Senator Keaveny’s Early Childhood Legislation Combined with House Bill Sent to Governor

JEFFERSON CITY — Today (May 16), the House truly agreed and finally passed legislation that contains language provided by Sen. Joseph Keaveny, D-St. Louis. House Bill 1689, received overwhelming approval on the final day of the legislative session by a House vote of 127-18.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kathryn Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, would allow a school district or charter school that operates an early childhood education program to receive state funding through the foundation formula for students between the ages of three and five who are eligible for free and reduced lunch. The provision will start for unaccredited districts next school year, for provisional districts the following year, and for other districts once the school funding formula is fully funded.

“The passage of this legislation addresses several concerns over the school funding formula and allows investment in early childhood programs in the neediest districts,” Sen. Keaveny said. “Today is a huge victory for early childhood education in our state that will have lasting effects for years to come.”

The legislation contains language from Sen. Keaveny’s early childhood education legislation, Senate Bill 538 that had already been perfected in the Senate.  Sen. Keaveny’s provision will address issues with the foundation formula that were necessary to save $68 million in funding in order to comply with changes in federal regulations.

The foundation formula fixes include requiring the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to update local effort calculations based upon boundary changes and stabilizes the Free and Reduced Price Lunch student count in high-poverty districts where new federal guidelines will allow a switch to a community-based count instead of a family-based count.

For more information regarding this or any of his filed legislation, contact Sen. Keaveny’s Capitol office at (573) 751-3599 or follow legislation online at www.senate.mo.gov/keaveny.