PUBLIC-PRIVATE SCHOOL COURSES

Senate Bill 836 (Substitute S-1)

Sponsor:  Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom

House Committee:  Education

Senate Committee:  Education

Complete to 6-16-08

A SUMMARY OF SENATE BILL 836 AS PASSED BY THE SENATE 2-26-08

 

The bill would amend the State School Aid Act to revise the terms under which a district could receive state school aid for a non-public school student or for a home-schooled student enrolled in courses provided by the district.

Currently under the law, a parent (or legal guardian) of a minor who is enrolled in a non-public school within a school district, or who resides in a school district and is being home-schooled, may enroll the minor in a curricular offering being provided by the district at the public school site.  State school aid may be provided for a minor under these provisions only if certain conditions are met. These include a requirement that the non-public school be located, or the non-public students be educated, within the geographic boundaries of either the school district or of a contiguous school district operating under a cooperative program for which the district is a member, established for the purpose of providing non-essential elective courses to non-public school students. 

Senate Bill 836 would modify this requirement to remove any reference to contiguous districts' cooperative programs.

Instead, the bill specifies that school aid could be provided to a school district for a non-public school student or for a home-schooled minor only if either of the following applied:

(1) The non-public school was located, or the non-public students educated, within the geographic boundaries of the district.

(2) The district in which the non-public school was located did not agree to provide certain instruction requested by the non-public school and so it was provided instead by a contiguous district.  This would apply if the home district did not agree to provide some or all of the requested instruction by May 1 immediately preceding the school year or within 60 days after the request (if the request had been made after March 1).

MCL 388.1766b

 

FISCAL IMPACT:

This bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact to the state and local school districts.  Passage of this bill may result in more private and home-schooled children being eligible to take elective classes at a public school, and this would result in those students being counted as part-time students, which would increase school aid costs.  The additional costs would be equal to the number of additional part-time students participating, multiplied by the foundation allowance for the educating district.

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   J. Hunault

                                                                                                  Fiscal Analyst:   Mary Ann Cleary

                                                                                                                           Bethany Wicksall

■ 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.