1.1 	A bill for an act
1.2 	relating to education; establishing a grant program to provide additional student 
1.3 	counseling services in high-need public high schools; appropriating money.
1.4 	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.5 	Section 1. GRANT PROGRAM; STUDENT COUNSELING SERVICES IN 
1.6 	HIGH-NEED PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.
 1.7 	(a) Recognizing the detrimental effect of student mobility on students' educational 
1.8 	achievement and the disproportionate impact that student mobility has on the most 
1.9 	disadvantaged schools, a grant program for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 is established to 
1.10 	provide additional student counseling services in high-need public high schools where the 
1.11 	student mobility rate in the preceding school year exceeded 25 percent and has a student 
1.12 	population of 100 or more enrolled in grades 7 through 12.
1.13 	(b) Interested school districts in which a high school is located having a student 
1.14 	mobility rate in the preceding school year that exceeded 25 percent and has a student 
1.15 	population of 100 or more enrolled in grades 7 through 12 may apply to the education 
1.16 	commissioner, in the form and manner the commissioner determines, for a student 
1.17 	counseling services grant. The application must provide evidence of the requisite student 
1.18 	mobility rate and include a plan indicating how the applicant's eligible high school will 
1.19 	use the grant to provide needed counseling services to highly mobile students. The 
1.20 	commissioner may require additional information from an applicant.
1.21 	(c) The commissioner must determine that the applicant has satisfied the 
1.22 	requirements of paragraph (b) before awarding grants. The commissioner may award one 
1.23 	grant per qualified school district on a first-come, first-served basis and until the grant 
1.24 	appropriation is expended. The commissioner must determine the amount of the grant 
2.1 	based on the number of students enrolled in the high school at the start of the current 
2.2 	school year. Grantees must use the grant to provide needed counseling services to highly 
2.3 	mobile students and must not use grant funds to supplant existing counseling services.
2.4 	(d) The commissioner must provide for an evaluation of the high school grant sites 
2.5 	and recommend to the education policy and finance committees of the legislature by 
2.6 	February 15, 2010, whether the program to provide additional student counseling services 
2.7 	in high-need public high schools should be made available statewide.

2.8 	EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective the day following final enactment.

2.9 	Sec. 2. APPROPRIATION.
 2.10 	$....... in fiscal year 2008 and $....... in fiscal year 2009 is appropriated from the 
2.11 	general fund to the commissioner of education for the purpose of providing grants to 
2.12 	provide additional student counseling services in high-need public high schools under 
2.13 	section 1. Any balance in the first year does not cancel but is available in the second year.