The School District Finance and Quality Performance Act is name of the formula for computing General State Aid and Supplemental General State Aid for the 289 unified school districts in Kansas.
General State Aid Formula
Base State Aid Per Pupil x Adjusted Enrollment = State Financial Aid
The Base State Aid Per Pupil (BSAPP) is $4,012.
Enrollment Adjustments
Low Enrollment - This weight applies to school districts having unweighted full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollments of under 1,622.
High Enrollment -(Correlation) – This weight applies to districts having unweighted full-time equivalent enrollments of 1,622 and over. It is determined by multiplying the full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment by a factor of 0.029942. Note: A district cannot receive both low enrollment and correlation weighting.
Transportation – This weight helps compensate school districts for providing transportation to public school pupils who reside 2.5 miles or more by the usually traveled road from the school attended. The transportation formula is:
Formula Per Pupil Cost of Transportation/BSAPP = A factor which is then multiplied times the number of pupils transported 2.5 miles or more in the current year = the number of weighted transportation students.
Vocational Education – This weight is determined by multiplying the full-time equivalent enrollment in vocational education programs approved by the State Board of Education by a factor of 0.5. Revenue generated by the weight must be spent for vocational education.
Bilingual Education – This weight is determined by multiplying the full-time equivalent enrollment in bilingual education programs approved by the State Board of Education by a factor of 0.395. Revenue generated by the weight must be spent either for bilingual or at-risk education.
At-Risk Pupil – This weight is determined by multiplying the number of pupils of a district who qualify for free meals under the National School Lunch Program by a factor of 0.456. Pupils who receive services are determined on the basis of at-risk factors determined by the school district board of education and not by virtue of eligibility for free meals. In other words, the amount of money is determined by the number of students who qualify for free meals but the money may or may not be used for them. It is up to the district to determine who is considered “at risk.”
High Density At-Risk Weighting – This weight is determined by multiplying the number of pupils of a district who qualify for free meals under the National School Lunch Program by the following factors:
Those districts that have free meal student percentages between 40.0 percent and 49.99 percent would use 0.06 factor.
Those districts that have free meal student percentages of 50.0 percent or more or have a density of 212.1 students per square mile and a free lunch percentage of at least 35.1 percent and above would use 0.10 factor.
Medium Density At-Risk Weighting – Those districts having free meal student percentages between 40.0 percent and 49.99 percent multiply the number of at-risk students by a factor of 0.06. In addition, if a school district becomes ineligible for medium-density at-risk weighting, the weighting shall be the greater of the weighting in the current school year; prior school year; or the average of the current school year and preceding two school years.
Non-Proficient At-Risk Weighting – This weight is determined by calculating the number of pupils in a school district who are not eligible for the federal free lunch program and who scored below proficiency, or failed to meet the standard established by the State Board of Education, on either the reading or math state assessments in the preceding school year. This number is then multiplied by 0.0465. The product is the non-proficient at-risk weighting for the preceding school year.
If the State Board determines that students in a school district are unable to take the state assessments as a result of a natural or manmade disaster, the non-proficient at-risk weighting for the school district will be equal to the school district’s non-proficient at-risk weighting for the preceding school year.
School Facilities – This weight is assigned for costs associated with beginning operation of new school facilities. The enrollment in the new school is multiplied by a factor of 0.25 to produce the weight adjustment.
In order to qualify for this weight, the district must have utilized at least 25.0 percent of the state financial aid of the district authorized for the school year. This weight is available for two school years only–the year in which the facility operation is commenced and the following year.
Ancillary School Facilities – The law permits a school district to appeal to the State Court of Tax Appeals for permission to levy a property tax for up to two years to defray costs associated with commencing operation of a new facility beyond the costs otherwise financed under the law. To qualify for this tax levying authority, the district must have begun operation of one or more new facilities in the preceding or current school year (or both), have adopted a budget that includes at least 25 percent of the state financial aid for the district and have had extraordinary enrollment growth, as determined by the State Board of Education.
The amount authorized by the tax levy divided by the BSAPP amount ($4,012 for school year 2009-10) equals the ancillary school facilities enrollment adjustment.
The tax levying authority may grant an extension for an additional three years if the school district’s board determines that the costs attributable to commencing operation of the new school facility or facilities are significantly greater than the costs of operating other school facilities in the district.
The tax that may be levied during the extension period is computed by first determining the amount produced by the tax levied by the district in the second year of the initial tax levying authority and by adding the amount of general state aid attributable to the school facilities weight in that year. Of the amount so computed, 75.0 percent, 50.0 percent, and 25.0 percent, respectively, are the amounts that may be levied during the three-year period.
Special Education and Related Services - The amount of special education services state aid a school district receives, including “catastrophic” special education aid, is divided by BSAPP to produce this weighting.
Note: This procedure does not increase the school district general fund state aid requirement; it only increases the computed size of this budget for the benefit of the Local Option Budget provision of the law. Special education funding remains a separate categorical aid program distributed on the basis of a statutory formula.
Cost-of-Living Weighting – The law permits a local school board to levy a local tax for the purpose of financing the cost-of-living weighting in a district which has higher than the average statewide cost-of-living based on housing cost. The State Board of Education is required to determine which districts are eligible to apply for this weighting.
The district will be deemed eligible if its average cost of living is at least 25.0 percent higher than the statewide average. In addition, to be eligible, the district must have adopted a local option budget in an amount equal to at least 31.0 percent of the state financial aid for the district. The cap that can be levied is 5.0 percent of the district’s state financial aid calculation. The local school board is required to pass and publish a resolution authorizing the levy, and the resolution is subject to protest petition.
If a school district already was authorized to levy a tax to finance the cost-of-living weighting in the 2006-07 school year, the law allows the district to continue to levy the tax at a rate that generates the same amount of revenue that was generated during the 2006-07 school year. The law allows this as long as the district adopts a local option budget which equals or exceeds the amount of local option budget adopted in the 2006-07 school year.
Declining Enrollment Weighting - Any school district that has adopted a local option budget in an amount that equals at least 31.0 percent of the state financial aid for the district and has declining enrollment from the prior year may seek approval from the State Board of Tax Appeals to make a levy for up to two years, capped at 5.0 percent of the district’s general fund budget. The levy is equalized up to the 75th percentile. An amount equal to the levy approved by the State Court of Tax Appeals is converted to the ancillary school facilities weight. The weight is calculated each year by dividing the amount of the levy authority approved by the State Court of Tax Appeals by BSAPP.
Decreasing Enrollment Provisions – When a district’s enrollment in the current school year has decreased from the preceding school year, the district may base its budget on the greater of unweighted full-time equivalent enrollment of the preceding year or the three-year average of unweighted full-time equivalent enrollment (current school year and two immediately preceding school years).
In a school district for which the State Board of Education has determined that the enrollment of the district in the preceding school year had decreased from the enrollment in the second preceding school year and that a disaster had contributed to the decrease, the enrollment of the district in the second school year following the disaster is determined on the basis of a four-year average of the current school year and the preceding three school years. However, if the enrollment decrease provisions of the general law (above) are more beneficial to the district than the four-year average, the general law will apply.
This is just a basic overview that was provided by the Legislative Research Department. As you can see this is a complex formula. To those of us in Johnson County it means that our tax dollars leave the county and go to the state coffer to fund other school districts throughout the state. Johnson County funds approximately 30% of the total state school finance budget. We have approximately 19% of the student population for the entire state and we receive approximately 12% of the state school finance budget for our students. Johnson County schools rank in the bottom 10% for amount of money received in BSAPP.
I’m still working to fully understand the formula. This link will show you the various factors for each school district so you can start researching the data. For those not familiar with the USD numbering system, SMSD is USD 512
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http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1830 When you get to the page you need to download the Excel file titled, “2010-11 Legal Max.” It was last modified on 3/24/2011.
Greg Smith
Kansas State House of Representatives
District 22
“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.” James Madison
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