BILL REQ. #:  S-3228.1 

Read first time 01/09/12.   Referred to Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education.

     AN ACT Relating to excluding permanent school building space used for STEM schools from eligibility determinations for state school plant funding assistance; and amending RCW 28A.525.162.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 28A.525.162 and 2009 c 129 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Funds appropriated to the superintendent of public instruction from the common school construction fund shall be allotted by the superintendent of public instruction in accordance with student enrollment and the provisions of RCW 28A.525.200.
     (2) No allotment shall be made to a school district until such district has provided local funds equal to or greater than the difference between the total approved project cost and the amount of state funding assistance to the district for financing the project computed pursuant to RCW 28A.525.166, with the following exceptions:
     (a) The superintendent of public instruction may waive the local requirement for state funding assistance for districts which have provided funds for school building construction purposes through the authorization of bonds or through the authorization of excess tax levies or both in an amount equivalent to two and one-half percent of the value of its taxable property, as defined in RCW 39.36.015.
     (b) No such local funds shall be required as a condition to the allotment of funds from the state for the purpose of making major or minor structural changes to existing school facilities in order to bring such facilities into compliance with the barrier free access requirements of section 504 of the federal rehabilitation act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 706) and rules implementing the act.
     (3) For the purpose of computing the state funding assistance percentage under RCW 28A.525.166 when a school district is granted authority to enter into contracts, adjusted valuation per pupil shall be calculated using headcount student enrollments from the most recent October enrollment reports submitted by districts to the superintendent of public instruction, adjusted as follows:
     (a) In the case of projects for which local bonds were approved after May 11, 1989:
     (i) For districts which have been designated as serving high school districts under RCW 28A.540.110, students residing in the nonhigh district so designating shall be excluded from the enrollment count if the student is enrolled in any grade level not offered by the nonhigh district;
     (ii) The enrollment of nonhigh school districts shall be increased by the number of students residing within the district who are enrolled in a serving high school district so designated by the nonhigh school district under RCW 28A.540.110, including only students who are enrolled in grade levels not offered by the nonhigh school district; and
     (iii) The number of preschool students with disabilities included in the enrollment count shall be multiplied by one-half;
     (b) In the case of construction or modernization of high school facilities in districts serving students from nonhigh school districts, the adjusted valuation per pupil shall be computed using the combined adjusted valuations and enrollments of each district, each weighted by the percentage of the district's resident high school students served by the high school district; and
     (c) The number of kindergarten students included in the enrollment count shall be multiplied by one-half.
     (4) The superintendent of public instruction, considering policy recommendations from the school facilities citizen advisory panel, shall prescribe such rules as are necessary to equate insofar as possible the efforts made by school districts to provide capital funds by the means aforesaid.
     (5) For the purpose of computing eligibility for state funding assistance, the office of the superintendent of public instruction must exempt from eligibility determinations space permanently designated for schools with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, also known as STEM schools.
     (6) For the purposes of this section, "preschool students with disabilities" means children of preschool age who have developmental disabilities who are entitled to services under RCW 28A.155.010 through 28A.155.100 and are not included in the kindergarten enrollment count of the district.