HOUSE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL NO. 1076
90TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
2626S.16C
To repeal sections 163.036, 163.172 and 167.645, RSMo Supp. 1999, relating to public schools, and to enact in lieu thereof four new sections relating to the same subject, with an emergency clause for certain sections.
Section A. Sections 163.036, 163.172 and 167.645, RSMo Supp. 1999, are repealed and four new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 160.560, 163.036, 163.172 and 167.645, to read as follows:
160.560. 1. The provisions of this section shall be known and may be cited as the "Mastering Math Program".
2. Beginning July 1, 2001, the department of elementary and secondary education shall provide four-year, competitive matching grants to assist public school districts:
(1) In interpretation of algebraic and pre-algebraic concepts throughout the district's elementary school, middle school, junior high school curriculum; and
(2) With the establishment or enhancement of middle school or junior high school programs providing a curriculum that focuses on algebra to be offered no later than the eighth grade in the school's curriculum.
3. Grant applications may be submitted on behalf of a school building, a combination of school buildings or for all schools in the district.
4. Grant applications shall include, but shall not be limited to:
(1) A description of the school's current mathematics program, which shall, at a minimum, specifically address the focus on algebra or pre-algebra concepts in the curriculum;
(2) An evaluation of the areas of needed instructional improvement or enhancement;
(3) A description of the process of instructional improvement, including a statement regarding parental involvement in program implementation; and
(4) A description of the method for evaluating student progress, which shall, at a minimum, include stated goals for improvement in student performance.
5. Continued funding to a grantee after the second year of the grant shall be based upon improvement in student performance on the eighth grade mathematics portion of the state-wide assessment established pursuant to section 160.518.
6. Upon the conclusion of the grant and based on improvement in student performance on the mathematics portion of the state-wide assessment established pursuant to section 160.518 during the period of the grant, the department of elementary and secondary education may reimburse the grantee for its local match under the grant, with such reimbursement funds to be placed to the credit of the school district's operating funds.
7. The department of elementary and secondary education shall establish standards for improvement of student performance relating to continued grant funding and refund of matching funds pursuant to this section.
8. Grants shall be distributed in equal amounts within geographic areas established proportionately based upon student population; provided that funds may be reallocated by the department of elementary and secondary education if an area has insufficient applications or insufficient eligible applications to obligate all funds for the area.
163.036. 1. In computing the amount of state aid a school district is entitled to receive under section 163.031, a school district may use an estimate of the number of eligible pupils for the ensuing year, the number of eligible pupils for the immediately preceding year or the number of eligible pupils for the second preceding school year, whichever is greater. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 3 of this section, any error made in the apportionment of state aid because of a difference between the actual number of eligible pupils and the estimated number of eligible pupils shall be corrected as provided in section 163.091, except that if the amount paid to a district estimating eligible pupils exceeds the amount to which the district was actually entitled by more than five percent, interest at the rate of six percent shall be charged on the excess and shall be added to the amount to be deducted from the district's apportionment the next succeeding year.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1 of this section or any other provision of law, the state board of education shall make an adjustment for the immediately preceding year for any increase in the actual number of eligible pupils above the number on which the state aid in section 163.031 was calculated. Said adjustment shall be made in the manner providing for correction of errors under subsection 1 of this section.
3. (1) For any district which has, for at least five years immediately preceding the year in which the error is discovered, adopted a calender for the school term in which elementary schools are in session for twelve months of each calendar year, any error made in the apportionment of state aid to such district because of a difference between the actual number of eligible pupils and the estimated number of eligible pupils shall be corrected as provided in section 163.091 and subsection 1 of this section, except that if the amount paid exceeds the amount to which the district was actually entitled by more than five percent and the district provides written application to the state board requesting that the deductions be made pursuant to subdivision (2) of this subsection, then the amounts shall be deducted pursuant to subdivision (2) of this subsection.
(2) For deductions made pursuant to this subdivision, interest at the rate of six percent shall be charged on the excess and shall be included in the amount deducted and the total amount of such excess plus accrued interest shall be deducted from the district's apportionment in equal monthly amounts beginning with the succeeding school year and extending for a period of months specified by the district in its written request and no longer than sixty months.
[3.] 4. For the purposes of distribution of state school aid pursuant to section 163.031, a school district may elect to use the district's equalized assessed valuation for the preceding year, or an estimate of the current year's assessed valuation if the current year's equalized assessed valuation is estimated to be more than ten percent less than the district's equalized assessed valuation for the preceding year. A district shall give prior notice to the department of its intention to use the current year's assessed valuation pursuant to this subsection. Any error made in the apportionment of state aid because of a difference between the actual equalized assessed valuation for the current year and the estimated equalized assessed valuation for the current year shall be corrected as provided in section 163.091, except that if the amount paid to a district estimating current equalized assessed valuation exceeds the amount to which the district was actually entitled, interest at the rate of six percent shall be charged on the excess and shall be added to the amount to be deducted from the district's apportionment the next succeeding year.
163.172. 1. In school year 1994-95 and thereafter, the minimum teacher's salary shall be eighteen thousand dollars. Beginning in the school year 1996-97, for any full-time teacher with a master's degree and at least ten years teaching experience in a public school or combination of public schools, the minimum salary shall be twenty-four thousand dollars.
2. Beginning with the budget requests for fiscal year 1991, the commissioner of education shall present to the appropriate committees of the general assembly information on the average Missouri teacher's salary, regional average salary data, and national average salary data and a history of the cost to the state for the minimum salary for teachers programs.
3. As used in this section, the following terms mean:
(1) "Full-time", shall be defined as a teacher working under school district contract for all school days and hours eligible for attendance of students;
(2) "Master's degree or its equivalent", shall be at a minimum a bachelor's degree plus at least thirty-two additional hours of course work which results in at least one additional certification;
(3) "Regular school term", has a minimum of one hundred seventy-four days and one thousand forty-four hours of pupil attendance possible for students;
(4) "Salary", shall include the salary and minimum salary supplements amounts which appear on the teacher's contract for the regular school term and does not include supplements for extra duties, summer school, career ladder, or extensions of the contract year;
(5) "Teacher", shall include all certificated school district personnel paid pursuant to the school district teacher salary schedule.
[3.] 4. All school district employee salary and personnel policy information shall be public information.
[4. As used in this section, the term "salary" shall be defined as the salary figure which appears on the teacher's contract and as determined by the local school district's basic salary schedule and does not include supplements for extra duties.]
5. The minimum salary for any fully certificated teacher employed on a less than full-time basis by a school district, state school for the severely handicapped, the Missouri School for the Deaf, or the Missouri School for the Blind shall be prorated to reflect the amounts provided in subsections 1 and [2] 10 of this section.
[6. Beginning with the 1996-97 school year, the general assembly shall make an annual appropriation to the excellence in education fund established in section 160.268, RSMo, for the purpose of fulfilling the minimum salary requirements for public school teachers in those districts meeting the qualifications established in subsection 7 of this section. The appropriation shall be sufficient to ensure that all qualifying districts are able to comply with the minimum salary requirements of this section. The department of elementary and secondary education shall determine, prior to each school year, those districts which shall be eligible to receive funds in this subsection during the school year. A qualifying district shall be eligible to receive funds appropriated in this subsection only during the first three years following the district's qualifying for such funds.
7. To qualify to begin receiving funds in subsection 6 of this section, a school district shall meet all of the following criteria:
(1) A portion of the real property of the district shall have been removed from the tax rolls due to the impact of state or federal government action;
(2) The district shall have received no more state aid on a per pupil basis for each of the last three school years, exclusive of categorical funding, than the district received for the 1992-93 school year;
(3) The salaries paid to all teachers in the district for the school year prior to qualification shall be totally compacted at the eighteen thousand dollar per year minimum established in this section;
(4) The district shall have in its employ for the school year prior to qualification one or more teachers with a master's degree and at least ten years' teaching experience in a public school or a combination of public schools;
(5) The district shall be financially distressed or have a history of deficit spending which, if continued, will cause the district to become financially distressed within three years;
(6) The district had an enrollment of no greater than four hundred pupils for the preceding school year; and
(7) The district shall have levied an operating levy for school purposes of not less than two dollars seventy-five cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation for the previous year and shall continue to levy at no less than that rate.
8. For any school year in which a school district receives funds pursuant to subsections 6 and 7 of this section, such school district shall continue to expend on teacher salaries no less than the amount it expended on teacher salaries in the school year immediately prior to the school year in which it first receives such funds.
9. No school district receiving funds pursuant to subsections 6 and 7 of this section shall receive additional funds pursuant to subsection 6 of this section by virtue of the annexation of another school district to such school district during or after the school year immediately prior to the school year in which the annexing district first receives such funds; nor shall any school district annexed to a school district receiving funds pursuant to subsections 6 and 7 of this section also receive funds pursuant to subsection 6 of this section by virtue of such annexation if such annexation occurred during or after the school year immediately prior to the school year in which the annexing school district first receives such funds.]
6. Beginning in school year 2001-2002, for districts choosing to participate in the program receiving funds pursuant to subsection 7 of this section, the minimum salary for a full-time teacher shall be at least twenty-two thousand dollars, the minimum salary for the full-time teacher with at least five years of previous experience shall be at least twenty-five thousand dollars, the minimum salary for a full-time teacher with at least nineteen years of previous experience or a full-time teacher with at least a master's degree or its equivalent and at least ten years previous experience shall be at least twenty-eight thousand dollars, the minimum salary for a full-time teacher with at least a master's degree or its equivalent and at least nineteen years of previous experience shall be at least thirty-four thousand dollars, and the minimum salary for a full-time teacher with at least a master's degree or its equivalent and at least twenty-nine years of previous experience shall be at least forty thousand dollars.
7. Beginning with the 2001-2002 school year, the general assembly shall make an annual appropriation to the excellence in education fund established in section 160.268, RSMo, for the purpose of paying public school teacher minimum salary supplements in those districts meeting the qualifications established in subsection 8 of this section and seeking to receive payments pursuant to this subsection. If the appropriation of the general assembly is insufficient to pay the total cost of all salary supplements the minimum salary amounts of subsection 6 of this section shall be prorated until the amount appropriated is sufficient to make the payments to all participating school districts.
8. To make application and qualify to begin receiving funds pursuant to subsection 7 of this section, a school district shall meet all of the following criteria:
(1) Levy a tax rate in the current year in incidental and teachers funds totaling no less than the operating levy for school purposes for the 1999-2000 school year after all reductions and rollbacks, excluding reductions to the district tax rate ceiling as required by article X, section 22 of the Missouri constitution and tax rate reductions required pursuant to law;
(2) Make no increase in any voluntary tax rate rollback for operations compared to the 1999 property tax year;
(3) Make no transfer of revenue or balance from either incidental or teachers funds to either debt service or capital projects funds in excess of statutory authority;
(4) Employ all teachers in accordance with district policy with at least one teacher paid according to the district's salary schedule at less than the minimum salary as specified in subsection 6 of this section;
(5) Make no reduction in any salary amount in the district's teacher salary schedule compared to the district's 1999-2000 teacher salary schedule unless the district is financially stressed as identified by the department of elementary and secondary education;
(6) Beginning with school year 2001-2002, determine the salary of any teacher who is a new employee to a school district by placement on the district's salary schedule using all of the teacher's previous years of public school teaching experience;
(7) Beginning with school year 2001-2002, for any school district which is not financially stressed pay each returning teacher a salary for the regular school term which is no less than the salary paid that teacher during the previous school term on a full-time employee equivalent basis.
9. Reductions or penalties to state aid payments to school districts pursuant to subsection 7 of this section paying minimum salary supplements to teachers shall occur under the following condition: the amount of end-of-year fund balance in incidental and teachers funds combined in excess of the greater of fifteen percent of expenditures in these funds or the 1999-2000 end-of-year fund balance in these funds shall be subtracted the following year from state payments paid pursuant to subsection 7 of this section and if necessary from state aid paid pursuant to section 163.031.
10. Future increases in minimum salaries established pursuant to subsection 6 of this section for teachers shall be contingent upon decreases in total state payments to all districts made pursuant to subsection 7 of this section. The second fiscal year following a fiscal year in which state cost of funding the minimum salary program pursuant to subsection 7 of this section is eighty-five percent or less of the full funding cost for the first school year of the state funding of minimum salaries for teachers pursuant to subsection 7 of this section, the value of each level of minimum salary provided in subsection 6 of this section shall be increased by one thousand dollars.
11. Expenditures related to state minimum salary revenue received by a district shall not be used to determine compliance with any other provisions of law including compliance with section 165.016, RSMo.
12. The state board of education shall issue rules and regulations as necessary for the efficient and effective implementation of this section. All such rules shall be promulgated pursuant to chapter 536, RSMo.
13. State minimum salary supplements paid pursuant to subsection 7 of this section shall be funded from any increases in state revenues from taxation of riverboat gaming operations, including boarding fees and lottery proceeds, compared to the amount of these revenues appointed in fiscal year 2001.
167.645. [No public school student shall be promoted to a higher grade level unless that student has a reading ability level at or above one grade level below the student's grade level; except that the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to students receiving special education services pursuant to sections 162.670 to 162.999, RSMo.] 1. For purposes of this section, the following terms mean:
(1) "Reading assessment", a recognized method of judging a student's reading ability, with results expressed as reading at a particular grade level. The term reading assessment shall include, but is not limited to, standard checklists designed for use as a student reads out loud, paper-and-pencil tests promulgated by nationally recognized organizations and other recognized methods of determining a student's reading accuracy, expression, fluency and comprehension in order to make a determination of the student's grade-level reading ability. Assessments which do not give a grade-level result may be used in combination with other assessments to reach a grade-level determination. Districts are encouraged but not required to select assessment methods identified pursuant to section 167.346. Districts are also encouraged to use multiple methods of assessment;
(2) "Summer school", for reading instruction purposes, a minimum of forty hours of reading instruction and practice. A school district may arrange the hours and days of instruction to coordinate with its regular program of summer school.
2. For purposes of this section, methods of reading assessment shall be determined by each school district. Unless a student has been determined in the current school year to be reading at grade level or above, each school district shall administer a reading assessment or set of assessments to each student within forty-five days of the end of the third-grade year, except that the assessment and retention provisions of this section shall not apply to:
(1) Students receiving special education services under an individualized education plan pursuant to sections 162.670 to 162.999, RSMo;
(2) Students whose second language is English;
(3) Students in an educational plan under section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 20 U.S.C. Section 794, as amended, where it is determined that such student's disability affects such student's ability to read; or
(4) Students who have been determined, prior to the beginning of any school year, to have an intellectual ability insufficient to meet the reading requirement set out in this section. Although students in this category are exempt from the assessment and retention provisions of this section, districts shall provide reading improvement plans for these students.
The assessment required by this subsection shall also be required for students who enter a district in grades 4 or 5 unless such student has been determined in the current school year to be reading at grade level or above.
3. (1) For each student whose third-grade reading assessment determines that such student is reading below second-grade level, the school district shall design a reading improvement plan for the student's fourth-grade year.
(2) For the 2000-2001 school year only, school districts shall administer a reading assessment or set of assessments to each fourth and fifth grade student within forty-five days of the end of the school year, unless such student has been determined in the current school year to be reading at grade level or above. For any fourth grade student who is reading below third grade level and for any fifth grade student who is reading below fourth grade level, the school district shall design a reading improvement plan for the student's next school year. Such students may be required to attend summer school following the regular 2000-2001 school term as a condition of promotion to fifth or sixth grade and shall be given an assessment within forty-five days of the end of school year 2001-2002. Such students who do not meet the target level shall be required to attend summer school and be reassessed at the end of summer school. Such students who do not meet the target level at the end of summer school following the regular 2001-2002 school term shall be retained, following the notification procedure and limitations described in subsection 4 of this section.
(3) Such reading improvement plan shall include, at a minimum, thirty hours of additional reading instruction or practice outside the regular school day during the fourth-grade year. The school district shall determine the method of reading instruction necessary to enforce this subsection. The school district may also require the student to attend summer school for reading instruction as a condition of promotion to fourth grade.
4. Each student for whom a reading improvement plan has been designed pursuant to subsection 3 of this section shall be given another reading assessment, to be administered within forty-five days of the end of such student's fourth-grade year. If such student is determined to be reading below third-grade level, the student shall be required to attend summer school to receive reading instruction. At the end of such summer school instruction, such student shall be given another reading assessment. If such student is determined to be reading below third-grade level, the district shall notify the student's parents or guardians, and the student shall not be promoted to fifth grade. No student shall be denied promotion more than once solely for inability to meet the reading standards set out in this section.
5. The process described in subsections 3 and 4 of this section shall be repeated as necessary through the end of the sixth grade, with the target grade level rising accordingly. Mandatory retention grade shall not apply to grades subsequent to fourth grade except as provided in subdivision (2) of subsection 3 of this section.
6. The mandatory process of additional reading instruction pursuant to this section shall cease at the end of the sixth grade or when a student reaches the target grade level for reading ability at any point before sixth grade.
7. Each school district shall be required to offer summer school reading instruction to any student with a reading improvement plan. Districts may fulfill the requirement of this section through cooperative arrangements with neighboring districts. If a district offers transportation to such students, the mileage shall be considered as approved mileage eligible for reimbursement pursuant to sections 163.161 and 167.231, RSMo.
8. A school district may adopt a policy that requires retention in grade of any student who has been determined to require summer school instruction in reading and who does not fulfill the summer school attendance requirement.
9. Nothing in this section shall preclude a school district from retaining any student in grade when a determination is made in accordance with district policy that retention is in the best interests of the student.
10. The state board of education shall not incorporate information about the number of students receiving additional instruction pursuant to this section into any element of any standard of the Missouri school improvement program or its successor assessment program.
11. Each school district shall make an effort to systematically inform parents of the methods and materials used to teach reading in grades kindergarten through 4 (four), in terms understandable to a lay person.
Section B. Because immediate action is necessary to preserve the quality of education, the repeal and reenactment of sections 163.036 and 167.645 is deemed necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health, welfare, peace and safety, and is hereby declared to be an emergency act within the meaning of the constitution, and the repeal and reenactment of sections 163.036 and 167.645 shall be in full force and effect upon its passage and approval.