TEA has proposed three new rules related to school finance.
New Instructional Facilities Allotment (NIFA). This rule is intended to bring NIFA rules into alignment with HB 1081, 85th Regular Session, that increased the NIFA allotment from $250 to $1,000 per ADA on a new campus and expanded the number of campuses that could qualify for funding. The proposed rule would allow leased instructional facilities and renovated instructional facilities to qualify as long as those facilities are going to become an instructional facility for the first time. The rule also specifies that if calculated awards exceed the appropriations limit, awards will prorated using a uniform percent reduction applied to all awards. Note that TEA has not yet updated the 2017-2018 summary of finance reports with NIFA awards, but we anticipate that appropriated funds will allow for a NIFA allotment of approximately $220 per student this year, as the appropriation for NIFA was not increased when the allotment increased.
Hazardous Transportation Funding. This rule is intended to implement SB 195, 85th Regular Session, that added areas presenting a high risk of violence to the criterion that can be used to identify hazardous routes for the purpose of calculating the transportation allotment. It also allows districts to draw down funds to implement an innovative school safety program, such as a community walking transportation program. Such a program would be funded at $1.08 per mile. The law, and proposed rule, requires districts to report to TEA data from consolidated law enforcement records that document incidents of violence if they intend to identify routs for hazardous transportation funding based on high risk of violence. Note that the current 10% limit on hazardous miles continues to apply.
Alternative Compensatory Education Allotment Funding. This proposed rule would allow a charter school or school district is located in a county declared a natural disaster by the president during the 2017-2018 school year and that received an adjustment to ADA under TEC 42.005(d) for the 2017-2018 school year and that did not receive a waiver from the department of agriculture related to the national school lunch program to receive the 2017-2018 total enrollment as the count of students eligible for enrollment in the free or reduced-price lunch program for September 2017 when computing the compensatory education allotment for the 2017-2018 school year. Recall that the compensatory education allotment is calculated based on the best 6 months eligibility for the free and reduced-price lunch program for the prior federal fiscal year. TEA estimates this will cost $11 million and has posted a public hearing for July 9 at 9:00 in room 1-104 of the Travis building.