EDUCE MINIMUM HOURS OF INSTRUCTION

IN SCHOOL DISTRICT WITH ROOF DAMAGE

House Bill 5666

Sponsor:  Rep. Howard Walker

Committee:  Education

Complete to 3-22-04

A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5666 AS INTRODUCED 3-18-04

House Bill 5666 would amend the State School Aid Act to allow, for the 2003-2004 school year only, a reduction in the minimum number of required annual school instruction hours if pupil instruction was not provided in a school district due to structural roof and truss damage that required a school to be closed.

Currently under the law, a school district must offer at least 1,098 hours of instruction each year or forfeit a proportionate amount of its state aid allocation.  However, the law also provides that the first 30 hours for which student instruction is not provided because of conditions not within the school authorities’ control—such as severe storms, fires, epidemics, or health conditions—are to be counted as hours of student instruction.  The bill would retain this provision.  In addition to those 30 hours, the Department of Education would count as hours of pupil instruction not more than 20 additional hours for which instruction was not provided, if student instruction had not been provided in a school district during the current school-year, because of structural roof damage that required closing the school.

MCL 388.1701

FISCAL IMPACT:

Currently school districts must provide 1,098 hours of instruction in order to receive 100 percent of their state aid.  If a district does not fill this requirement and is short of the required hours of instruction, it will forfeit its state aid payment by applying the ratio of noncompliance hours to the required minimum hours.  A district that is short 20 hours of the required hours would have its state aid appropriation reduced by approximately 1.82 percent.

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   J. Hunault

                                                                                                  Fiscal Analyst:   Mary Ann Cleary

■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.