A school district shall allocate to an alternative school program the same per student expenditure to include federal, state, and local funds that would be allocated to the student's school if the student were attending the student's regularly assigned school. This shall include any appropriate special education funding.

Districts or consortia meeting the eligibility requirements for alternative school funding shall receive an annual base funding minimum of $30,000 or up to $200,000 depending on the student population of the district; however, districts forming consortia will have as their base funding an amount equal to the total of the individual district's base funding, not to exceed $350,000. The State Department of Education, for the purposes of establishing base funding, shall group districts according to their average daily membership and assign the amount of base funding that districts in a grouping would receive for eligible programs. Unobligated funds from state appropriations for base funding which become available during a fiscal year may be redistributed on a per pupil basis to eligible programs in countywide districts receiving base funding of less than $100,000; however, this redistributed funding shall not become part of the base funding for the following year. Increases in fiscal year 2000-2001 funding over the fiscal year 1999-2000 recurring and nonrecurring funding shall be used to increase countywide districts' base funding by fifty percent and this new amount shall constitute their base funding.

It is the intent of the General Assembly that, after meeting the funding requirements for base funding, eligible programs, beginning with school year 2000-2001, shall also receive per pupil funding based on the average daily membership of the students served by the program at an Education Finance Act weighting of 1.49 and beginning with school year 2001-2002 a weighting of 1.74. Per pupil funds for the alternative school program shall be distributed through the Education Finance Act formula provided for in Section 59-20-40. Beginning with school year 2002-2003, every district or district consortium shall provide alternative school opportunities for their students in grades 6-12, provided that state funding for alternative school programs is not reduced below the appropriation received in fiscal year 2001-2002.

These funds shall be used for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of alternative schools programs. Funds also may be used to provide for staff development needs pursuant to Section 59-63-1370.

Districts or consortia developing plans for the establishment of an alternative school shall be eligible for a planning grant of no more than $5,000 if criteria established by the State Board of Education are met.

HISTORY: 1999 Act No. 107, Section 1.