Public School Finance

Public school total program funding - rural school funding - early childhood at-risk enhancement (ECARE) positions - "English Language Proficiency Act" funding allocation - department of education reporting requirements - appropriation. The act:

• Increases the statewide base per pupil funding for the 2018-19 budget year by $222.57 to account for inflation, for a new statewide base per pupil funding of $6,768.77.
• Sets the minimum district total program funding for the 2018-19 budget year. The district total program funding reflects a $150 million reduction in the budget stabilization factor over the prior budget year.
• For the 2018-19 budget year, distributes $30 million on a per-pupil basis to large rural districts and small rural districts, including district charter schools and each institute charter school whose accounting district is a large or small rural district. Large rural districts share 55% of the appropriation, and small rural districts share 45% of the appropriation. The act uses a district's funded pupil count for the 2017-18 budget year. The act specifies the intended uses of the money.
• Increases by 1,000 slots the number of early childhood at-risk enhancement, or ECARE, slots that may be used for preschool students or to extend kindergarten to full-day kindergarten;
• Changes the funding allocation for the "English Language Proficiency Act" (ELPA) by allocating funding proportionately, based on the number of students who have no or limited English proficiency and the number of students who are newly fluent but who need monitoring, and clarifies that a district certifies the number of English language learners and the department of education determines a student's eligibility for funding under the ELPA;
• Amends the requirements relating to core course level participation and performance reports by limiting reporting on core courses to only the middle and high school levels and by delaying the date by which the department shall make the report available on its website; and
• Amends the reporting requirement relating to the annual report on the effectiveness of educator preparation programs to require the inclusion of certain data in the report only if the data is available at the time of the annual report.

For the 2018-19 state fiscal year, the act appropriates:

• $150,000,000 to the department of education for the state share of districts' total program funding, consisting of $119,276,209 of general fund and $30,723,791 from the state public school fund.
• $5,161,872 from the state education fund to the department of education for the state share of districts' total program funding.
• $3,727,500 to the department of education for ASCENT program funding.
• $191,043 from the state education fund to the department of education for hold-harmless full-day kindergarten funding.
• $30,000,000 from the state education fund to the department of education for additional funding for rural school districts and charter schools.
• $4,151,996 from the general fund to the department of education for additional Colorado preschool program participants.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)