Article 1 - General Education

Section 1. Calculation of income.  Clarifies the investment income earned for the purposes of the permanent school trust fund.

Section 2. Textbook. Amends the definition under the nonpublic pupil aid statute to include electronic books in the definition of textbooks.

Section 3. Individualized instructional or cooperative learning materials.  Amends the definition under the nonpublic pupil aid statute to include electronic books in the definition of individualized instructional or cooperative materials.

Section 4. Capital project levy referendum.  Conforms the reporting requirement to the review and comment project threshold requirements under section 123B.71.

Section 5. Levy Recognition.  Corrects the cross-reference for the career and technical levy.

Section 6. Definitions. Clarifies the definition of general revenue for charter schools and strikes an obsolete reference to referendum revenue for the purposes of calculating special education excess cost aid.

Section 7.  Sparsity revenue for school districts that close facilities.  Removes the requirement that school districts file a resolution with the department for closing a school and receiving an adjustment to their sparsity revenue 60 days prior to the start of the fiscal year.

Effective Date.  Makes this section effective for board resolutions approved by the board in fiscal year 2011 an later for sparsity revenue calculations in fiscal year 2012 and later.

Section 8. Retired employee health benefits.  Limits the postemployment benefits expenses to those actually paid during the previous fiscal year and authorizes the commissioner to adjust each district’s levy authority so long as the total levy authority does not exceed the maximum levy authority for that year.

Section 9. Repealer. Repeals the obsolete career and technical levy authority.

Article 2 – Education Excellence

Section 1.  Statewide Testing.  Revises the score notation on transcripts to “Pass”/”Not Pass” in order to not identify a student with a disability. 

Sections 2 and 3.  Reporting.  Provides cross-references to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, Title 34, Section 99.3) and the Government Data Practices Act (M.S., section 13.34) to clarify that secure test items and personally identifiable test reports are nonpublic data.

Section 4.  Student Performance Data.  Removes a requirement for the Commissioner to include certain demographic factors in the analysis of student performance data.  This data is not collected by the department. 

Sections 5 and 6.  School Performance Report Cards.  Allows the Commissioner an additional 30 days to release school performance report card data and AYP data in years during which new performance standards are being developed.  Simplifies the timeline for the release of the data by stipulating that the data is nonpublic data until it is released by the Commissioner.

Section 7.  Highly Qualified Teacher Defined.  Removes outdated language and updates with current language.

Section 8.  Eligibility.   Expands eligibility for concurrent enrollment program aid to include rigorous career and technical education programs. 

Section 9.  Authorizer.  Clarifies existing statute relative to nonpublic sectarian or religious institution authorizers approved prior to July 1, 2009.  Removes the $2,000,000 fund balance requirement for charitable organizations that may become authorizers.  Removes the cap on the number of single-purpose authorizers.  Clarifies that the authorizer approval process is based on an “application” rather than an “affidavit.   Extend the deadline by one year for existing authorizers to be approved by the Commissioner.

Section 10.  Formation of School.  Clarifies that charter school employees and contractors cannot serve on a board with the exception of allowing at least one licensed teacher.

Section 11 Audit Report. Requires an outside auditor to share public financial audit information with the department upon request.

Section 12 Payment of State Aid to Charter Schools.  Clarifies that charter schools must have a signed contract on file at MDE in order to receive state aid.

Article 3 – Special Programs

Section 1.  Child with a disability.  Updates statutory terms to conform with federal terminology and Minnesota rule.

Section 2.  Placement in another district; responsibility.  Authorizes the commissioner to designate the district of residence if there is a dispute between school districts regarding residency.

Section 3.  Placement of children without disabilities; education and transportation.  Authorizes the commissioner to designate the district of residence if there is a dispute between school districts regarding residency.

Section 4.  Repealer.  Repeals the interagency office on transition services.

Article 4 – Facilities and Technology

Section 1. Capital expenditure; Health and Safety.

Subdivision 1.  Health and safety revenue application.  Clarifies what is included in the health and safety revenue application.

Subd. 2.  Health and safety policy. Clarifies the requirement of school boards to adopt a health and safety policy.  Removes language that is clarified in later subdivisions.

Subd. 6.  Uses of health and safety revenue.  Clarifies the allowable uses of health and safety revenue.

Subd. 6a.  Restrictions on health and safety revenue.  Clarifies the prohibited uses of health and safety revenue.

Subd. 6b.  Health and Safety projects.  Clarifies requirements of certain projects eligible for health and safety revenue.

Subd. 6c.  Appeals process. Allows an appeals process for districts if funding approval for a project is denied. 

Subd. 8.  Health, safety, and environmental management cost.  Includes a cross-reference for “health, safety, and environmental management."

Section 2.  Final plans.  Allows the department to accept conceptual drawings instead of finalized drawings for the review and comment process.

Section 3.  Certification.  Corrects a cross reference.

Section 4.  Health and safety policy.  Allows a school board to submit an application for health and safety revenue for taxes payable in 2012 if the board has not yet adopted a health and safety policy by September 30, 2011.

Article 5 – Accounting

Section 1.  Violations of law. Clarifies the mechanism for withholding or reducing funds as a result of violations of law.

Section 2. District employment of unlicensed teachers; aid reduction.  Clarifies that state aid is withheld and not reduced for employing unlicensed teachers.

Article 6 – Student Transportation

Section 1.  District reports. Amends statutes to provide a more consistent method to measure transportation provided by the schools and provides an exemption from the standard cost allocation method for districts that contract for transportation services when the listed criteria are met.