Relating to prekindergarten through grade 12 education and education funding

ARTICLE 1 - GENERAL EDUCATION

Modifying kindergarten early admission; specifying the all day kindergarten calendar length of school year and hours of instruction; changing the referendum revenue and allowance to be based on the revenue per adjusted pupil unit and making conforming changes; modifying the inflation adjustment formula for aid to nonpublic students; authorizing school districts to provide transportation for pupils participating in articulated programs operating under an agreement between the district and a postsecondary institution; allowing school districts to transport homeless children without a school of origin to a sibling's school; allowing districts contracting for transportation to allocate transportation expenses to transportation categories based on contract rates; modifying nonpublic pupil transportation aid; specifying requirements for board-adopted early admissions policies; removing learning year program biennial state approval; establishing career and technical revenue and aid for districts with career and technical programs and continuing the levy; modifying pupil units; changing the general education and basic revenues for 2015 and subsequent years; changing the extended time, gifted and talented, small schools, declining enrollment, compensatory education, secondary sparsity, elementary sparsity, and total operating capital revenues; making updates; clarifying total operating capital revenue uses; modifying the transportation allowance computation; increasing equity revenue and the levy; changing the transition revenue and levy; updating the basic alternative teacher compensation aid and the alternative teacher compensation levy and aid; specifying a pension adjustment revenue formula; updating learning and development revenue and additional use; allowing district use of revenue generated by the all-day kindergarten pupil count for three- and four-year-olds and prohibiting use while maintaining a fee-based all-day kindergarten program; requiring establishment of an annual student achievement rate and authorizing district student achievement levy imposition and limiting the levy for districts with excess general education revenue; updating general education aid; expanding authorized uses of basic skills and compensatory revenues; specifying district initial referendum allowance and limits for 2015; changing district referendum equalization revenues, levies, and aid and providing an aid guarantee; removing the early graduation achievement scholarship program and the early graduation military service award program from the annual general education aid appropriation; increasing the additional capital expenditure levy; modifying the definition of district for district lease purchase and installment buys; increasing the safe schools levy and expanding proceeds authorized uses; defining the alternative attendance programs unreimbursed costs of providing special education and services and reducing special education aid to districts and changing the area learning center and charter school aid calculation; providing school district tax rate and equalizing factors levy adjustments; appropriating money to the department of education for general education aid, enrollment options transportation, abatement revenue, consolidation transition, nonpublic pupil education aid and transportation, independent school district #690, Warroad for the Angle Inlet school, the compensatory revenue pilot project and formula aid, and career and technical aid; repealing the early graduation achievement scholarship and military service award programs, the general education transition revenue, transition for prekindergarten revenue and uses, transition for tuition reciprocity revenue, basic alternative teacher compensation aid, alternative teacher compensation aid and levy, referendum conversion allowance, and state aid adjustments due to changes in employer retirement contribution rates

ARTICLE 2 - STUDENT ACCOUNTABILITY

Defining academic standard, benchmark, credit, elective standard, and required standard; requiring districts to adopt graduation requirements that meet or exceed the state requirements; updating required academic standards; modifying career and college ready benchmarks and requiring achievement in all benchmarks for an academic standard; requiring the commissioner to review and revise state academic standards and related benchmarks on a ten year cycle; requiring the commissioner to include the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes in the required academic standards; modifying graduation requirements for language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and art; modifying credit equivalencies for social studies and the sciences; defining and specifying "striving for the world's best workforce" and specifying performance measures and annual evaluation; establishing regional centers of excellence to support school boards, districts, sites, and charter schools to implement research-based interventions and practices to increase student achievement; allowing students enrolled in grade 8 through certain school years who have not demonstrated proficiency on the MCAs, the GRAD tests, or the basic skills tests before high school graduation to satisfy state high school graduation requirements in reading, math, and writing by taking the reading, math, or writing GRAD test, the WorkKeys job skills assessment, the Compass computer adaptive college placement test, or the ACT assessment for college admission and directing the state to pay the test costs for public school students to participate in these assessments; requiring gifted and talented student assessments to be sensitive to underrepresented groups and requiring school districts to adopt procedures for early admission to kindergarten or first grade under gifted and talented programs; encouraging school districts and charter schools to provide mental health instruction in grades 6 to 12 aligned with local health standards and integrated into the school's educational environment; requiring the education commissioner to make computer adaptive reading and math assessments for students in grades 3 through 7 part of the Minnesota comprehensive assessment system; eliminating provisions requiring students to demonstrate proficiency on state reading, math, and writing tests in order to graduate from high school; allowing students enrolled in grade 8 in certain school years to be assessed under the graduation-required assessment, the WorkKeys job skills assessment, the Compass college placement test, the ACT college admission assessment, or a nationally recognized armed services vocational aptitude test for reading, mathematics, or writing and allowing an alternative assessment score substitution; modifying student state graduation requirements for students enrolled in grade 8 in the 2012-2013 school year and later; requiring the education commissioner, after consulting with the Minnesota state colleges and universities (MnSCU) chancellor and using a request for proposal process, to contract for a series of assessments aligned with state academic standards and requiring inclusion of career and college benchmarks; re-defining statewide and local assessments and results; requiring the commissioner to identify and report measures demonstrating learning year program provider successes and requiring annually summery report data; requiring school performance reports on student academic performance to include student progress and performance levels meeting career and college readiness benchmarks, longitudinal data, and racial and economic integration; requiring the commissioner to adopt rules for providing a standard adult high school diploma to certain persons and requiring participant competencies demonstration; establishing and providing for a career pathways and technical education advisory task force to recommend how to structurally redesign secondary and postsecondary education for certain purposes; establishing and providing for a standard adult high school diploma advisory task force to recommend programmatic requirements for adult basic education programs of instruction leading to a standard adult high school diploma; appropriating money to the department of education for the statewide testing and reporting system and the educational planning and assessment system (EPAS) program; repealing certain education rules

ARTICLE 3 - EDUCATION EXCELLENCE

Increasing the compulsory school attendance age to 17 years of age; allowing certain eligible 16-year old students to be assigned to area learning centers; increasing the age for legal withdrawal from school to age 17; requiring performance assessments for certain students between the ages of 16 and 17; allowing parents to withdraw children from all-day, daily kindergarten and place children in half-day kindergarten programs or alternate-day programs and requiring school boards to excuse the child from part of a school day upon parental request; making conforming changes; allowing school districts and schools to maintain and administer epinephrine auto injectors; requiring school counselors to assist students in meeting requirements for high school graduation, college selection, and career exploration; allowing the board of teaching to issue up to two additional temporary one year teaching licenses to otherwise qualified candidates without passing the skills exam; requiring teacher licensure renewal to include more in-depth preparation of student mental illness trauma and student accommodations; allowing school districts to provide remedial assistance to those teacher candidates not passing the basic skills exam and including English is a second language persons and persons who completed teacher preparation outside Minnesota and are teaching with a temporary license; requiring deaf and hard-of-hearing K-12 teachers to complete a minimum number of continuing education hours on certain hearing loss topics; specifying the existence of parent complaints to not be the sole reason for nonrenewal of a coaching contract; requiring teacher evaluation and peer review process to use data from valid and reliable assessments aligned to state and local academic standards and measures; establishing a formula for basic alternative teacher compensation aid, levy, and equalization aid; including teachers' evaluation under staff development revenue use; changing the name of the online learning advisory council to the online and digital learning advisory council and changing membership and duties; allowing a consortium of districts to establish and operate flexible learning year programs using a single application; changing the Minnesota reading corps program to assist ServeMinnesota AmeriCorps members; establishing a Minnesota math corps program to assist ServeMinnesota AmeriCorps members with a data-based problem-solving model of mathematics instruction; changing the school district English learner revenue calculation; requiring the commissioner to annually hold a field hearing on Indian education and to seek consultation with the tribal nations education committee; requiring and providing for the appointment of an Indian education director; establishing and providing for the "Achievement and Integration for Minnesota" program to pursue racial and economic integration, increase student academic achievement, create equitable educational opportunities, and reduce academic disparities, specifying a revenue and levy calculation for program funding; requiring the commissioner to review certain Minnesota Rules for achievement and integration conforming changes; establishing and providing for the teacher licensure advisory task force; requiring the commissioner to develop and submit to the legislature recommendations for providing access to licensed student support services such as counselors, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and chemical health counselors and requiring use of a multidisciplinary team staffing structure; establishing achievement and integration aid and levy; authorizing school districts to receive a success for the future grant in the 2012-2013 school year; appropriating money to the department of education for integration aid, achievement and integration aid, literacy incentive aid, interdistrict desegregation or integration transportation grants, success for the future, American Indian teacher preparation grants, tribal contract schools, early childhood programs at tribal schools, examination fees and teacher training and support programs, concurrent enrollment programs, collaborative urban educator, the ServeMinnesota program, student organizations, early childhood literacy programs, the Minnesota math corps program, regional centers of excellence, the school climate center, the site decision-making grant program, alternative compensation, the teacher development and evaluation pilot grant program, Starbase MN, and for civic education grants

ARTICLE 4 - CHARTER SCHOOLS

Making improving learning and student achievement the primary purpose of a charter school; making members of a charter school board of directors eligible to vote in an election of members of the charter school board of directors; requiring charter school board members to attend annual training; making a new board member who does not receive initial board training within six months of being seated on the board and does not complete the initial training within 12 months of being seated automatically ineligible to continue board service; including on the charter school board of directors at least one licensed teacher employed as a teacher at the charter school, one parent of an enrolled student who is not a charter school employee, and at least one community member who is a Minnesota resident; allowing the board to have a majority of teachers, parents, or community members or to have no clear majority; allowing a board to change its governance structure only by a majority vote of the board of directors and a majority vote of the licensed teachers teaching at the school; prohibiting an individual from serving as a member of a charter school board of directors if the individual partner is a full or part owner or principal with a for profit or nonprofit entity or independent contractor with whom the charter school contracts; prohibiting an individual from serving as a board member if an immediate family member is a school employee; exempting teachers employed at a charter school who serve on the charter school board of directors from conflict of interest provisions related to teachers compensation; modifying charter school contracts; requiring charter schools to include supplemental information in the charter school audit report; making charter schools subject to state truancy laws; requiring charter schools to implement a teacher evaluation and peer review process; limiting kindergarten enrollment to students who are at least 5 years old on September 1 in that calendar year and limiting first grade enrollment to students who are at least 6 years old on September 1 in that calendar year or have completed kindergarten; allowing a charter school to enroll students earlier according to prescribed enrollment procedures if notice is published on the charter school Web site and the enrollment policy conforms with kindergarten early admissions policies applicable to school boards generally; requiring nepotism and personnel evaluation policies adoption; requiring annual report website posting; requiring the commissioner to establish annual authorizer public report specifications; requiring current authorizers to inform proposed authorizer about fiscal, operational, and student performance status and requiring a plan to address any outstanding obligations of the previous contract; modifying the general education and transportation revenue formulas paid to charter schools; requiring the commissioner to approve aid only for facility leases with certain annual costs and escape clauses; allowing charter schools to establish school attendance review boards; appropriating money to the department of education for charter school building lease aid; requiring a recodification of charter school statutes

ARTICLE 5 - SPECIAL EDUCATION

Making the interagency coordinating council permanent; specifying charter school special education aid; clarifying the definition of emergency under special education alternative dispute resolution; prohibiting restrictive procedure use for punishment or discipline; requiring school district electronic format or district Web site restrictive procedures plans publication; requiring positive behavior strategies and mental health services links; requiring oversight committee restrictive procedures quarterly review and specifying committee membership and district meeting duties after restrictive procedure use; requiring recommendations for restrictive procedure use reduction and summary data reporting; making clarifying and conforming changes; augmenting the interagency child find systems with federal referral sources and requiring timely referrals from the identification date; conforming the definition of parent to federal standards; modifying state interagency coordinating council membership and specifying annual reporting requirements; identifying county and school board early intervention services; expanding the interagency early intervention committee to include representatives from agencies serving homeless families; expanding individualized family service plan (IFSP) teams to include persons providing early intervention services under the plan; requiring an IFSP to include services coordinator information; specifying written and signed mediation agreements to be binding on both parties; updating the definition of program growth factor; defining special education funding, special education initial aid, cross subsidy reduction aid, special education aid, and the statewide average expenditure; modifying adjoining states tuition reciprocity adjustments; requiring special education forecast maintenance of effort reimbursement percentages for excess cost aid to be increased in a shortfall; modifying special education excess cost aid definitions and updating initial excess cost aid; establishing and providing for the special education case loads task force; authorizing commissioner of education expedited rulemaking authority for federal law conformance; requiring a report on homeless children served; appropriating money to the department of education for regular special education, aid for children with disabilities, travel for home-based services, special education excess costs, court-place special education revenue, out-of-state tuition, and paperwork cost savings; repealing transition system initial aid, exclusion, revenue allocation from cooperative centers and intermediate districts; repealing early intervention service dollars expenditures and increased costs; repealing special education revenue initial aid, state total aid, school district aid, cooperative center and intermediates allocation; repealing state total and district excess cost aid

ARTICLE 6 - FACILITIES AND TECHNOLOGY

Increasing school district equalized debt service levy, the health and safety levy, deferred maintenance revenue and levy, and district aid; annually appropriating debt service equalization aid; making permanent the authority of special school district #1, Minneapolis, and independent school district #625, St. Paul, to annually sell general obligation bonds up to 15 million dollars without an election; requiring the commissioner of education to convene a working group to develop recommendations for reforming prekindergarten through grade 12 education facilities financing; prescribing working group membership; allowing independent school district #2527, Norman county west, to levy annually for elevator refurbishment; appropriating money to the department of education for health and safety revenue, debt service equalization, alternative facilities bonding aid, equity in telecommunications access, and deferred maintenance aid

ARTICLE 7 - NUTRITION; LIBRARIES; ACCOUNTING

Expanding and updating school district levy recognition references; increasing funding for school lunch; modifying the method for disbursement of summer food service replacement aid; making conforming changes; authorizing the department of education to provide aid for public libraries; requiring the commissioner of education and local school districts to approve a request from a school district for a fund transfer under certain conditions; requiring the commissioner of management and budget (MMB) to estimate the amount of positive unrestricted budgetary general fund balance to allocate to increase the school aid payment schedule and to allocate to restore net aid reductions and reduce the property tax revenue recognition shift; appropriating money to the department of education for school lunch and breakfast, kindergarten milk, summer food service replacement aid, basic system support, multicounty, multitype library systems, electronic library for Minnesota, and regional library telecommunications aid

ARTICLE 8 - EARLY CHILD EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Creating an early childhood education scholarship program; increasing the growth rate for adult basic education and appropriates funds for early education, community education, and lifelong learning programs; adding the early learning scholarship program to the statutory list of education sections classifying education data as other than public; establishing a Minnesota youth council committee; requiring the office of early learning to oversee the early learning scholarship program in consultation with the departments of education, health, and human services; requiring the office to administer the early learning scholarship program, establish participation standards, develop criteria for providers and contract for services as necessary; requiring the director, in consultation with the children's cabinet, to develop and implement a plan to create parent awareness of the scholarships; increasing the growth factor for the adult basic education aid program from 1.02 to 1.03 for fiscal years 2015 and later; clarifying that any
early childhood education scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2013 do not count as earned income for other income assistance programs including
medical assistance, MinnesotaCare, MFIP, child care assistance, and Head Start; authorizing the director of the office of early learning to establish
an expedited process to award scholarships to eligible recipients who will be attending three or four star rated programs during the fall of 2013; appropriating for school readiness aid, early childhood family education (ECFE) aid, health and developmental screening aid, Head Start program
state aid, educate parents partnership, kindergarten entrance assessment initiative and intervention, early childhood education scholarships, community education aid, adults with disabilities program aid, hearing
impaired adults, school age care revenue, adult basic education aid and
GED tests

ARTICLE 9 - STATE AGENCIES

Appropriating money to the department of education for the Minnesota children's museum, Minnesota academy of science, Duluth children's museum, the boards of teaching and school administrators, the state academies for the deaf and blind, and the Perpich center for arts education

ARTICLE 10 - FORECAST ADJUSTMENTS

Adjusting general education aid, enrollment options transportation, abatement revenue, consolidation transition, nonpublic pupil education aid, nonpublic pupil transportation, compensatory pilot project formula aid, charter school building lease aid, charter school start-up aid, integration aid, literacy incentive aid, interdistrict desegregation or integration transportation grants, success for the future grants, tribal contract schools aid, regular special education aid, aid for children with disabilities, travel for home-based services, excess costs special education, health and safety revenue, debt service equalization, alternative facilities bonding aid, deferred maintenance aid, school lunch and school breakfast aid, kindergarten milk aid, basic system support grants, multicounty, multitype library systems grants, regional library telecommunications aid, school readiness programs, early childhood family education aid, health and developmental screening aid, community education aid, adults with disabilities program aid, and adult basic education aid
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