Session Year 2005, Special Session 1

Bill Name: SF0001

Providing for the financing prekindergarten-grade 12 education programs and
services and certain additional education programs

ARTICLE 1 - PREKINDERGARTEN
THROUGH GRADE 12 EDUCATION

Requiring substantial teacher participation in the
development of school district educational improvement plans; providing a
professional compensation initiative for teachers in lieu of alternative teacher
compensation aid to attract and retain high quality teachers, providing for
participation and commissioner of education approval, authorizing the reopening
of collective bargaining agreements for professional compensation system and
educational improvement plan purposes and providing for professional
compensation pilot site aid; specifying certain requirements of staff
development activities for effectiveness purposes, report requirements;
eliminating the authority of school districts to waive staff development
reserved revenue requirements and authorizing reservation of the revenue by
districts participating in the professional compensation initiative; increasing
the program growth factor for special education revenue and excess cost aid
determination purposes and the state total special education and special
education excess cost aids; increasing the general education basic revenue
formula allowance; requiring and providing for the commissioner to continue
implementation of the no child left behind act without interruption, specifying
certain review and report requirements; requiring the commissioner to contract
with an independent contractor to continue and complete the work done by the
education funding task force of the governor; appropriating money to the
department for the education funding task force contract, for a staff
development state match and for professional compensation for teachers aid,
authorizing use to leverage additional funds from national programs enhancing
teacher professionalism; repealing the alternative teacher compensation system
and aid

ARTICLE 2 - EARLY CHILDHOOD

Providing for the treatment of and access
to student mental health screening results; expanding early childhood
developmental screening requirements, requiring voluntary screening for
socioemotional development and screening for autism spectrum disorders, the
assignment of student identification numbers and development and implementation
of community outreach plans to promote screening, providing for followup
assessments, authorizing screening by public or private health care
organizations or individual health care providers in lieu of the school district
and modifying developmental screening aid; prohibiting the use of parental
refusal to consent to the administration of psychotropic drugs or to a
psychiatric evaluation, screening or examination as the sole basis for
prohibiting the child from attending a class or participating in a school
related activity and prohibiting school districts from recommending the use of
psychotropic drugs; increasing early childhood family education revenue;
requiring and providing for the commissioners of education and human services to
develop early learning guidelines and disseminate information to parents or
guardians and to education providers on the guidelines for kindergarten entrance
purposes; modifying certain school readiness program provisions, requiring
development assessments to guide curriculum planning and to promote kindergarten
readiness and coordination with relevant community based services; requiring the
programs to submit biennial plans to the commissioner of education for aid
receipt approval purposes and requiring annual reports; modifying certain
contract requirements and requiring adoption of a sliding fee schedule;
establishing the Minnesota early learning foundation as a public private
partnership to identify cost effective ways to deliver quality early care and
education experiences and parent education for families with children at risk of
being unprepared for school, requiring governance by a board of public and
private citizens, a review and planning advisory committee and an appropriation
match and providing for the award of grants; requiring the coordination of early
care and education programs by the commissioners of education, human services
and health, progress report requirement; requiring the commissioner of education
to establish a system for assessing school readiness for kindergarten,
specifying certain initiative, evaluation and reporting requirements and
providing for a phased in implementation; providing supplemental ECFE aid for
certain school districts; requiring and providing for the commissioner to award
a planning grant to develop a project in northwest Hennepin county to promote
the school readiness of children through coordination and collaboration with
community and neighborhood based services helping to
stabilize at risk families,
specifying certain planning projects eligibility and
application requirements
and providing for distribution of the grants, specifying a match requirement and
requiring grantee establishment of program advisory committees; appropriating
money to the commissioner for the early learning foundation, for administration
of early childhood programs, for grants to promote kindergarten readiness and
family support, for school readiness and head start programs and for ECFE and
health and developmental screening aids; repealing certain existing provisions
governing school readiness programs and aid

ARTICLE 3 - CHILD CARE

Expanding
eligibility for child care assistance; providing a child care provider rate
bonus for Montessori accreditation; establishing a new parent fee schedule;
requiring the commissioner of human services to monitor the progress relating to
meeting the goals of the child care assistance program and report to the
legislature by a certain date and in partnership with the ready 4 K quality
rating system task force to develop a plan by the same date for a voluntary
quality rating system for child care providing consumer information to parents,
identifying quality child care settings and raising the quality of care in child
care settings, specifying certain requirements of the system; requiring the
commissioner to study the feasibility of setting a standard statewide license
fee for licensed family child care providers and report recommendations to the
legislature by a certain date; appropriating certain unexpended basic sliding
fee funds to the commissioner for certain future years and providing additional
money for administration purposes and for the basic sliding fee

ARTICLE 4 -
ADULT BASIC EDUCATION

Increasing general community education revenue and
modifying the determination of total community education levy, commissioner of
education adjustment requirement; increasing the state total adult basic
education aid and requiring ABE aid unpaid due to certain program aid limits to
be added to the state total ABE aid for the next fiscal year or reallocated
among programs; establishing an adult literacy grant program for recent
immigrants to the state to meet English language needs; providing additional
community education aid for fiscal year 2006 for certain school districts;
appropriating money to the commissioner for the supplemental community
education revenue, for the adult literacy grants and for adult basic education
aid

ARTICLE 5 - PREVENTION POLICY

Transferring responsibility under the lead
abatement program from the
commissioner of education to the commissioner of
health; increasing the school age care levy; specifying certain renumbering
instructions to the revisor of statutes
(ra)