Amendment #1090 to H4000

Chapter 70 Enrollment Reserve

Representatives Higgins of Leominster, Keefe of Worcester, Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield, Duffy of Holyoke, Hawkins of Attleboro, LeBoeuf of Worcester, Minicucci of North Andover, Oliveira of Ludlow and Hendricks of New Bedford move to amend the bill, in section 2, by striking item 7061-0011 and inserting in place thereof the following item:-

7061-0011 For one-time grants to public schools and districts in the commonwealth which have experienced pandemic-related disruptions in their enrollment that negatively affect their chapter 70 aid for fiscal year 2022, or which have significantly increased their transportation needs in fiscal year 2022; provided that the department of elementary and secondary education shall prepare a report calculating Chapter 70 aid for fiscal year 2022 using the actual October 1, 2021 count of students in place of the enrollment data used to calculate the aid amounts in Section 3; provided further, the report shall indicate the additional aid due to each district as a result of the use of actual enrollment numbers and the total supplemental appropriation needed for this item to be able to fully fund that cost; provided further, that said report shall be issued not later than November 1, 2021, and shall be provided to the house and senate chairs of the joint committee on education, and the chairs of the house and senate ways and means committees; provided, further that the department may distribute funds from this item prior to October if data it collects shows that such distributions are appropriate; and provided further that any such distributions would be considered in the calculation of amounts due to districts as determined in the report described above; provided further, that, in addition, the department shall prepare a report that examines the significance of transportation costs in the district’s overall budget, and the relative disruption to said budget caused by any significant increases in expected transportation spending due to enrollment growth in fiscal year 2022 and the amount of additional aid appropriate to address those costs; provided further, that every district with year-on-year enrollment growth on October 1, 2021 shall receive a grant from this item; provided further, that, notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, assistance funded by this item shall only be available on a one-time non-recurring basis; provided further, that no funds distributed from this item to a municipality or regional school district shall be considered base aid in fiscal year 2023; and provided further, that any funds distributed from this item to a city, town or regional school district shall be deposited with the treasurer of such city, town or regional school district and held in a separate account and shall be expended by the school committee of such city, town or regional school district without further appropriation, notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary………………$40,000,000

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #1090 to H4000

Chapter 70 Enrollment Reserve