SB 1955 — SCHOOL FUNDING-TECH

093_SB1955SB1955 Engrossed LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b AN ACT regarding schools.

The supplemental SB1955 Engrossed -2- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b State aid grants provided for school districts under subsection (H) shall be appropriated for distribution to school districts as part of the same line item in which the general State financial aid of school districts is appropriated under this Section.

SB1955 Engrossed -3- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b (4) Except as provided in subsections (H) and (L), the board of any district receiving any of the grants provided for in this Section may apply those funds to any fund so received for which that board is authorized to make expenditures by law.

(1) The Foundation Level is a figure established by the SB1955 Engrossed -4- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b State representing the minimum level of per pupil financial support that should be available to provide for the basic education of each pupil in Average Daily Attendance.

(2) The Average Daily Attendance figures utilized in subsection (E) shall be the requisite attendance data for the school year immediately preceding the school year for which general State aid is being calculated or the average of the attendance data for the 3 preceding school years, whichever SB1955 Engrossed -5- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b is greater.

For school districts maintaining grades 9 through 12, local property tax revenues per pupil shall be the applicable equalized assessed valuation of the district multiplied by 1.05%, and divided by SB1955 Engrossed -6- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b the district's Average Daily Attendance figure.

The allocation of SB1955 Engrossed -7- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b general State aid for school districts subject to this paragraph 3 shall be the calculated general State aid per pupil figure multiplied by the Average Daily Attendance of the school district.

(a) In districts that do not hold year-round classes, days of attendance in August shall be added to SB1955 Engrossed -8- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b the month of September and any days of attendance in June shall be added to the month of May.

(a) Pupils regularly enrolled in a public school SB1955 Engrossed -9- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b for only a part of the school day may be counted on the basis of 1/6 day for every class hour of instruction of 40 minutes or more attended pursuant to such enrollment, unless a pupil is enrolled in a block-schedule format of 80 minutes or more of instruction, in which case the pupil may be counted on the basis of the proportion of minutes of school work completed each day to the minimum number of minutes that school work is required to be held that day.

and (2) when days in addition to those provided in item (1) are scheduled by a school pursuant to its school improvement plan adopted under Article 34 or its revised or amended school improvement plan adopted SB1955 Engrossed -10- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b under Article 2, provided that (i) such sessions of 3 or more clock hours are scheduled to occur at regular intervals, (ii) the remainder of the school days in which such sessions occur are utilized for in-service training programs or other staff development activities for teachers, and (iii) a sufficient number of minutes of school work under the direct supervision of teachers are added to the school days between such regularly scheduled sessions to accumulate not less than the number of minutes by which such sessions of 3 or more clock hours fall short of 5 clock hours.

however for such children whose SB1955 Engrossed -11- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b educational needs so require a session of 4 or more clock hours may be counted as a full day of attendance.

SB1955 Engrossed -12- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b (2) The equalized assessed valuation in paragraph (1) shall be adjusted, as applicable, in the following manner:

(b) The real property equalized assessed valuation for a school district shall be adjusted by subtracting from the real property value as equalized or assessed by the Department of Revenue for the district an amount computed by dividing the amount of any abatement of taxes under Section 18-170 of the Property Tax Code by 3.00% for a district maintaining grades kindergarten through 12, by 2.30% for a district maintaining grades kindergarten through 8, or by 1.05% for a district SB1955 Engrossed -13- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b maintaining grades 9 through 12 and adjusted by an amount computed by dividing the amount of any abatement of taxes under subsection (a) of Section 18-165 of the Property Tax Code by the same percentage rates for district type as specified in this subparagraph (b).

The operating tax rate as SB1955 Engrossed -14- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b defined in subsection (A).

This amount shall equal the product of the equalized assessed SB1955 Engrossed -15- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b valuation used to calculate general State aid for the 1997-1998 school year and the district's Extension Limitation Ratio.

Supplemental State aid grants provided for school districts under this subsection shall be appropriated for distribution to school districts as part of the same line SB1955 Engrossed -16- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b item in which the general State financial aid of school districts is appropriated under this Section.

SB1955 Engrossed -17- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b (2) Supplemental general State aid pursuant to this subsection (H) shall be provided as follows for the 1998-1999, 1999-2000, and 2000-2001 school years only:

SB1955 Engrossed -18- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b (b) For any school district with a Low Income Concentration Level of at least 10% and less than 20%, the grant for each school year shall be $675 multiplied by the low income eligible pupil count.

(4) School districts with an Average Daily Attendance of 50,000 or more that qualify for supplemental general State aid pursuant to this subsection shall be required to distribute from funds available pursuant to this Section, no SB1955 Engrossed -19- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b less than $261,000,000 in accordance with the following requirements:

(e) Funds received by an attendance center pursuant to this subsection shall be used by the attendance center at the discretion of the principal and local school SB1955 Engrossed -20- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b council for programs to improve educational opportunities at qualifying schools through the following programs and services:

If the district fails to distribute State aid to SB1955 Engrossed -21- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b attendance centers in accordance with an approved plan, the plan for the following year shall allocate funds, in addition to the funds otherwise required by this subsection, to those attendance centers which were underfunded during the previous year in amounts equal to such underfunding.

(1) For a new school district formed by combining SB1955 Engrossed -22- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b property included totally within 2 or more previously existing school districts, for its first year of existence the general State aid and supplemental general State aid calculated under this Section shall be computed for the new district and for the previously existing districts for which property is totally included within the new district.

(3) For 2 or more school districts which annex all of the territory of one or more entire other school districts, and for 2 or more community unit districts which result upon the division (pursuant to petition under Section 11A-2) of one or more other unit school districts into 2 or more parts and which together include all of the parts into which such other unit school district or districts are so divided, for the first year during which the change of boundaries attributable to such annexation or division becomes effective for all purposes as determined under Section 7-9 or 11A-10, SB1955 Engrossed -23- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b as the case may be, the general State aid and supplemental general State aid calculated under this Section shall be computed for each annexing or resulting district as constituted after the annexation or division and for each annexing and annexed district, or for each resulting and divided district, as constituted prior to the annexation or division;

The amount of the total difference payment and the amount thereof to be allocated to the annexing or resulting districts shall be computed by the State Board of Education on the basis of pupil enrollment and other data which shall be certified to the State Board of Education, on forms which it shall provide for that purpose, by the regional superintendent of schools for each educational service region in which the annexing and SB1955 Engrossed -24- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b annexed districts, or resulting and divided districts are located.

(2) If, as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection (J), a school district is to receive aggregate general State aid in combination with supplemental general State aid under this Section for the 1998-99 school year and any subsequent school year that in any such school year is less than the SB1955 Engrossed -25- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b amount of the aggregate general State aid entitlement that the district received for the 1997-98 school year, the school district shall also receive, from a separate appropriation made for purposes of this subsection (J), a supplementary payment that is equal to the amount of the difference in the aggregate State aid figures as described in paragraph (1).

Such alternative schools may offer courses of instruction for which credit is given in regular school programs, courses to prepare students for the high school equivalency testing program or vocational and occupational SB1955 Engrossed -26- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b training.

Summer school payments shall be made SB1955 Engrossed -27- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b as provided in Section 18-4.3.

If a vacancy in membership occurs at a time when the Senate is not in session, the Governor shall make a temporary appointment until the next meeting of the Senate, when he or she shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a SB1955 Engrossed -28- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b person to fill that membership for the unexpired term.

(1) References in other laws to the various subdivisions SB1955 Engrossed -29- LRB093 08906 RCE 09138 b of Section 18-8 as that Section existed before its repeal and replacement by this Section 18-8.05 shall be deemed to refer to the corresponding provisions of this Section 18-8.05, to the extent that those references remain applicable.