DROPOUT RECOVERY PROGRAM

House Bill 5267 (Substitute H-2)

Sponsor:  Rep. Bob Genetski

1^st Committee:  Appropriations 

2^nd Committee:  Education

Complete to 5-28-12

A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5267 AS REPORTED BY HOUSE COMMITTEE 5-23-12

House Bill 5267(H-2) would amend the State School Aid Act to provide a special student membership count and seat time exception for a qualifying dropout recovery program, to be utilized when calculating state aid. 

A more detailed description of the bill follows.

The bill would add a new Section 23a to the School Aid Act to describe how state aid would be calculated for a school district's dropout recovery program.  The bill specifies that a dropout recovery program operated by a district would qualify for the special membership counting provisions of Section 6(4)(ff), and for the hours and day of pupil instruction exemption under Section 101(12), if the dropout prevention program met all of the following:

·                    Enrolled only eligible pupils.

·                    Provided an advocate (who could serve for up to 50 students, and could be employed by the district, or provided by an education management organization that was partnering with the district, subject to compliance with the code).

·                    Developed a written learning plan.

·                    Monitored the pupil's progress against the written learning plan.

·                    Required each pupil to make satisfactory monthly progress, as defined by the district.

·                    Reported the pupil's progress results to the partner district at least monthly.

·                    The program (which could be operated on or off campus) provided a computer and internet access for each pupil if it was operated using distance learning online.

·                    Was operated throughout the entire calendar year.

·                    If the district partnered with an EMO, then the EMO had a dropout recovery program partnership relationship with at least one other district.

Under House Bill 5267 a school district that operated a dropout recovery program would be required to adopt a definition of "satisfactory monthly progress" that was consistent with the definition of that term under subsection (3).  There, the phrase "satisfactory monthly progress" means an amount of progress that is measurable on a monthly basis and that, if continued for a full 12 months, would result in the same amount of academic credit being awarded to the pupil as would be awarded to a general education pupil completing a full school year.  Satisfactory monthly progress may include a lesser required amount of progress for the first two months a pupil participates in the program.

The bill also defines the following word and phrases:  "advocate," "education management organization," "eligible pupil" and, "written learning plan." 

The term "advocate" is defined to mean an adult available to meet in person with assigned pupils, as needed, to conduct social interventions, to proctor final examinations, and to provide academic and social support to pupils enrolled in the district's dropout recovery program.

"Education management organization" is defined to mean a private provider that operates one or more other dropout recovery programs that meet the requirements of this section in partnership with one or more districts.

"Eligible pupil" means a pupil who has been expelled from school under the mandatory expulsion provisions in Section 1311 or 1311a of the Revised School Code, a pupil who has been suspended or expelled from school under a local policy, a pupil who is referred by a court, a pupil who is pregnant or is a parent, a pupil who was previously a dropout, or a pupil who is determined by the district to be at risk of dropping out.

"Written learning plan" is defined to mean a written plan developed by the mentor that includes the plan start and end dates, courses to be taken, credit to be earned for each course, teacher of record for each course, and mentor name and contact information.

House Bill 5267 would also expand the definition of the term "membership" to specify that for a pupil enrolled in a dropout recovery program that meets the requirements of Section 23a, the pupil shall be counted as 1/12 of a full-time equated membership for each month that the district operating the program reports that the pupil was enrolled and in full attendance.  The district operating the program would be required to report to the Department of Education the number of pupils who were enrolled in the program and were in full attendance for a month, not later than the 10th day of the next month.  A district would be prohibited from reporting a pupil as being in full attendance for a month unless both of the following criteria were met:

·                    a personalized learning plans was in place before the first school day of the month for the first month the pupil participated in the program; and

·                    the pupil met the district's definition under section 23a of satisfactory monthly progress for that month or for the immediately preceding month, and appropriate interventions were implemented within 10 school days after it was determined that the pupil did not make satisfactory monthly progress.

MCL 388.1606 and 388.1701

FISCAL IMPACT:

To the extent that dropout recovery programs successfully re-enroll students who have previously dropped out, or prevent students at risk of dropping out from actually doing so, the bill would increase the pupil membership counts of individual school districts and the state, increasing School Aid funding.  According to the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI), the statewide 6-year dropout rate for the 2006 cohort, i.e. those students who first enrolled in 9th grade in the 2005-06 school year but did not receive a diploma or other certification of completion (e.g., a GED) within 6 years, was 16.29%.  This equates to 23,201 dropouts in a cohort of 142,387 pupils. 

Given the different FTE calculation for dropout recovery program pupils, when making state aid payments, the Department of Education would have to make monthly adjustments to each district's pupil membership count in order to accurately reflect new students entering the program, continuing students making satisfactory monthly progress, and students that drop out of the program.  The bill does not alter the pupil membership blend calculated as the sum of (a) 0.9 × FTEs from the Fall membership count and (b) 0.1 × final audited count from the Spring count in the prior school year.  Under current law, state aid payments are made 11 times during the year (October-August), while the bill counts participating students as 1/12 FTE for each month. 

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   J. Hunault

                                                                                                  Fiscal Analyst:   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.