Relating to education

ARTICLE 1 - GENERAL EDUCATION

Changing person of school age to pupil; changing the determination for the pupil district of residence to be the residence of the parent or legal guardian unless the parental rights have been terminated, the parent or guardian is not living within the state or the parent or guardian is an inmate of a Minnesota correctional facility or a resident of a halfway house; designating the district of residence for these pupils as the district in which the pupil resided when the qualifying event occurred, directing the commissioner of education to designate residency in the event of a dispute between districts; designates a district of residence responsibility and conditions for transportation of a homeless student; requiring the serving district to be responsible for transporting a homeless pupil from their residence; allowing the serving district to transport a pupil from a permanent home in another district, but only through the end of the academic year; the district or school that provides transportation for other pupils enrolled in the charter school is responsible for providing transportation for homeless pupils enrolled in that school; requiring the district of residence to be responsible for a homeless student with or without an individualized education program attending a public school other than an independent or special school district or charter school; limiting the age of children enrolled in home school who are required to be assessed using a nationally norm-referenced standardized achievement examination to the compulsory age of instruction; requiring nonpublic schools, in addition to the person in charge of providing instruction, to comply with district oversight requirements and submit information for this purpose to the superintendent of the district in which a child resides; requiring a nonpublic school or the person in charge of providing instruction to maintain documentation proving compliance with statutory requirements; changing a reference from home school to nonpublic school that is not accredited by a state-recognized accrediting agency; requiring a nonpublic school or the person in charge of providing instruction, to make the documentation available to the county attorney when a case is commenced; allowing public high school students who graduate in the 2014-2015 school year or later to satisfactorily complete a career and technical education credit premised on standards for a chemistry, physics, or biology credit or a combination of those standards approved by a district as an alternative to completing a chemistry or physics credit required for graduation; requiring students beginning ninth grade in the 2011-2012 school year or later to complete three science credits including a chemistry or physics credit or a technical education credit on meeting standards for a chemistry, physics, or biology credit or a combination of those standards approved by a district; allowing an agriculture science credit to fulfill a science credit requirement other than a science credit in biology; allowing a career and technical education course to fulfill a science, math, or arts credit requirement other than a biology credit; redirecting the general education revenue paid by the state to school districts for students who have graduated early to the early graduation achievement scholarship program for participating students; modifying the early graduation achievement scholarship program to require an early graduate to choose either this program or the early graduation military service award, clarifying that an eligible student, at the time of graduation, attended a Minnesota public school, was generating general education aid, and graduated prior to the end of the fourth school year after first enrolling in ninth grade, requiring an eligible student to apply for the scholarship money within two calendar years of the date of graduation, requiring the scholarship to be used within six years of the student graduation; clarifying that in order to be eligible for a military service award, an eligible student, at the time of graduation, attended a Minnesota public school, was generating general education aid, graduated prior to the end of the fourth school year after first enrolling in ninth grade, and didn't participate in the early graduation scholarship program, requiring an eligible student to apply for the scholarship money within two calendar years of the date of graduation; directing the education commissioner to annually report to the legislature on students rigorous course taking related to AP, IB, and PSEO; eliminating obsolete language relating to the alternative teacher compensation aid entitlement allocated to charter schools, clarifying the base year of the charter school enrollment ratio used to generate future entitlements; requiring transportation for homeless nonresident pupils be provided from the pupil's residence to and from the school of enrollment; allowing homeless students whose parent or guardian has moved to another district to continue to enroll in the non-resident district without the approval of the school board of the nonresident district or resident district; allowing a 10th, 11th, or 12th grade student, except a foreign exchange student, to enroll in a career and technical education course offered by MnSCU; modifying the date of a student's notice to the school district of intent to enroll in PSEO from March to May 30; allowiing postsecondary institutions to advertise or solicit the participation of secondary pupils on educational and programmatic grounds only; allowing a pupil to enroll in a postsecondary course and receive both secondary and postsecondary credit, requring postsecondary institutions to grant postsecondary credit to an entering student who successfully completed postsecondary courses, consistent with the institution's credit transfer policy; allowing an alternative pupil's parents, if the family income is at or below the poverty level, to apply to the pupil's postsecondary institution for reimbursement for transporting the pupil between the secondary school or home and the pupil's postsecondary institution when the pupil is participating in a PSEO course for secondary credit; allowing a charter school to generate shared time aid revenue for serving home-school students for a portion of the school day; adjusting the statewide cap for the career and technical levy for taxes payable in 2014, modifying the calculations for the career and technical levy beginning with taxes payable in 2015 by making the levy equal to 35 percent of the district expenditures for career and technical programming; changing the qualifying date necessary to determine a school district equity region from July 1, 1999, to January 1, 2012, and applying the date change to revenue calculations for fiscal years 2013 and later (this has the effect of moving the Northfield school district from the metro to the non-metro equity region); reallocating general education revenue for all-day kindergarten and prekindergarten, eliminating the reallocation of general education revenue for early graduates since early graduates no longer generate general education revenue after the date of graduation; requiring a resident district to grant a charter school where a shared time pupil attends class permission to claim the pupil as a resident for state aid purposes. allowing the charter school to bill the resident district for transportation costs if the resident district agrees, allowing the resident district and the district or charter school of attendance to negotiate an agreement to pay transportation costs; allowing a charter school serving fewer than 200 students, instead of 150 students, to request accelerated special education aid payments from the commissioner if the percentage of students eligible for special education services equals at least 90 percent of the total enrollment of the school; requiring that general education revenue be paid to the resident district for a homeless child enrolled in a school other than an independent or special school district or charter school; allowing a college or university to recruit or solicit secondary students to enroll in PSEO courses on educational and programmatic grounds; modifying the Minnesota pay differential program for school employees who, as members of the National Guard or other reserves, are ordered into active military service, requiring a school district to create a special account and place the salary for all deployed employees in that account, requiring the district to pay employee salary differentials from that account, allowing funds remaining at the end of the year to be used to pay for substitutes for the deployed employees; continuing for two more years the authority for a school district to transfer funds and accounts from funds other than the food service and community service fund so long as such fund or account transfers do not increase a local levy or impose an added state aid obligation; adjusting the general education appropriation to reflect the cost savings from both PSEO program changes and early graduation scholarship program modifications; specifying instructions to the revisor of statutes to substitute English learner, EL, or similar term for limited English proficient, English language learner, LEP, or ELL, or similar term when referring to early childhood through grade 12 education; repealing provisions relating to PSEO exception for intermediate schools and payments to resident and nonresident districts and eporting revenue for the homeless

ARTICLE 2 - EDUCATION EXCELLENCE

Directing school districts to submit local reading assessments results to the commissioner of education by July 1 instead of June 1; striking a purpose statement for training programs for teachers; providing for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years only allowing students who have not successfully passed the basic skills test by the end of the 2011-2012 school year to satisfy the state math test requirement by completing all state and local coursework and credits required for graduation by the school board granting their diploma and fully participating in at least two retests of the math GRAD test or until they pass the test; allowing a school board to give written notice that it is not going to renew a probationary teacher contract to the teacher by July 1 instead of June 1; allowing a school board to suspend without pay a teacher whom the school board is proposing to immediately discharge for conduct that is also the subject of a felony charge, pending the conclusion of the immediate discharge hearing and a determination of the issues raised in the hearing; requiring the school board to reimburse the teacher for the salary and other compensation including pension contributions it withheld if the final decision does not result in suspending, terminating, or discharging the teacher; allowing a school board that enters into an achievement contract to consider how to assist a school site to adapt instruction to individual student needs, and establish goals and standards for individual students in addition to the state academic standards, to coordinate the pace of instruction and learning with the needs and aptitudes of individual students, to provide useful data and assist with research in developing and improving innovative, cost-effective, research-based individualized learning, instruction, and assessment, to demonstrate and help evaluate instructional alternatives to age-based grade progression, to more effectively motivate students and teachers and to expand use of learning technology to support individualized learning, instruction, assessment, and achievement; permitting a school board and school site to enter into an agreement to develop and implement an individualized learning and achievement contract; allowing a school board and a site decision-making team to enter into a site achievement contract for setting individualized learning and achievement measures and short- and long-term education goals for each student at the site, recognizing student educational needs and aptitudes and levels of academic attainment, using student performance data to diagnose a student's academic strengths and weaknesses and indicate to teachers the specific skills and concepts that need to be introduced to the student and developed through instruction or applied learning during the next year, consistent with the student's short- and long-term educational goals, and assisting the education site if progress in achieving student or contract goals or other performance expectations agreed to by the board and site team are not realized or implemented; allowing a school board that enters into an achievement contract with a school site where student performance data at the site show at least three consecutive school years of improved student achievement consistent with terms of the contract to try to establish a similar contract with other school sites in the district; requiring the annual principal evaluation to include student academic growth as 35 percent of the evaluation; allowing any approved authorizer, instead of one that has chartered multiple schools, to vote to withdraw as an approved authorizer; directing a charter school to publish and maintain the following on the school Web site, the minutes from board of directors meetings and meetings of members and committees having board-delegated authority, for at least one calendar year, the directory information for members of the board of directors and of committees having board-delegated authority, and identifying and contact information for the school authorizer; eliminating the requirement that the ongoing training charter school board members receive be department-approved; directing the school to include in its annual report the training attended by each board member during the previous year; allowing an initial charter school contract of five years, instead of three years; conforming the length of the school year for charter schools to the length of the school year for traditional public schools by basing it on hours, not days; prohibiting an authorizer from assessing an additional fee for any required services; clarifying that an affiliated nonprofit building corporation must comply with applicable Internal Revenue Service regulations, including those for supporting organizations; directing a charter school to have a plan for the renovation or purchase of an existing facility that describes the parameters and budget for the project if it is organizing an affiliated nonprofit building corporation to renovate or purchase an existing facility; allowing for the organization of an affiliated nonprofit building corporation for expanding an existing school facility in addition to constructing a new school facility; amending the requirement that a school have a net positive unreserved general fund balance for the preceding five, instead of eight, fiscal years; requiring a charter school planning to expand a facility or construct a new facility to have a plan for the expansion or new facility that describes the project parameters and budget; prohibiting a charter school or an affiliated nonprofit building corporation from initiating an installment contract for purchase or a lease agreement, or soliciting bids for new construction, expansion, or remodeling of an educational facility that requires an expenditure that exceeds $1,400,00 unless it meets certain criteria and receives a positive review and comment from the commissioner; allowing a charter school board to enter into a two-year renewable agreement to collaborate with a school district to enhance student achievement, requiring the charter school to be located within the geographic boundary of the school district; modifying the proficiency aid portion of the literacy aid formula so that the proficiency aid allowance is based on the school count of third grade pupils, instead of the total enrollment; modifying the growth aid portion of the literacy aid formula so that the growth aid allowance is based on the schools count of fourth grade pupils instead of the total enrollment; extending the levy authority for school districts that are members of that TIES joint powers board for another 11 years; authorizing a school district to use the building lease levy authority for leases of administrative space; requiring a school district to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the commissioner that the lease for administrative space is more cost-effective than a lease for additional instructional space; correcting the acronyms for the student organizations appropriation; allowing a person who holds a temporary one-year license to teach and taught during the 2011-2012 school year to continue to teach through the 2012-2013 school year; repealing provisions relating to school board duties, the profile of learning statutes and rules, the office of educational accountability, the school site mediation board, school-based ombudsperson, school site mediation board and teacher licenses

ARTICLE 3 - SPECIAL EDUCATION AND OTHER PROGRAMS

Requiring tuition billing for education services provided to children and youth placed in residential facilities to be done on uniform forms prescribed by the commissioner for the education of nonresident children temporarily placed for care and treatment or in education programs for students placed in residential facilities; requiring the commissioner to approve on-site education programs for children and youth placed in residential facilities; defining on-site education program as educational services provided directly on the grounds of the care and treatment facility to children and youth placed for care or treatment; changing the appropriation for early childhood scholarship grants for fiscal year 2013 and increasing the base in each subsequent year; appropriating money from the general fund in fiscal year 2013 to the department of education for a grant to the evidence-based early literacy parent-child home program; repealing provisions relating to placement in a state institution; uniform billing system for the education costs of out-of-home placed students the limit on net debt for certain independent school districts, ECFE reserve account and levy, school readiness aid reserve account limit waiver, and the community education revenue reserve account limit and waiver
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