|
04
Legislature passes 16 K-12 education bills; 8 have fiscal impact
Here
is a summary of the K-12 education bills passed by the 2004 Legislature. All
become effective July 1. Eight of the bills have fiscal impact on public
schools; they are explained in greater detail in a related story in this
edition of the Administrative Memorandum.
SB 50: Revises the amount of time graduating seniors may be
released prior to the end of school.
Rather than specifying 3 days, it allows local school districts to make the
determination once they have met the minimum hourly requirements.
SB 117: Establishes a task force for the purpose of improving the quality
and availability of child care and early learning opportunities.
The task force is to examine the current child care and early learning system
for children in South Dakota and provide recommendations for improvement in a
report to the next legislative session.
SB
173: Specifies alternative certification options for school administrators who
are not fully certified.
Current CEO’s and building managers have until July 2005 to make decisions
about whether they will take a “test,” put together a professional development
plan that will lead to full certification, or go before a special board to
request a waiver.
HB
1001: Provides for a “basic” high school program and a “recommended” high
school program and requires most students to complete the “recommended”
curriculum. This
bill establishes a two-track curriculum for accredited high schools and
requires every student to take the courses comprising the “recommended”
curriculum unless excused with parental and counselor input. The excused
students take a "basic" program. Both programs will include a rigorous high
school curriculum, and the ”recommended” high school program will be more
academically challenging in the areas of mathematics and science than the
“basic” high school program. Requirements for both curriculums will be set
forth in administrative rule by the SD Board of Education.
HB 1003: Allows two or more school districts to include a
proposed excess tax levy in their consolidation plan.
This bill
removed a potential barrier
to consolidation for two or more school districts intending to reorganize; it
allows them to place an opt-out proposal within their reorganization plan.
The benefit of the bill is that it allows school districts one vote on all
facets of a reorganization plan, rather than a separate vote on an opt-out
provision.
HB
1133 Changes in
requirements for open enrollment for special education students. This
bill allows students on an IEP to open enroll without a formal joint
individual education program team meeting in cases where all parties agree
that the previous IEP is appropriate. Additionally, two or more children from
a family residing in the same household may open enroll only if the
nonresident district can provide an appropriate instructional program and
facilities, including transportation, for the child in need of special
education or special education and related services.
HB
1217: Expands the provisions related to education benefits for the children
of persons who died in military service. Currently, any student under the age of 25 whose parent has died as the
result of military service is entitled to free tuition and entitled to attend
and pursue any course or courses of study in any state educational
institution. This bill broadens that to include the technical institutes as
well as for those children of parents that serve in the National Guard.
HB
1221: Requires certain publishers to provide electronic versions of textbooks
suitable for conversion into Braille.
Currently, textbooks for
Braille students are often not ready for visually impaired students on the
first day of school due to the labor-intensive nature of the production of
Braille text. Braille books often arrive in piecemeal form as pages are
completed. This bill requires publishers to provide electronic files of
textbooks sold in South Dakota to the South Dakota State Library upon request in
order to facilitate more expedient production of a Braille version of the text
for a visually-impaired student.
Fiscal- see related story
SB48: Revises the per
student allocation for Special Education
SB49: Consolidation Incentives for certain school districts
HB1081: Effort Factor in the Special Education Formula
HB1087: School District General Fund Levy
SB205: Distributes any left-over State Aid to school districts.
SB206: Revises
the per student allocations to account for declining enrollment dollars
SB150:
Appropriates funds from earnings off of the Ed Enhancement Trust Fund that are
available in the current fiscal year
SB195: General Appropriations Act |
