Session Year 2005, Special Session 1

Bill Name: SF0104

Providing for the financing of kindergarten through grade 12 and early
childhood
and family education programs and services

ARTICLE 1 - GENERAL
EDUCATION

Defining kindergarten for general education purposes; clarifying the
amount of money required to be reserved by resident school districts for
students attending area learning center programs; providing for school district
full recognition of taconite revenue; removing the exclusion of capital
expenditures and pupil transportation from school district identification of
general fund expenditures by building and authorizing the reporting of certain
additional expenditures by building; changing the name of a certain school
district general fund account entitled undesignated fund balance since statutory
operating debt to net unreserved general fund balance for funds transfer and
operating debt calculation purposes; expanding the definition of transportation
services for pupils with disabilities for transportation aid entitlement
purposes; specifying certain school district salary and fringe benefit reporting
content requirements and prohibitions relating to employees with transportation
duties for transportation expenditures calculation purposes and providing for
allocation of the expenditures; clarifying the general education revenue
reduction requirement for part time students attending eligible graduation
incentives or alternative programs, excluding compensatory revenue; providing
transportation for homeless pupils; providing for the counting of pupils
enrolled in project based programs; expanding the components of general
education revenue to gifted and talented and alternative teacher compensation
revenues; increasing the general education basic revenue formula allowance;
reducing the equalizing factor for operating capital; expanding equity revenue,
increase to be payable entirely in state aid for fiscal year 2006; making
transition revenue permanent; providing alternative teacher compensation aid and
levy formulas; updating the general education aid formula; increasing the
referendum allowance limit and the related revenue and aid formulas; simplifying
certain referendum ballot requirements; modifying the referendum conversion
allowance to reflect the permanency of transition revenue; modifying and
clarifying certain general education aid taconite revenue deduction and levy
reduction requirements; increasing the building lease levy; authorizing school
districts to levy for the full amount of unemployment insurance and judgment
costs; accelerating the date for annual notice to the commissioner of education
of final certified levies; expanding the payment percentage for reimbursement
aids to telecommunications/internet access equity and shared time aids;
modifying the abatement adjustment formula and certain census requirements;
modifying the distribution of excess taxes on captured net tax capacity of tax
increment financing (TIF) districts to school districts; providing for the
reporting of certain students as kindergarten pupils; providing an alternative
teacher compensation revenue guarantee; authorizing the commissioner of
education to temporarily accept and approve applications to participate in the
alternative teacher compensation system based on the proportionate distribution
of the student population; authorizing school districts to levy for the
replacement of defective Carpenter school buses; creating a pilot program to
allow independent school districts #11, Anoka Hennepin, #279, Osseo, #281,
Robbinsdale, #535, Rochester and #833, South Washington to allocate compensatory
revenue among school sites according to student performance measures; providing
for the calculation of pupil units for independent school district #38, Red Lake
for declining pupil unit aid receipt purposes; appropriating money to the
commissioner for general education and referendum tax base replacement aids, for
enrollment options transportation, for abatement revenue, for consolidating
districts, for nonpublic pupil education and transportation aids, for a grant.
to independent school district #690, Warroad to operate the Angle Inlet school,
for declining pupil unit aid to independent school districts #241, Albert Lea,
#2711, Mesabi East and #682, Roseau for declining pupil aid and for the
compensatory revenue pilot project; repealing the minimum number of teachers
required to agree for district or site participation in the alternative teacher
compensation program and certain obsolete statutory operating debt reduction and
levy requirements

ARTICLE 2 - EDUCATION EXCELLENCE

Clarifying the requirement
for school officials to disclose school attendance data to the juvenile justice
system upon request; authorizing school districts to include in school
attendance policies a requirement for parents or legal guardians to verify
reasons for child absences and specifying certain authorized reasons; providing
for waiver of certain academic standards for students participating in certain
rigorous courses of study; expanding and clarifying certain school board
instruction and curriculum policy adoption and reporting requirements,
authorizing web site publication of annual student achievement reports;
authorizing school districts and charter schools to elect to participate in the
educational planning and assessment system program offered by ACT, Inc. to
provide a longitudinal systematic approach to student educational and career
planning, assessment, instructional support and evaluation, requiring the
commissioner of education to provide certain ACT tests for students in certain
grades; modifying certain provisions relating to advanced placement and
international baccalaureate programs, authorizing the commissioner to pay for
out of state travel costs for teachers participating in training programs and
requiring payment for examination fees for public and nonpublic students from
low income families and for a portion or all of the examination fees for other
public and nonpublic students; authorizing reimbursement of college level
examination program (CLEP) fees for students successfully completing college
level courses in high school, specifying certain duties of the commissioner;
providing for student participation in gifted and talented programs; expanding
violence prevention curriculum requirements to self protection; encouraging
school districts to offer instruction on character development education and
providing for American heritage education; modifying statewide testing
requirements for students enrolled in grade 8; prohibiting the commissioner from
developing statewide assessments for academic standards in health and physical
education; requiring the commissioner to adopt and publish a policy providing
parental access to statewide tests and assessments and to implement a value
added assessment program to assist school districts and schools in assessing
growth in student academic achievement; expanding the authorized content of the
model sexual, religious and racial harassment and violence policy to violence
prevention and character development; modifying certain dangerous weapons
incidents and exclusion and expulsion reporting requirements of school
districts; requiring school boards to adopt policies prohibiting intimidation
and bullying of students; excepting nonresident students enrolling in online
learning courses or programs from immunization requirements; authorizing the
inclusion of character education programs in school administrator plans for
admission or readmission of students after exclusion or expulsion, excluding
certain student dismissals from the definition of suspension and authorizing
suspension actions to include readmission plans, prohibiting school officials
from using the refusal of parents or guardians to consent to the administration
of psychotropic drugs or to psychiatric evaluations to prohibit students from
attending class; providing alternatives to pupil suspension; providing for
effective comprehensive scientifically based reading instruction; authorizing
the board of teaching to reimburse school districts for the cost of teachers
employed to substitute for regular teachers serving on the board; modifying
certain teacher preparation program reading strategies content requirements;
requiring school boards declining to renew head varsity coaching contracts to
notify the coach involved; authorizing negotiation of an additional probationary
period upon promotion from within to assistant principal or principal in schools
in first class cities; modifying teacher tenure in first class cities,
authorizing first class city school boards to negotiate plans for teacher
layoffs in lieu of layoffs in inverse order to employment; requiring substantial
teacher participation in the development of school district educational
improvement plans; replacing the alternative teacher compensation system with a
restructured alternative teacher professional pay system; providing for
effective staff development activities and modifying certain reporting
requirements; requiring and providing for the commissioner to establish schools
mentoring schools regional sites; authorizing and providing for the commissioner
to contract with the board of regents of the university of Minnesota to
establish a principals leadership institute to provide professional development
to school principals; authorizing school districts to enter into agreements to
increase efficiency in the delivery of administrative services and to reduce
costs for purchase of services by districts participating in the agreements;
authorizing school boards to establish employee recognition program, to offer
rewards for information leading to the conviction of persons committing crimes
against students or school employees, volunteers or board members or against
school district property and to authorize the use of credit cards by school
officers or employees; modifying certain school site decision making agreement
procedures and establishing a site decision making grant program; modifying a
certain extracurricular reporting manual requirement; authorizing and providing
for school boards to establish pupil transportation safety committees to review
and recommend changes to pupil transportation safety policies and to develop
comprehensive plans for the safe transportation of students facing hazardous
transportation conditions; requiring or encouraging post-secondary institutions
to award credit for successful completion of courses in programs certified by
the national alliance of concurrent enrollment partnerships under the
post-secondary enrollment options (PSEO) program; modifying certain online
learning average daily membership requirements for general education aid
qualification purposes; eliminating the commissioner as an eligible charter
school sponsor, expanding certain affidavit content requirements, extending the
commissioner approval or disapproval time limit and modifying certain contract
requirements and funding provisions; creating a new career and technical levy
formula; expanding eligibility for assurance of mastery programs to certain 8th
grade students; authorizing American Indian education programs in charter
schools and eliminating the required involvement of the American Indian
education advisory committee in grant and scholarship awards; requiring and
providing for the commissioner to continue implementation of the no child left
behind act without interruption; providing for participation of nonresident
students in tournaments in another district, authorizing administrative regions
of the state high school league to contract with the state auditor or with
private certified public accountants (CPA) to perform annual audits and
requiring the governing board in lieu of the state auditor to file copies of
audit reports with the commissioner and the legislative reference library (LRL);
authorizing the board of the Perpich center for arts education to conduct
meetings by telephone or other electronic means; establishing the Minnesota
humanities commission to advance the study of the humanities and enhance the
work of schools, colleges and cultural organizations in the state, authorizing
the establishment of a humanities center and the Minnesota institute for the
advancement of teaching to conduct seminars to recognize the teaching profession
and advance teaching in the state; prohibiting the commissioner of public safety
from linking or conditioning the issuance, suspension or revocation of drivers
licenses to secondary school attendance; clarifying the authority of the
juvenile court to cancel the drivers licenses or permits of children in need of
protection or services or neglected and in foster care; authorizing the board of
school administrators to adopt expedited rules to make technical revisions and
clarifications; requiring the higher education advisory council to convene a
working group to develop college preparation standards; requiring the
commissioner to adopt rules before a certain date to implement the Minnesota
comprehensive assessments second edition (MCA-IIs) in reading, mathematics and
writing; appropriating money to the commissioner for charter school building
lease and start up and integration aids, for magnet school and program and
interdistrict desegregation or integration transportation grants, for American
Indian success for the future and teacher preparation grants and scholarships,
for tribal contract schools, for statewide testing support, for AP and IB
examination fees and teacher training programs, for first grade preparedness
grants, for certain collaborative urban educator programs at Concordia
university, the university of St. Thomas and Hamline university, for youth works
programs, for student organizations, for the educational planning and assessment
(EPAS) and college level examination programs, for a certain number of school
site decision making program grants and for best practices grants to the
Minnesota humanities commission, to the Minnesota historical society, to the
Minnesota learning resource center, to the principals leadership institute and
for the schools mentoring schools and quantum opportunities programs; repealing
certain online learning option payment priority and state high school league
audit report content requirements

ARTICLE 3 - SPECIAL PROGRAMS

Expanding
aversive and deprivation procedures to positive behavioral
interventions and
supports and time outs and modifying and expanding certain rule requirements of
the commissioner of education; modifying the authority of charter schools to
charge tuition to districts of residence for special education aid eligibility
purposes; adjusting the school special education transition revenue for fiscal
years 2008 and later; modifying the nonresident tuition rate and certain other
costs for children with disabilities; modifying certain membership requirements
for special education parent advisory councils in districts with nonpublic
schools and specifying a council meeting frequency requirement; modifying the
deadline for recommendations by the state interagency coordinating council for
policies for a comprehensive and coordinated system and extending the council
expiration date; adjusting the definition of general revenue and defining total
qualifying referendum revenue for special education excess cost aid
determination purposes, increasing the state total special education and special
education excess cost aids formulas and resetting the current year aid payment
percentage for excess costs aid; modifying certain requirements for payment to
resident and nonresident districts for students under alternative attendance
programs; reinstating and making permanent the advisory committee to the staff
of the library for the blind and physically handicapped on long range plans and
library services; increasing certain prior appropriations to the commissioner
for special education excess cost aids, requiring payment of a certain amount to
independent school district #2580, East Central for certain unfunded special
education costs; requiring and providing for the establishment of a temporary
task force on the delivery of special education services to nonpublic school
students by public school districts to compare and evaluate individual needs for
services; appropriating money to the commissioner for special education and
excess costs aids, for aids for children with disabilities and for teacher
travel for home based services, for court placed special education revenue and
for special education out of state tuition; repealing a certain special
litigation and hearing costs payment requirement

ARTICLE 4 - FACILITIES AND
TECHNOLOGY

Requiring school districts providing curriculum to resident
students with both physical and electronic components to make the electronic
component accessible to resident home schooled students upon request under
certain conditions; clarifying the requirement for schools or districts to
notify parents and competition participants of pools used for competitive diving
or training practice and not meeting certain requirements; modifying the
definition of eligible debt service revenue under the debt service equalization
program, requiring a certain net tax capacity adjustment; reducing the statutory
appropriation for debt service equalization aid; modifying certain notice
publication requirements under the alternative facilities bonding and levy
program and providing deferred maintenance revenue to school districts not
qualifying for the program; clarifying the authorized uses of the capital
project referendum account; subjecting alternative facilities building projects
to review and comment by the commissioner of education; expanding facility
construction proposal content requirements; modifying and clarifying the online
learning option and establishing a temporary online learning advisory council;
providing telecommunications/internet access equity aid to school districts or
charter schools, requiring school districts to provide the services for
nonpublic schools upon request; reducing the maximum effort net debt service
levy floor and the debt service tax rate; excluding bonds issued to pay pension
fund liabilities from the net debt of special school district #1, Minneapolis;
authorizing school districts to appropriate unused (surplus) debt service
revenue for general purposes; expanding a certain provision authorizing the
payment of school district refunding bonds from taconite production tax
revenues; extending the garage lease levy authority of independent school
district #748, Sartell; authorizing independent school district #2859,
Glencoe-Silver Lake to levy for recovery of the cost of replacing a gymnasium
floor at Lakeside elementary school and independent school district #110,
Waconia to levy to rent or lease administrative space; authorizing independent
school district #518, Worthington to use facilities owned by the state to
provide adult or child foster care services; appropriating money to the
commissioner for health and safety, debt service equalization, alternative
facilities bonding and telecommunications/Internet access equity aids and for
independent school district #38, Red Lake for onetime emergency aid for high
school infrastructure repair

ARTICLE 5 - NUTRITION AND ACCOUNTING

Increasing
the percentage of referendum levy certified in the prior calendar year;
increasing school lunch aid to participants in the national school lunch program
and the amount of reimbursement to public or nonpublic schools for milk served
to kindergarten students; modifying the definition of cumulative amount
guaranteed for certain aids payment purposes; authorizing certain fund transfers
in independent school districts #2071, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial, #883,
Rockford, #418, Russell, #584, Ruthton, #177, Windom, #771, Chokio-Alberta,
#836, Butterfield, #2888, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley, #200, Hastings, #2180,
M.A.C.C.R.A.Y., #2887, McLeod West and #2609, Win-E-Mac; authorizing independent
school district #595, East Grand Forks to levy for a remaining disabled access
levy over a certain number of years; requiring the commissioner of education to
reduce the net tax capacity levies of independent school district #599,
Fertile-Bertrami before adjusting the referendum market value levy; regulating
state payments for nonprofit organization services provided in 2006, providing
for the retroactivity of certain contracts or grants awarded by the
commissioners of health, human services or education; providing for state agency
reimbursements to local government units for certain advances; providing for
carryforward of unexpended and unencumbered balances of certain appropriations
to state agencies or constitutional officers; appropriating money to the
commissioner of natural resources (DNR) for a grant to Let's Go Fishing of
Minnesota to promote fishing opportunities and to the commissioner of education
for school lunch, traditional school breakfast and summer school food service
replacement aids

ARTICLE 6 - LIBRARIES

Appropriating money to the
commissioner of education for regional library basic system support grants, for
multicounty multitype library systems, for the electronic library for Minnesota
and for regional library telecommunications aid

ARTICLE 7 - EARLY CHILDHOOD
EDUCATION

Expanding and modifying certain early childhood developmental
screening requirements and increasing developmental screening aid; increasing
early childhood family education revenue; expanding eligibility for and
modifying the purpose and certain requirements of school readiness programs;
requiring and providing for the commissioner of education to implement an early
childhood development grant program for low income and other challenged families
proposed by the Minnesota early learning foundation (MELF); expanding the
definition of public employee under the public employment labor relations act
(PELRA) to early childhood family education teachers employed by school
districts; requiring the commissioner to award a planning grant to develop a
project in northwest Hennepin county to promote the school readiness of
children, specifying certain program component, grant award and match and
advisory committee establishment requirements; providing for coordination of
early care and education programs to increase school readiness; appropriating
money to the commissioner for school readiness programs revenue, for ECFE and
health and developmental screening aids, for head start programs, for the
Minnesota early learning foundation and for grants to promote kindergarten
readiness and family support; repealing certain existing provisions governing
school readiness programs and aid

ARTICLE 8 - PREVENTION

Transferring
responsibility under the lead abatement program from the
commissioner of
education to the commissioner of health; increasing general community education
revenue and reducing the total community education levy; specifying certain
renumbering and cross reference correction instructions to the revisor of
statutes; appropriating money to the commissioner of education for community
education and adults with disabilities program aids, for programs for hearing
impaired adults and for school age care revenue (extended day aid)

ARTICLE 9 -
SELF SUFFICIENCY AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Expanding valid expenditures under adult
basic education programs and authorizing carryover of a certain percentage of
adult basic education aid revenue; increasing the state total ABE aid formula
and modifying the aid limit; appropriating money to the commissioner of
education for ABE aid, for GED tests, and for lead hazard reduction for transfer
to the commissioner of health

ARTICLE 10 - STATE AGENCIES

Defining the work
year for teacher probationary period completion purposes; requiring the board of
teaching to prepare and submit to the
legislature by a certain date proposed
licensure requirements for teachers of interdisciplinary curriculum to
facilitate learning in state approved innovative schools and programs; requiring
school districts and the department of education to provide access to licensed
student support services; appropriating money to the commissioner of education
for department expenses including the children's museum, the academy of science,
the boards of teaching and of school administrators and the value added index
assessment model, to the state academies for the deaf and blind and to the
Perpich center for arts education; approving and appropriating certain federal
grants and aids

ARTICLE 11 - TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS

Making
certain technical amendments to certain statutory provisions relating to system
accountability and statistical adjustments, to student
suspensions, to youth
work grants, to appropriation transfers and to the payment percentage for
certain aids to school districts
(mk)