Note: the content below reflects the provisions of the original rural schools bill. Most of the provisions described here were not retained when the bill was rewritten by the Joint Committee on Education. To read the current version of the bill, which does not address the real needs of rural schools, please visit the Massachusetts Legislature website.
What is in the rural schools bill?
To read the full text of H.2567 & S.2388, An Act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools, and track its progress, visit MAlegislature.gov.
To read a section-by-section summary of the bill, provided by Rep. Natalie Blais, click here.
A general summary is below.
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Provisions for All Schools
Transportation
Formally establishes a Non-Resident Pupil Transportation Fund outside of Chapter 70 school aid to reimburse schools for the costs of transporting students who attend school outside their home district.
Provides 100% reimbursement for school transportation costs for students receiving special education outside of the home district in the year the costs were incurred.
Special Education
Examines the future of the Massachusetts special education system by establishing a commission to re-examine Special Education Financing statewide. The Commission is charged with reviewing the system for financing special education, and making recommendations for a more equitable system that provides adequate funding to local school districts to meet the costs of providing high quality education to students with disabilities.
Strengthens the pipeline of Special Education Instructors
Creates an innovative pathway program to expand the number of skilled educators in the special education field.
Requires the development of special education instructor assessments that can be used as an alternative to Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL).
Directs DESE’s Office of Educator Licensure to give priority to paraprofessionals seeking licensure as special educators in the state’s Board of Higher Education grant program.
Provides 100% reimbursement for tuition costs for students receiving special education outside of the home district in the year costs incurred.
Expands district ability to attract and retain highly specialized professionals by allowing for the payment of full-time equivalent salaries for highly specialized part-time staff in order to obtain a qualified professional.
Provisions for Rural Schools
Dedicates funding to address the unique fiscal challenges facing rural schools by:
Codifying the Rural Schools Aid Fund, which will receive $60,000,000 each year from the state’s General Fund. The fund will be used to support the long-term fiscal health of rural school districts, with priority given to those serving communities with the fewest students per square mile.
Directing the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to annually make recommendations for additional adjustments to the rural school aid calculation to improve accuracy and equity.
Establishing the Declining Enrollment Fund to provide additional per-pupil aid to school districts with a decline in student enrollment of at least 35 percent in the past 20 years.
Requires DESE to review special education regulations as they pertain to rural school districts and to create a one-stop resource for public review and input.
Provides an independent third party to review a rural school district’s health insurance plans to determine if any alternative, cost saving plans or plan designs might be available to the district.
Requires that the state pay the full amount of extraordinary transportation costs for transporting students between home and school.
Provisions for Regional and Regionalizing School Districts
Creates a specialized office within DESE to assist with the research, development and execution of regionalization efforts, and shared service agreements.
Directs the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to relieve districts of the financial burden of closing and/or transitioning a school building when a school is closed as part of a regionalization effort.
Requires that the MSBA, in collaboration with the Executive Office of Economic Development, assist municipalities in developing a demolition, reuse or retrofitting plan for school buildings that are closed as result of regionalization.
Increases the amount of MSBA aid for the construction and renovation of school buildings to 90% of total project costs for regional school districts.
Provides an additional payment of $200 per student to regional school districts during their first three years of operation as a regional school district.
Authorizes the payment of state aid to cover the salaries of certain administrators during the first two years of a regional school district’s operation.
Establishes three separate funds to assist school districts considering regionalization or implementing shared services. The grants will not exceed $250,000 annually.
School District Regionalization Grant Fund: assists school districts considering forming, are in the process of forming or have formed a regional school district or are regionalizing services within the past five years. The maximum grant award will not exceed $1,500,000 over a three-year period.
Regional School District Foundational Aid Fund: covers shortfalls in assistance to regional school districts during their first five years if the district’s constituent schools received more foundational aid before regionalization than the regional district.
Superintendent Union Formation Grant Fund: provides assistance to school districts considering forming, are in the process of forming or have formed a superintendent union within the past five years.