations according to federal securities laws, rules and regulations; modifying the maximum effort debt service levy formulas and school district eligibility for capital loans and increasing the loan amount limits; delaying the repeal of the telecommunications access grant program; authorizing the use of a certain prior appropriation to the commissioner of children, families and learning for a grant to the east metropolitan integration magnet school for site development; modifying the date for computation of reorganization operating debt levy authority for independent school district 2687, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted; providing declining pupil unit aid for independent school district 508, St. Peter; phasing out declining pupil unit aid for independent school districts 2854, Ada-Borup, 846, Breckenridge, 595, East Grand Forks, 2176, Warren-Alvarado-Oslo, 2171, Kittson Central, 2856, Stephen-Argyle Central and 592, Climax; authorizing independent school district 704, Proctor to include health and safety improvements to an ice arena located in the district in the health and safety program, limit; granting independent school district 622, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale alternative facilities bonding and levy program authority to finance school facilities and granting eligibility for the program to independent school district 834, Stillwater; authorizing the commissioner to reopen the application process for residential academies grants under certain conditions; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for health and safety, debt service, interactive television (ITV) and alternative facilities bonding aids, for a grant to special school district 1, Minneapolis for the urban league street academy, for telecommunication access grants, for disaster relief facilities grants to independent school districts 508, St. Peter and 81, Comfrey and for a declining pupil aid grant to independent school district 508, St. Peter; specifying certain codification instructions to the revisor of statutes; repealing the cooperative secondary facilities grant act, health and safety levy and aid, the alternative facilities aid standing appropriation, the facilities construction down payment account, cooperation and combination capital facilities and school building accessibility capital improvement grants, handicapped access and fire safety improvements assistance, historic building revenue, levy and aid and certain obsolete facilities rules ARTICLE 5 - EDUCATION EXCELLENCE Authorizing the Minnesota agriculture education leadership council to provide grants for elementary agriculture education programs; providing for board of teaching issuance of substitute teaching licenses; modifying certain staff development outcome requirements; authorizing school districts to annually waive the staff development revenue reservation requirement under certain licensed teacher and school board majority vote conditions, exempting districts in statutory operating debt from the reservation requirement and modifying certain allocation requirements; defining home school for school board fee imposition authority purposes, requiring school boards to allow all pupils receiving home school instruction to fully participate in extracurricular activities; authorizing education districts to sponsor charter schools; specifying a time limit for school board votes on charter school sponsorship applications and eliminating the requirement for a certain number of board members to vote for sponsorship to appeal a negative decision; authorizing the state board of education to waive the requirement for licensed teachers to be a majority of the members of the board of directors; reducing the teacher signature percentage requirement for petitions to convert existing schools to charter schools; imposing a time limit for completion of charter school contracts; authorizing charter school teachers to perform administrative, supervisory or instructional leadership duties without holding a valid administrators license; increasing building lease aid and modifying the aid payment schedule for charter schools; clarifying the role of the department of children, families and learning in approving software systems used by school districts and charter schools; expanding Minnesota learning academy training opportunities to school media and information technology professionals and requiring the commissioner of children, families and learning to identify and establish outcomes for a series of training courses on new and emerging technologies to be taught to the professionals; authorizing school districts employing collaborative urban educator, southeast Asian teacher licensure or circles of support in educational leadership program graduates to grant additional credit on the salary schedules of the graduates for teaching experience and academic preparation; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for grants to independent school district 625, St. Paul for the operation of a community based school program and to the south central service cooperative for the Minnesota talented youth math project program, for advanced placement (AP) and international baccalaureate (IB) programs, for statewide testing, for charter school building lease and integration aids and start up grants, for graduation rule resource and homework hotline grants and for programs training teachers of special needs students ARTICLE 6 - OTHER PROGRAMSRequiring the reporting of student birth dates in lieu of ages to school district superintendents by home school instructors; providing an alternative procedure to school board adoption of proposed plats for consolidation purposes; modifying the school board approval standard for board member right to employment by the district; eliminating certain references to the state board of education in provisions relating to the Minnesota academic excellence foundation, transferring certain duties to the commissioner of children, families and learning; increasing school district operating debt levy authority and modifying the authority of districts to spread out abatement levies; modifying the definition of cumulative amount guaranteed for state aid payment purposes, modifying the payment date for payments falling on a weekend or holiday and increasing certain payment percentages, authorizing early payment of state aids to school districts facing serious cash flow problems resulting from certain abatements; extending the special cooperating levy authority previously granted to joint school district 6011, Lac qui Parle to independent school district 2853, Lac qui Parle valley for costs associated with operating the cooperative secondary high school; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for abatement, nonpublic pupil education, consolidation transition and nonpublic pupil transportation aids, for a grant to a chance to grow new visions for Minnesota learning center start up costs, for HIV education training sites, for an urban agricultural high school planning grant and for a grant to independent school district 690, Warroad to operate the Angle Inlet school; repealing the cash flow adjustment aid payment schedule ARTICLE 7 - NUTRITION PROGRAMSEstablishing a temporary fast break to learning grant program to ensure student daily access to a nutritious breakfast; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for school lunch and summer food service replacement aids, for fast break to learning grants and for the school breakfast program; repealing the school lunch program revolving fund and the school breakfast incentive ARTICLE 8 - LIBRARIESChanging the joint library pilot project at Nashwauk-Keewatin high school to an ongoing project, providing for a joint powers agreement; expanding eligibility for site based technology learning grants to certain additional libraries; expanding the database access program for public libraries and school media centers to state agency and public or private college or university libraries, modifying eligibility and eliminating the availability of graduation rule resource grants for the program; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for regional library basic system support grants, for multicounty multitype library systems, for regional library telecommunications aid, for the library for the blind and for the database access program; repealing the librarians of color programARTICLE 9 - EDUCATION POLICY Modifying the authority of the department of children, families and learning to access certain public assistance data; authorizing school districts to begin the school year before September 1st to accommodate certain large construction or remodeling projects; delaying the measuring of student achievement levels to the 2000-2001 school year; providing for the participation of law enforcement agencies, county attorney offices and social service agencies in school boards development of school discipline policies; requiring the commissioner of children, families and learning to maintain and make available to school boards a model crisis management policy and school boards to adopt district crisis management policies to address potential violent crisis situations in the district by certain dates; requiring the board of teaching at the request of a teacher trainee seeking licensure or a licensed graduate of a teacher preparation program to assist in resolving disputes between the requestee and teacher preparation program licensure recommendations; extending the deadline for the board to adopt rules requiring successful completion of an examination of general pedagogical knowledge and examinations of licensure specific teaching skills for teacher licensing purposes; requiring the board to adopt rules to require public school teachers renewing licensure to obtain further preparation in using positive behavior interventions and in accommodating, modifying and adapting curricula, materials and strategies to meet graduation rule requirements and to adopt rules for licensing teachers providing health related services for disabled children consistent with licensure requirements of the commissioner of health and the health related licensing boards; requiring college and university teacher preparation programs to include certain strategies for teaching reading; authorizing the commissioner with the advice from an advisory task force of supervisory personnel to address complaints and other licensure issues relating to supervisory personnel; authorizing the board to set fees for supervisory personnel licenses; extending the deadline for school district notice to teachers of termination; replacing site decision making teams with site professional development teams; authorizing cooperative units to apply for competitive grants; restricting the application of the provision limiting school district participation in financial support agreements; requiring school boards to annually calculate the general education, basic skills and referendum revenue generated by pupils in attendance at each site and inform each site of the estimate and report the information to the department; requiring school bus safety training programs in districts adopting school bus seat belt policies to provide appropriate training on the use of the belts; providing for termination of participation in the enrollment options (open enrollment) program by certain truant students; eliminating the desegregation plan requirement for the implementation of cultural exchange programs; requiring the commissioner to survey school districts and biennially report to the legislature on the status of the teacher shortage; modifying the term of governing board members of the state high school league and prohibiting the payment of per diem to full time state, school district or local government unit employee board members, subjecting the league to school district goods and services purchasing regulations and granting the commissioner the authority to examine league activities or issues; establishing a maximum length for certain types of school buses and requiring type III vans or buses converted to a smaller seating capacity to have been originally manufactured to comply with passenger safety standards; making the provision requiring approaching vehicles to stop for school buses applicable to persons in highway work zones; expanding the authority of the commissioner of public safety to waive school bus driver endorsement permanent cancellations for conviction of certain violations; authorizing school districts to pay employees according to applicable contracts, collective bargaining agreements or personnel policies; requiring the filing of a surety bond to contest elections approving the issuance of bonds by school districts; extending and modifying certain provisions of the grant program to promote professional teaching standards, requiring and providing for regional coordinators; establishing a program to provide for alternative pathways for teacher preparation; requiring the board of teaching to communicate with school districts on procedures for expediting the hiring of substitute teachers; requiring the commissioner of administration to develop and make available a model policy reflecting state and federal regulations relating to access to and dissemination of student records and to make clarification recommendations to the legislature by a certain date; authorizing independent school districts 253, Goodhue, 912, Milaca and 518 Worthington to begin the -1999 or -2000 school year before September 1st; providing for the transfer of certain authority from the state board of education to the commissioner of children, families and learning; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for the alternative pathways for teacher preparation program, collaborative urban educator and partners for quality school improvement programs, for reimbursement to independent school district 116, Pillager for certain legal expenses and for professional teaching standards certification; repealing certain provisions relating to the state board of education ARTICLE 10 - STATE AGENCIESAuthorizing the Minnesota state academies for the deaf and blind and the Lola and Rudy Perpich Minnesota center for arts education to start the school year before September 1st; specifying certain child maltreatment reports investigation requirements of the commissioner of children, families and learning; transferring the powers and duties of the department of children, families and learning relating to drug policy and violence prevention to the department of public safety; appropriating money to the department of children, families and learning for the teaching and learning, lifework development, management and support services and office of community services programs, to the center for arts education and to the Minnesota state academies; specifying certain reference change and renumbering instructions to the revisor of statutes; repealing the transfer of powers and duties relating to drug policy and violence prevention from the department of public safety to the department of children, families and learning(Ch. 241, 1999)