S-1932.1

SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5465

BySenate Early Learning & K-12 Education (originally sponsored by Senators Wellman, Pedersen, Wilson, C., Hunt, Hasegawa, and Kuderer; by request of Superintendent of Public Instruction)

AN ACT Relating to public education funding; amending RCW 28A.505.040 and 28A.505.080; and adding a new section to chapter 28A.150 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 28A.505.040 and 2017 3rd sp.s. c 13 s 604 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) On or before the tenth day of July in each year, all school districts shall prepare their budget for the ensuing fiscal year. The annual budget development process shall include the development or update of a four-year budget plan that includes a four-year enrollment projection. The four-year budget plan must include an estimate of funding necessary to maintain the continuing costs of program and service levels and any existing supplemental contract obligations.

(2) The completed budget must include a summary of the four-year budget plan and set forth the complete financial plan of the district for the ensuing fiscal year.

(3)(a) Upon completion of their budgets, every school district shall electronically publish a notice stating that the district has completed the budget, posted it electronically, placed it on file in the school district administration office, and that a copy of the budget and a summary of the four-year budget plan will be furnished to any person who calls upon the district for it.

(b) School districts shall submit one copy of their proposed budget and the four-year budget plan summary to their educational service districts ((and the office of the superintendent of public instruction)) for review and comment by July 10th. The superintendent of public instruction may delay the date in this section if the state's operating budget is not finally approved by the legislature until after June 1st.

(c) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall consider the information provided under (b) of this subsection when ranking each school district by the financial health of the school district in order to provide information for districts to avoid potential financial difficulty, insolvency, or binding conditions.

Sec. 2. RCW 28A.505.080 and 1984 c 128 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:

Copies of the budgets for all local school districts, including the four-year budget plan prepared under RCW 28A.505.040, shall be filed with the superintendent of public instruction no later than September 10th. One copy will be retained by the educational service district.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28A.150 RCW to read as follows:

The purpose of this section is to provide for the allocation of state funding that the legislature deems necessary to support school districts in offering institutional education programs. The allocation shall be determined as follows:

(1) The governor shall and the superintendent of public instruction may recommend to the legislature a formula for the distribution of an institutional education allocation for school districts that offer institutional education programs.

(2)(a) The distribution formula under this section shall be for allocation purposes only. Except as may be required under chapter 28A.155, 28A.165, 28A.180, or 28A.185 RCW, or federal laws and regulations, nothing in this section requires school districts to use basic education instructional funds to implement a particular instructional approach or service. Nothing in this section requires school districts to maintain a particular classroom teacher-to-student ratio or other staff-to-student ratio or to use allocated funds to pay for particular types or classifications of staff.

(b) To promote transparency in state funding allocations, the superintendent of public instruction must report state per-pupil allocations for each school district for institutional education programs. The superintendent must also report state per-pupil allocations for each type of institutional education program listed in subsection (4) of this section. The superintendent must report this information in a user-friendly format on the main page of the office of the superintendent of public instruction's web site and on school district apportionment reports. School districts must include a link to the superintendent's per-pupil allocations report on the main page of the school district's web site. In addition, the budget documents published by the legislature for the enacted omnibus operating appropriations act must report statewide average per-pupil allocations for the institutional education programs listed in subsection (4) of this section.

(3)(a) To the extent the technical details of the formula have been adopted by the legislature and except when specifically provided as a school district allocation, the distribution formula for instructional education allocation shall be based on minimum staffing and nonstaff costs the legislature deems necessary to support instruction and operations in prototypical institutional education programs serving students as provided in this section. The use of prototypical institutional education programs for the distribution formula does not constitute legislative intent that institutional education programs should be operated or structured in a similar fashion as the prototypes. Prototypical institutional education programs illustrate the level of resources needed to operate an institutional education program of a particular type and size, using commonly understood terms and inputs, such as various categories of school staff. It is the intent that the funding allocations to school districts be adjusted from the institutional education program prototypes based on the actual number of annual average full-time equivalent students in each institutional education program in the district to the extent that data is available.

(b) For the purposes of this section, prototypical institutional programs are defined as follows:

(i) A prototypical residential habilitation center has eight annual full-time equivalent students;

(ii) A prototypical long-term juvenile justice institution has one hundred twenty-five annual full-time equivalent students;

(iii) A prototypical community facility has seven annual full-time equivalent students;

(iv) A prototypical county juvenile detention center has twenty-five annual full-time equivalent students;

(v) A prototypical state correction facility has twenty-five annual full-time equivalent students;

(vi) A prototypical county or city jail has twenty-five annual full-time equivalent students; and

(vii) A prototypical residential mental health unit has one hundred twenty-five annual full-time equivalent students.

(4) The minimum allocation for each level of prototypical institutional education program shall include allocations for the following types of teachers and staff:

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