HOUSE 3rd Reading Unamended April 24, 2012 HOUSE Amended 2nd Reading April 23, 2012Second Regular Session Sixty-eighth General Assembly STATE OF COLORADO REENGROSSED This Version Includes All Amendments Adopted in the House of Introduction LLS NO. 12-0818.01 Richard Sweetman x4333HOUSE BILL 12-1306 HOUSE SPONSORSHIP Holbert, SENATE SPONSORSHIP King K., House Committees Senate Committees Education Appropriations A BILL FOR AN ACT Concerning the manner of determining pupil enrollment counts in public schools, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation. Bill Summary (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that applies to the reengrossed version of this bill will be available at http://www.leg.state.co.us/billsummaries.) On or before April 30, 2013, and on or before April 30 each year thereafter, a school district and an institute charter school may elect to make available to the department of education (department) the following information: The total number of students enrolled in grades three through ten in the school district (participant school district) or institute charter school (participant institute charter school) to whom the department administered a statewide assessment in mathematics; and The total number of students enrolled in grade eleven in the participant school district or participant institute charter school who took a curriculum-based, achievement college entrance exam. On or before May 15, 2013, and on or before May 15 each year thereafter, the department shall compare, for each participant school district and each participant institute charter school, the total number of such students to the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the October 1 pupil enrollment count. For each participant school district and each participant institute charter school for which the total number of students to whom the department administered a statewide assessment in mathematics and who took a curriculum-based, achievement college entrance exam exceeds the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the October 1 pupil enrollment count, the department shall make available to the participant school district or to the state charter school institute (institute), in addition to any other moneys made available to the participant school district or to the institute during the current fiscal year, for each student in excess of the October 1 pupil enrollment count, an amount that is equal to the department's per-pupil on-line education funding. The department shall make the moneys available to each such participant school district or to the institute before the conclusion of the current fiscal year. If the institute receives from the department any such moneys, the institute, in accordance with the terms negotiated by the institute and the participant institute charter school that submitted the information that is the basis for the moneys received, shall retain no more of the moneys than is permitted by such terms and shall pay the remainder of the moneys to the participant institute charter school. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. Legislative declaration. (1) The general assembly hereby finds that: (a) It has been asserted that: (I) Some on-line education programs in Colorado receive funding for students who are enrolled in the on-line programs on the statutory pupil enrollment count date of October 1 but who leave the on-line programs shortly thereafter; and (II) Such students then enroll in schools of public school districts, which do not receive funding for the students, thereby straining the limited resources of such schools; (b) However, students enroll in schools of public school districts after October 1 for other reasons as well, and brick-and-mortar schools, as well as school districts, can and do lose students after October 1, thereby receiving compensation from the state for students they are not required to educate; (c) The problem of inaccurate pupil enrollment counts is not limited to the practices of on-line education programs but is rooted in the state's school finance system, which shortchanges education providers that are required to educate students for free if the students enrolled after October 1; (d) If Colorado altered its school finance system to employ multiple count days or a rolling average count for the purpose of determining pupil enrollment counts, it would solve this problem because such an alternative system would provide for the readjustment of official pupil enrollment counts; (e) However, if Colorado employed multiple count days or a rolling average count for the purpose of determining pupil enrollment counts, it appears that most school districts would actually lose money. According to figures compiled by legislative council staff, one hundred forty-four of the state's one hundred seventy-eight school districts actually lost students between October 1 and the administration of assessments in the spring of last year. Even if some of those school districts were required to absorb students who dropped out of on-line programs after October 1 and returned to brick-and-mortar schools uncompensated by the state, the net effect nonetheless was that those school districts still received compensation from the state for more students than the school districts were actually educating; and (f) Meanwhile, the thirty-four school districts that gained students during that time span experienced negligible enrollment gains for the most part. Most gained one to three students per district; a few posted gains between ten and twenty. As a combined total, those thirty-four school districts gained only one hundred nineteen students. (2) Now, therefore, the general assembly hereby declares that a better approach to addressing the problem of pupil enrollment counts is simply to backfill funding for those school districts and institute charter schools that gain students after October 1. SECTION 2. In Colorado Revised Statutes, add 22-54-136 as follows: 22-54-136. Adjustments to pupil enrollment counts. (1) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires: (a) "Participant institute charter school" means an institute charter school that elects to make available to the department, in a manner that complies with the provisions of this section, the information described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section. (b) "Participant school district" means a school district of the state that elects to make available to the department, in a manner that complies with the provisions of this section, the information described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section. (2) On or before April 30, 2013, and on or before April 30 each year thereafter, a school district and an institute charter school may elect to make available to the department of education the information described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to require a school district or an institute charter school to make such information available to the department of education. (3) Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary, on or before May 15, 2013, and on or before May 15 of each year thereafter, the department of education shall: (a) Determine the total number of students enrolled in grades three through ten in each participant school district and each participant institute charter school to whom the department administered a statewide assessment in mathematics pursuant to section 22-7-409; (b) Determine the total number of students enrolled in grade eleven in each participant school district and each participant institute charter school who took the curriculum-based, achievement college entrance exam described in section 22-7-409 (1.5); (c) For each participant school district and each participant institute charter school, compare the total number of students described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection (3) to the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the most recent October 1 pupil enrollment count; (d) Determine, for each participant school district and each participant institute charter school in which the total number of students described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section exceeds the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the October 1 pupil enrollment count, the average pupil enrollment increase for each such grade; (e) Using the average pupil enrollment increase for each of grades three through eleven, as determined pursuant to paragraph (d) of this subsection (3), project such average pupil enrollment increase for grades one, two, and twelve; and project half of such average pupil enrollment increase for kindergarten for each participant school district and each participant institute charter school in which the total number of students described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section exceeds the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the October 1 pupil enrollment count; and (f) Using the average pupil enrollment increase for each of grades three through eleven, as determined pursuant to paragraph (d) of this subsection (3), and the average pupil enrollment increase for grades one, two, and twelve and kindergarten, as projected pursuant to paragraph (e) of this subsection (3), determine, for each participant school district and each participant institute charter school in which the total number of students described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section exceeds the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the October 1 pupil enrollment count, the total number of students in grades one through twelve and kindergarten by which each such school district's and each such institute charter school's pupil enrollment increased. (4) (a) For each participant school district for which the total number of students described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section exceeds the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the most recent October 1 pupil enrollment count, the department of education shall make available to the participant school district, in addition to any other moneys made available to the participant school district during the current fiscal year, for each student in grades one through twelve and kindergarten, as determined pursuant to paragraph (f) of subsection (3) of this section, in excess of the October 1 pupil enrollment count, an amount that is equal to the per-pupil on-line funding described in section 22-54-104 (4.5). The department of education shall make such moneys available from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution to each such participant school district before the conclusion of the current fiscal year. (b) (I) For each participant institute charter school for which the total number of students described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section exceeds the total number of students enrolled in grades three through eleven who were included in the most recent October 1 pupil enrollment count, the department of education shall make available to the state charter school institute, in addition to any other moneys made available to the state charter school institute during the current fiscal year, for each student in grades one through twelve and kindergarten, as determined pursuant to paragraph (f) of subsection (3) of this section, in excess of the October 1 pupil enrollment count, an amount that is equal to the per-pupil on-line funding described in section 22-54-104 (4.5). The department of education shall make such moneys available from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution to the state charter school institute before the conclusion of the current fiscal year. (II) If the state charter school institute receives from the department of education any moneys pursuant to subparagraph (I) of this paragraph (b), the institute shall retain no more of the moneys than is permitted by the terms negotiated pursuant to section 22-30.5-513 (2) by the institute and the participant institute charter school that submitted the information described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (3) of this section, which information is the basis for the moneys received. The institute shall pay the remainder of the moneys to the participant institute charter school. SECTION 3. Appropriation. In addition to any other appropriation, there is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the state education fund created in section 17 (4) (a) of Article IX of the State Constitution, not otherwise appropriated, to the department of education, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012, the sum of $1,253,132, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the implementation of section 22-54-136, Colorado Revised Statutes. SECTION 4. Act subject to petition - effective date. This act takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on the day following the expiration of the ninety-day period after final adjournment of the general assembly (August 8, 2012, if adjournment sine die is on May 9, 2012); except that, if a referendum petition is filed pursuant to section 1 (3) of article V of the state constitution against this act or an item, section, or part of this act within such period, then the act, item, section, or part will not take effect unless approved by the people at the general election to be held in November 2012 and, in such case, will take effect on the date of the official declaration of the vote thereon by the governor.