1.1 	A bill for an act
1.2 	relating to education finance; creating an extended year kindergarten program; 
1.3 	appropriating money;proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, 
1.4 	chapter 124D.
1.5 	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.6 	Section 1. [124D.082] EXTENDED YEAR KINDERGARTEN PROGRAMS.
1.7 		Subdivision 1.Extended year kindergarten program established. The board of 
1.8 	any district, with the approval of the commissioner, may establish and operate an extended 
1.9 	year kindergarten program at a school site. The goal of the extended year kindergarten 
1.10 	program is to ensure that every child has the opportunity before first grade to develop the 
1.11 	skills and abilities necessary to read and succeed in school.
1.12 		Subd. 2.Extended year kindergarten program requirements; eight additional 
1.13 	weeks of instruction. The board of a qualifying school district must develop and approve 
1.14 	a plan to provide extended year kindergarten services to serve as many kindergarten 
1.15 	students as possible, with priority given to children from low-income families. An 
1.16 	extended year kindergarten program must be designed to start four weeks prior to the 
1.17 	regular start of school and end four weeks after the regular school year ends. 
1.18 		Subd. 3.Assignment of teachers. In a district where an extended year kindergarten 
1.19 	learning program is implemented, the board of the district must make every reasonable 
1.20 	effort to assign qualified teachers who prefer the extended year schedule to those teacher 
1.21 	assignments.  A full-time teacher currently employed by a district that converts to an 
1.22 	extended year kindergarten program may not, without the teacher's written consent, be 
1.23 	required to teach under this program.
2.1 		Subd. 4.Contracts. Any district operating an extended year kindergarten program 
2.2 	must enter into a contract with a licensed employee to provide services in an extended 
2.3 	year kindergarten program that are in addition to the services provided according to 
2.4 	the master contract of employment for teachers or an equivalent contract for licensed 
2.5 	employees who are not teachers. The contract must pay each employee the daily salary 
2.6 	cost for each day during the extended year kindergarten program that the employee is 
2.7 	not otherwise under contract to the district.
2.8 		Subd. 5.Qualifying districts. (a) The commissioner shall rank all school sites 
2.9 	with approved extended year kindergarten programs from highest to lowest based on the 
2.10 	site's free and reduced lunch count as a percent of the fall enrollment using the preceding 
2.11 	October 1 enrollment data. Once a school site is calculated to be eligible, it remains 
2.12 	eligible for the duration of the program, unless the site's ranking falls below the state 
2.13 	average for elementary schools. For each school site, the percentage used to calculate the 
2.14 	ranking must be the greater of:
2.15 	(1) the percent of the fall kindergarten enrollment receiving free and reduced lunch; 
2.16 	or
2.17 	(2) the percent of the total fall enrollment receiving free and reduced lunch. 
2.18 	The list of ranked sites must be separated into the following geographic areas: Minneapolis 
2.19 	district, St. Paul district, suburban Twin Cities districts in the seven-county metropolitan 
2.20 	area, and school districts in greater Minnesota.
2.21 	(b) The commissioner shall establish a process and timelines to qualify school sites 
2.22 	for the next school year. School sites must be qualified in each geographic area from the 
2.23 	list of ranked sites until the aid entitlement for this program has been allocated. The total 
2.24 	estimated  revenue must be distributed to qualified school sites in each geographic area 
2.25 	as follows: 25  percent for Minneapolis sites, 25 percent for St. Paul sites, 25 percent for 
2.26 	suburban Twin Cities sites, and 25 percent for greater Minnesota.
2.27 		Subd. 6.Extended year kindergarten aid entitlement. The statewide aid 
2.28 	entitlement for extended year kindergarten programs is $....... for fiscal year 2008 and later.
2.29 		Subd. 7.Extended year kindergarten revenue. A school site's extended year 
2.30 	kindergarten aid equals $600 times the number of kindergarten students attending an 
2.31 	extended year kindergarten program.

2.32 	EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective for revenue for fiscal year 2008.