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. (Section 9)

• Provides 100% reimbursement for school transportation costs for students receiving special education outside of the home district in the year the costs were incurred. (Section 5)

• Requires reimbursement to districts for the cost of transportation of a child in foster care between the foster home and the child’s school of origin. (Section 16)

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. (Section 8)

• Strengthens the pipeline of Special Education Instructors

  • Creates an innovative pathway program to expand the number of skilled educators in the special education field. (Section 6)

  • Requires the development of special education instructor assessments that can be used as an alternative to Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL). (Section 6)

  • 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. (Section 3)

• Provides 100% reimbursement for tuition costs for students receiving special education outside of the home district in the year costs incurred. (Section 5)

• Expands district ability to attract and retain highly specialized professionals by allowing for reimbursement of the payment of full-time equivalent salaries for highly specialized part-time staff in order to obtain a qualified professional. (Section 4)

Provisions for Rural Schools and Select Districts

• 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. (Section 2)

  • 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. (Section 2)

  • 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. (Section 2)

  • Adding a definition of Rural School District to Chapter 70 based on student population sparsity and income level. (Section 1)

• 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. (Section 7)

• Requires that the state pay the full amount of extraordinary transportation costs for transporting students between home and school. (Section 9)

• Requires equitable geographic representation on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. (Section 17)

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. (Section 10)

• 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. (Section 12)

• 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. (Section 12)

• Increases the amount of MSBA aid for the construction and renovation of school buildings to 90% of total project costs for regional school districts. (Section 11)

• Provides an additional payment of $200 per student to regional school districts during their first three years of operation as a regional school district. (Section 13)

• 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. (Section 14)

• Establishes three separate funds to assist school districts considering regionalization or implementing shared services. (Section 15)

  • 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.

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