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BILL # HB 2341 |
TITLE: county jails; education programs; appropriation |
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SPONSOR: Shah |
STATUS: As Introduced |
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PREPARED BY: Patrick Moran |
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The bill would eliminate the provision under current law that pupils who are county jail inmates be funded at 72% of the regular Basic State Aid formula.
Estimated Impact
We estimate the bill would increase Basic State Aid formula costs by $76,000 annually beginning in FY 2024. This estimate assumes that county jail education programs would provide 4,818 instructional days annually to jail inmates (same as FY 2023).
Under current law, pupils who are county jail inmates under the age of 21 and without a high school diploma may receive K-12 basic state aid funding under 1 of 2 statutory formulas:
· If the pupil is being funded by a county-administered jail education fund, the county receives a base amount of $14,400 regardless of the number of instructional days and $10.80 per instructional day per student. For jail inmates with disabilities, the daily rate is increased from $10.80 to $39.71 (increase of $28.91) in FY 2023. The $39.71 daily rate is based on 72% of the amount a student would receive under the Special Education Voucher formula that is paid to students in institutional special education programs (such as ASDB).
· If the pupil is instead enrolled in an accommodation school, the pupil is funded at 72% of the regular basic state aid formula.
The bill would eliminate the 72% factor for both county jail education funds and accommodation school pupils. In FY 2023, ADE reports that the statewide instructional days for pupils with disabilities being funded by county jail education funds was 4,818. We estimate that under the bill, the daily rate in FY 2024 for such students would increase from $40.49 to $56.24, or an increase of $15.75 compared with current law. Given the 4,818 instructional days, the $15.75 increase would generate additional funding of $76,000 for county jail education programs statewide in FY 2024.
ADE estimates a lower impact of $30,000, primarily based on lower instructional day counts from FY 2022.
We estimate that the elimination of the 72% factor for accommodation schools will not have a fiscal impact relative to current practice. According to ADE, the department is currently unable to separately delineate county jail inmate pupils from other pupils served by accommodation schools for basic state aid funding purposes. As a result, the 72% factor is not currently being applied to accommodation schools. We therefore estimate that provision would not have a fiscal impact.
Local Government Impact
The bill would increase county revenues from the basic state aid funding formula by $76,000 annually beginning in FY 2024.
1/27/23