Article 2: Education Excellence
Overview
This article, among other provisions, repeals the last-in first-out teacher layoff default, modifies academic standards, addresses reading strategies, establishes Erin’s Law in Minnesota, and appropriates money for education excellence programs.
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Knowledge and skills. Adds instruction in citizenship and economics to list of subject areas for compulsory instruction.
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Required academic standards. Corrects the reference to physical education standards to be adopted by the Department from National Association of Sport and Physical Education to Society of Health and Physical Educators.
Allows a school district to include child sexual abuse prevention instruction in a health curriculum.
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Rulemaking. Strikes obsolete references.
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State bilingual and multilingual seals. Provides that seals recognize high school students in any school district, charter school, or nonpublic school with required proficiency.
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Identification; report. Requires a school district to identify students in grade 3 or higher who have difficulty reading and report on efforts to identify students with dyslexia using screening tools identified by MDE.
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Parent notification. Requires a school to annually notify the parents of a student reading below grade level of the student’s progress. Prohibits a district from using this section to deny a student’s right to a special education evaluation.
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Intervention. Strongly encourages a district or school to develop a personal learning plan for a student, other than a student with an individualized education program, unable to demonstrate grade-level proficiency on the third grade Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) in reading. The plan is required to address knowledge gaps and skill deficiencies through various strategies and may include grade retention. Requires the intervention to continue after third grade until the student is reading at grade level.
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Dyslexia Specialist. Directs the Commissioner to employ a dyslexia specialist. Requires the specialist to work to increase professional awareness and instructional competencies to meet the needs of students with dyslexia, including online professional development.
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Planning for students’ successful transition to postsecondary education and employment; personal learning plans. (a) Requires the personal learning plans of students in grade 9 to inform the student’s parents of the student’s achievement levels score on the high school MCAs.
(f) Requires students who do not meet or exceed Minnesota academic standards, as measured by the high school MCAs, to be informed that admission to public school is free and available to any resident under 21.
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Raised academic achievement; advanced placement and international baccalaureate programs. Allows the commissioner to award AP/IB grants to school districts that plan to increase AP/IB science, technology, engineering, and math offerings to low-income and other disadvantaged students.
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In-service training. Encourages districts to train district staff and school board members on responding to a disclosure of child sexual abuse and complying with mandatory reporting requirements.
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Grant awards. Allows school districts and charter schools to accept funds from other sources for child sexual abuse prevention programs.
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Character development education. Adds language providing that character development education is shared responsibility of parents, teachers, and community members to current law that encourages districts to offer character education instruction. Encourages districts to integrate character development instruction into positive behavioral intervention strategies.
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Child sexual abuse prevention education.
Subd. 1. Purpose. States that the purpose of this section is to encourage districts to offer instruction on child sexual abuse prevention to students and training to school personnel on preventing sexual abuse and sexual violence.
Subd. 2. Curriculum. Allows school districts to consult with other agencies and community organizations to identify child sexual abuse prevention tools, curricula, and programs.
Subd. 3. Other state programs. Identifies state activities aimed at preventing sexual violence against children.
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Statewide testing. Modifies provisions on nationally normed college entrance exams. Modifies the definition of “cultural competence.” Eliminates requirement that district administer ACT or SAT at student’s high school during the school day.
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Rollout sites; report. Directs the Commissioner to select up to six school districts or charter schools to rollout the disaggregated data reporting. Directs the Commissioner to consult stakeholders to develop recommendations for best practices for disaggregated data. Directs the Commissioner to consult the stakeholders on how to measure and report on a student’s background as an immigrant or a refugee. Requires the Commissioner to report to the legislature.
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Student performance data. Modifies student categories for performance data reporting.
Effective date. Makes this section effective for the 2019-2020 school year and later.
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State growth target, other state measures. Modifies student categories for growth, college and career-readiness, and student engagement reporting. Requires data on four- and six-year graduation rates to be disaggregated by modified student categories. Requires notice to parents regarding data reporting.
Effective date. Makes this section effective for the 2018-2019 school year for rollout sites and 2019-2020 school year and later for all other schools.
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School performance reports and public reporting. Requires school districts to include in school performance reports school performance reporting information and calculate proficiency rates required by ESSA. Requires school districts to develop, update, and post school performance reports that comply with world’s best workforce requirements.
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Negotiated unrequested leave of absence. Requires the school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers to negotiate an unrequested leave of absence plan. Strikes language establishing a statutory plan for placing teachers on an unrequested leave of absence and prohibiting a provisionally licensed teacher from exercising seniority under a negotiated leave of absence plan. Applies to school districts outside cities of the first class.
Effective date. Makes this section effective July 1, 2018.
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Negotiated unrequested leave of absence. Requires the school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers in a first class city school district to negotiate an unrequested leave of absence plan.
Effective date. Makes this section effective July 1, 2018.
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Alternative teacher professional pay system. Amends the alternative teacher professional pay system to allow for the following: (1) hiring bonuses or other added compensation to provide students with equitable access to teachers who have demonstrated skills for being highly effective at closing achievement gaps; work in a high-need position; or are hired to work in hard-to-staff schools; (2) incentives for teachers to obtain credits required for teaching concurrent enrollment or college in the schools courses; or (3) funding a grow your own new teacher initiative.
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Basic alternative teacher compensation aid. Divides paragraph (b) into two paragraphs.
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Alternative teacher compensation revenue for St. Croix River Education District. Permits St. Croix River Education District to receive alternative teacher compensation revenue (Q-comp). Requires district to report its staffing and expenditures each year.
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Positive behavior interventions and supports. Defines “positive behavioral interventions and supports” (PBIS) as an evidence-based framework for preventing problem behavior. Lists key components of PBIS. Allows schools to use character education to support implementation of PBIS.
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Lotteries. Modifies open enrollment lotteries by giving priority to a new group of students. Students who do not reside in the school district receive priority if they reside in a municipality where (1) the nonresident district operates a building, (2) the municipality is wholly or partially within the boundaries of at least five school districts; (3) the resident district does not operate a building, and (4) no other nonresident district operates a building.
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Definitions. Defines “concurrent enrollment.”
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Authorization; notification. Strikes provisions relating to 9th or 10th grade students enrolled in concurrent enrollment.
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Authorization; notification. Recodifies provisions relating to 9th or 10th grade students enrolled in concurrent enrollment in new subdivision.
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Courses according to agreements. Encourages schools, school districts and postsecondary institutions to develop and offer an “introduction to teaching” or “introduction to education” concurrent enrollment courses. Requires an institution that receives a grant to annually report on student participation rates to the Commissioner.
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Access to school buildings and technology. Requires a school to allow a student enrolled in a PSEO course to remain at the school site during the regular school day and requires the school to adopt a policy that provides reasonable access to computers and technology during the school day.
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Credits; grade point average weighting dispute. Requires a school board to adopt a policy regarding weighted grade point averages for students in dual enrollment courses.
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Financial arrangement. Increases number of days MDE has to pay postsecondary institutions for concurrent enrollment students from 30 to 45.
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Innovative delivery of career and technical education programs; sharing of district resources. Codifies innovative pilot projects provisions enacted in 2012 and 2014 session laws.
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Eligible pupils. Extends for one year a fiscal year 2017 provision allowing districts to receive funding for certain early middle college program participants that remain enrolled until the student turns 22 years old.
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Approved recovery program funding. Adds approved unreimbursed pupil transportation costs to the uses of the recovery program grant.
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Certain federal, state, and local requirements. Regulates placement of charter school students in classroom of a teacher who is on performance plan or has not had summative evaluation. Recodifies requirement that charter schools comply with Pupil Fair Dismissal Act.
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Withdrawal. Requires an authorizer to provide a letter to the school for distribution to families that explains the decision to withdraw as an authorizer.
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Admissions requirements and enrollment. Clarifies that charter school admission requirements apply to charter schools offering free preschool or prekindergarten program. Strikes the reference to the Pupil Fair dismissal Act (recodified in section 124E.03, subdivision 2).
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Building lease aid. Allows a charter school to include students participating in PSEO in their pupil count for generating lease aid.
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Requirement. Modifies alternate instruction requirements for students unable to read at grade level by the end of kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2.
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Alternative teacher preparation grant program.
Subd. 1. Definitions. Defines terms, including:
“Alternative teacher preparation program” means an alternative teacher preparation program under section 122A.245, subdivision 2, or an experimental teacher preparation program under section 122A.09, subdivision 10.
“Program” means a teacher preparation curriculum leading to specific licensure areas.
“Shortage area” means both licensure fields and economic development regions experiencing a teacher shortage and economic development regions where there is a shortage of teachers of color.
“Unit” means an institution or subdivision of an institution that oversees teacher preparation programs.
Subd. 2. Establishment; eligibility. Establishes a grant program for alternative teacher programs that fill teacher shortage areas.
Subd. 3. Use of grants. Allows grants to be used in specific ways.
Subd. 4. Report. Requires grant recipients to report on ability to fill shortage areas.
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Teacher shortage loan forgiveness program definitions. Adds economic development regions where there is a shortage of teachers of color to definition of “teacher shortage area.”
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Teacher shortage loan forgiveness program administration. Expands teacher shortage loan forgiveness program eligibility to include teachers of color.
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Teacher shortage loan forgiveness program reporting. Expands reporting requirement to include information on the race or ethnicity of teachers participating in the program.
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Statewide concurrent enrollment teacher training program. Expands Northwest Regional Partnership Program to other voluntary associations and teachers throughout Minnesota.
Subd. 1. Definitions. Defines terms used in program, including:
“State Partnership” means a voluntary association of the Northwest Regional Partnership and the Metropolitan Educational Cooperative Service Unit.
Subd. 2. Establishment. Allows the State Partnership to contract with a postsecondary institution to establish a continuing education credit program to allow teachers that teach concurrent enrollment classes to earn graduate credits.
Subd. 3. Curriculum development. Requires the program to use flexible delivery models and post information about the curriculum.
Subd. 4. Funding for course development; scholarships; stipends. Requires State Partnership to provide funding for course development for up to 18 credits in subject areas, provide scholarships to teachers to enroll in the courses, and develop criteria to award educator stipends to incentivize participating in the program.
Subd. 6. Private funding. Provides that partnerships may receive private resources to supplement public money. Money received in fiscal year 2018 will be administered by the State Partnership.
Subd. 7. Report required. Requires the Northwest Regional Partnership and State Partnership to report yearly.
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Education Innovation Partners Cooperative Center. Extends the time that the Education Innovation Partners Cooperative Center can spend up to $410,000 of its remaining state grant during fiscal years 2018 and 2019.
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Student teachers in shortage areas. Authorizes the Office of Higher Education to spend up to two percent of the program’s fiscal year 2017 $2.8 million appropriation on administrative costs.
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Agricultural educator grants. Establishes a grant program to pay agricultural education teachers for work over the summer with high school students in extended programs.
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Innovation research zones pilot program.
Subd. 1. Establishment; requirements for participation; research zone plans. (a) Establishes the innovation research zone pilot program to improve student and school outcomes consistent with The World’s Best Workforce requirements.
(b) Allows one or more school districts or charter schools to form an innovation zone partnership. Nonschool partners may participate, too. The school's instructional staff must be involved in the development of the plan.
(c) Requires innovation zone partners to research and implement innovation education programs and models. Examples of innovation zone research includes, but is not limited to:
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personalized learning;
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the use of competency outcomes;
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multidisciplinary, real-world, inquiry-based, student-directed models designed to make learning more engaging and relevant;
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models of instruction designed to close the achievement gap;
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new partnerships between secondary schools and postsecondary institutions, employers or career training institutions;
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new methods of collaborative leadership;
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new ways to enhance parental and community involvement in learning;
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new models of professional development for educators; or
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new models in other areas.
(d) Requires the innovation zone plan to describe:
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how the plan will improve student and school outcomes;
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the role of each partner;
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the research methodology used for each proposed action in the plan;
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the exemptions from state statute and rules that the partnership will use;
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a description of how teachers and other staff will be included in the planning and implementation process;
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a detailed description of expected outcomes and graduation standards;
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a timeline for implementing the plan; and
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how results of the plan will be disseminated.
(e) Requires the approval of the initial partners and the Commissioner of Education to extend membership to other partners.
(f) Allows a school district or charter school participating in a partnership to continue to receive all revenue and maintain its taxation authority in the same manner as before the partnership existed. The partnership participants remain organized and governed by their respective boards with general powers under chapter 123B or 124E and remain subject to their employment agreements.
(g) Requires the partnership to submit the plan to the commissioner.
Subd. 2. Exemptions from laws and rules. Allows an innovation zone partner to be exempt from the following education laws and rules specifically identified in their plan:
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any law or rule from which a district-created, site-governed school is exempt;
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any statute or rule from which the commissioner has exempted another district or school;
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online learning program approval if the district or school offers a course or program online combined with direct access to a teacher for a portion of that course or program;
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certain restrictions on extended time revenue; and
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any required hours of instructions in any class or subject areas for a student who is meeting all competencies consistent with the graduation standards described in the plan.
Subd. 3. Innovation Research Zone Advisory Panel. (a) Requires the commissioner to establish and convene a nine-member Innovation Research Zone Advisory Panel.
(b) Requires the panel to be composed of one member appointed by each of the following organizations: Educators for Excellence, Education Minnesota, Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals, Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association, Minnesota Association of School Administrators, Minnesota School Boards Association, Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, and the Office of Higher Education. Requires the commissioner to appoint one member, with expertise in evaluation and research.
Subd. 4. Commissioner approval. Allows the commissioner to approve up to three plans in the seven-county metropolitan area and up to there in greater Minnesota. Requires the commissioner to alert an innovation zone partnership that fails to implement its plan as described in the application and provide them with an opportunity to remediate. If the implementation continues to fail, the commissioner must suspend or terminate the innovation zone plan. Requires the commissioner to publish a list of exemptions granted to school districts or charter schools.
Subd. 5. Project evaluation, dissemination, and report to legislature. Requires each partnership to submit project data to the commissioner. Requires the commissioner, once every two years, to analyze each innovation zone’s progress in realizing the objectives of the partnership’s plan. Requires the commissioner to summarize and categorize innovation zone plans and submit a report to the legislature.
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Commissioner to submit ESSA plan to state legislature. Requires the commissioner of education to submit the department’s ESSA plan to the legislature. Adopts requirements that state plan must meet.
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Educational stability for students in foster care.
Subd. 1. Establishment. Establishes the pilot project to provide incentives to school districts and county governments to form partnerships that help to keep foster care students enrolled in their school of origin.
Subd. 2. Qualifying plans. Requires a school district to apply to participate in the pilot project. To participate in the project, a school district and the local child welfare agency must have a written interagency agreement describing the plan for ensuring educational stability for foster care students.
Subd. 3. Pilot project; funding. Directs the commissioner to reimburse partnerships with a qualifying plan at the end of the school year and to prorate the funds if the appropriation is insufficient to fully fund all qualifying funds.
Subd. 4. Report. Directs the commissioner to report to the legislature on the number of local agreements interesting into for this project, the number of school districts and counties participating in the agreements, baseline data showing the number of foster care students who were able to remain in their school of origin, data on expenditures for school stability transportation and federal reimbursements received for the pilot project, and projected costs for statewide implementation of the program.
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Federal Every Student Succeeds Act funding for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities. Encourages school districts to use certain federal funding for:
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mentor-led, hands-on STEM education and engagements;
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student participation in STEM competitions; and
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mentor-led, classroom-based, after-school activities with informal STEM instruction and education.
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Rural career and technical education consortium grants.
Subd. 1. Definition. Defines “rural career and technical education (CTE) consortium” as a voluntary collaboration of a service cooperative and other regional public and private partners that work together to provide career and technical education opportunities within the service cooperative’s multicounty service area.
Subd. 2. Establishment. (a) Requires a rural CTE consortium to:
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focus on development of courses and programs that encourage collaboration;
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develop new CTE programs that focus on the industry sectors that fuel the regional economy;
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facilitate the development of highly trained and knowledgeable students equipped with technical and workplace skills;
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improve access to CTE programs for students who attend sparsely populated rural school districts;
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increase family and student awareness of the availability and benefit of CTE courses; and
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provide capital start-up costs.
(b) A rural CTE consortium may address the teacher shortage through incentive funding and training programs; and transportation reimbursement grants.
Subd. 3. Rural career and technical education advisory committee. Requires a service cooperative to establish a rural career and technical education advisory committee to advise the cooperative on the administration of the rural CTE consortium.
Subd. 4. Private funding. Allows a rural CTE consortium to receive other sources of funds to supplement state funding.
Subd. 5. Reporting requirements. Requires a rural CTE consortium to submit an annual report on the progress of its activities to the Commissioner and the legislature.
Subd. 6. Grant recipients. Identifies the grant recipients for fiscal years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
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Appropriations; mental health grants. Appropriates $2,450,000 for fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019 only for grants to intermediate school districts and the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative for school-based mental health grants.
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Appropriations. See fiscal tracking sheets.
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Repealer. Repeals Minnesota Statutes, sections 122A.40, subdivision 11, and 122A.41, subdivision 14, July 1, 2018.
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