SCS/SB 734 - This act modifies the calculation of the amount a school district with one or more pupils attending a charter school shall pay to the charter school. Under this act, provisions of current law setting forth aid payments for charter schools shall only apply to school years ending on or before June 30, 2021.
For school years beginning on or after July 1, 2021, each charter school and each school district responsible for distributing local aid to charter schools shall include as part of their annual independent audit, an audit of pupil residency, enrollment, and attendance in order to verify pupil residency in the school district or local education agency.
A school district having one or more resident pupils attending a charter school shall pay to the charter school an annual amount equal to the product of the charter school's weighted average daily attendance and the state adequacy target, multiplied by the dollar value modifier for the district, less the charter school's share of local effort, plus all other state aid attributable to such pupils, plus local aid received by the school district, divided by the total weighted average daily attendance of the school district and all charter schools within the school district. Local aid is defined as all local and county revenue received by the school district and charter schools within the school district.
A charter school that has declared itself a local educational agency shall receive all state aid calculated under this act from the Department, and all local aid calculated under the act from the school district. A charter school shall receive an annual amount as set forth in the act.
Each month the school district shall calculate the amount of local aid owed to the charter school by the school district, and the school district shall pay such amount to the charter school. If any payment of local aid is due, the school district shall make monthly payments on the twenty-first day of each month, beginning in July of each year. If the school district fails to make timely payments to the charter schools, the Department shall impose any penalty deemed appropriate.
Each school district shall, as part of an annual audit, include a report converting the local aid received from an accrual basis to a cash basis. Such report shall be made publicly available on its district website.
The Department shall be required, under this act, to conduct an annual review of any payments made in the previous fiscal year to determine whether there has been any underpayment or overpayment. Such review shall include a calculation of the amount of local aid owed to charter schools using the first preceding year's annual audit. The school district shall pay to the charter school the amount calculated by such review. In the event of an underpayment, the school district shall remit the underpayment amount to the charter school. In the event of an overpayment, the charter school shall remit the overpayment amount to the school district. If the school district or charter school fails to remit any required payment, the Department shall impose any penalty deemed necessary.
If a prior year correction of the amount of local aid is necessary, the school district shall recalculate the amount owed to the charter school or provide a bill to the charter school for any overpayment amount.
The provisions of this act shall become effective on July 1, 2021.
This act is identical to a provision contained in HCS/SS/SCS/SB 570 (2020), HCS/SS/SCS/SB 528 (2020), and HCS/HB 1664 (2020), and is similar to a provision in SCS/HCS/HB 1540 (2020).
JOSIE BUTLER