Passed by the Senate February 8, 2012 YEAS 45   ________________________________________ President of the Senate Passed by the House March 1, 2012 YEAS 96   ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives | I, Thomas Hoemann, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6002 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth. ________________________________________ Secretary | |
Approved ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | Secretary of State State of Washington |
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2012 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 01/30/12.
AN ACT Relating to adjustments to the school construction assistance formula; amending RCW 28A.525.162; reenacting and amending RCW 28A.525.166; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 The school construction assistance funding
formula is used to determine state funding contributions to school
construction projects. It is the intent of the legislature that the
formula use the most accurate method available to reflect the actual
number of students using districts' school facilities. State funding
currently provides all-day kindergarten for over twenty percent of
kindergarten students and RCW 28A.150.315 calls for the continued
phasing-in of all-day kindergarten each year until full statewide
implementation is achieved in the 2017-18 school year. In addition,
because alternative learning experience programs of education take
place in whole, or in part, outside the regular classroom setting, and
because online alternative learning experience programs are delivered
primarily electronically using the internet or other computer-based
methods, it is appropriate to consider the impact of alternative
learning experience students in assessing school space needs. The
legislature acknowledges the review of the formula conducted by the
office of the superintendent of public instruction and accepts many
recommendations from the resulting December 2011 report. The
legislature also intends to provide financial assistance for school
districts affected by the transition to the new funding formula. This
assistance will be limited to grants to cover direct district
expenditures for contracted architects, engineers, and other
consultants for projects that are no longer eligible for state
assistance under the new formula or for projects requiring significant
redesign work as a result of reduced state assistance under the new
formula.
Sec. 2 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)) this chapter.
(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)) counted as one headcount
student; and
(d) The number of students residing outside the school district who
are enrolled in alternative learning experience programs under RCW
28A.150.325 shall be excluded from the total.
(4) In lieu of the exclusion in subsection (3)(d) of this section,
a district may submit an alternative calculation for excluding students
enrolled in alternative learning experience programs. The alternative
calculation must show the student headcount use of district classroom
facilities on a regular basis for a regular duration by out-of-district
alternative learning experience program students subtracted by the
headcount of in-district alternative learning experience program
students not using district classroom facilities on a regular basis for
a reasonable duration. The alternative calculation must be submitted
in a form approved by the office of the superintendent of public
instruction. The office of the superintendent of public instruction
must develop rules to define "regular basis" and "reasonable duration."
(5) 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))) (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.
Sec. 3 RCW 28A.525.166 and 2009 c 421 s 5 and 2009 c 129 s 6 are
each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
Allocations to school districts of state funds provided by RCW
28A.525.162 through 28A.525.180 shall be made by the superintendent of
public instruction and the amount of state funding assistance to a
school district in financing a school plant project shall be determined
in the following manner:
(1) The boards of directors of the districts shall determine the
total cost of the proposed project, which cost may include the cost of
acquiring and preparing the site, the cost of constructing the building
or of acquiring a building and preparing the same for school use, the
cost of necessary equipment, taxes chargeable to the project, necessary
architects' fees, and a reasonable amount for contingencies and for
other necessary incidental expenses: PROVIDED, That the total cost of
the project shall be subject to review and approval by the
superintendent.
(2) The state funding assistance percentage for a school district
shall be computed by the following formula:
The ratio of the school district's adjusted valuation per pupil
divided by the ratio of the total state adjusted valuation per pupil
shall be subtracted from three, and then the result of the foregoing
shall be divided by three plus (the ratio of the school district's
adjusted valuation per pupil divided by the ratio of the total state
adjusted valuation per pupil).
District adjusted | Total state | ||||||
3-valuation | ÷ | adjusted valuation | State | ||||
Computed | per pupil | per pupil | Funding | ||||
State | Assistance | ||||||
Ratio | District adjusted | Total state | |||||
3+valuation | ÷ | adjusted valuation | |||||
per pupil | per pupil |
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4 This act is necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the
state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect
immediately.