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Article 1
General Education
Section 1. Eligible pupils. Allows the graduation incentives program to be ongoing for an English learner with an interrupted formal education who is at least 21, but not 22 years old.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective July 1, 2020.
Section 2. Compensatory education revenue. Removes the set aside of compensatory revenue that is used for extended time activities.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for fiscal year 2021 and later.
Article 2
School Closures Due to COVID-19
Section 1. Truancy. Prevents a student who is absent, without valid excuse, during the distance learning period from being considered a continuing truant.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment and expires June 30, 2020.
Section 2. Probationary teachers. Reduces the minimum number of days of teacher service required for a probationary teacher from 120 to 120 minus the number of scheduled instructional days that were canceled for COVID-19 related reasons.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment and expires June 30, 2020.
Section 3. Instruction to commissioner. Directs the commissioner to prioritize the distribution of the discretionary federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds to enable a school to comply with the governor’s Executive Order 20-19, any future E-12 COVID-19-related executive orders, and the corresponding Department of Education guidance, including employee compensation.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment and expires June 30, 2020.
Article 3
Formula Adjustments
Section 1. Eligibility. Allows regional library telecommunications aid to be used for internet and technology access with items that are not e-rated if funds remain after all e-rated category one needs are met. Includes digital and online resources.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment.
Section 2. Achievement and integration aid. Adjusts the achievement and integration aid appropriation to allow for carryforward of unspent funds from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2021. Includes February 2020 forecast adjustments.
Section 3. Statewide testing and reporting system. Cancels $180,000 from the fiscal year 2020 statewide testing and reporting system appropriation on June 30, 2020.
Section 4. Development screening aid. Adjusts the development screening aid appropriation for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 due to freezing screening counts at 2019 amounts. Includes February 2020 forecast adjustments.
Section 5. Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board. Adjusts the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board appropriation for fiscal year 2021. Requires $49,000 of the fiscal year 2021 appropriation to be used for IT costs related to modifying the teacher licensure system.
Section 6. School aid formulas adjusted.
Subd. 1. Special education. Allows fiscal year 2020 expenditures for employees and contracted services that would have been eligible for special education state aid and special education tuition billing in the absence of school closures or learning plan modifications due to COVID-19 to continue to be eligible expenses.
Subd. 2. School meals. Requires the commissioner to allocate any school lunch, breakfast, and milk aid that remains after March 16, 2020 to participants in the summer food service program on a per meal basis for meals served between March 16, 2020 and July 1, 2020. This is an allocation adjustment for fiscal year 2020.
Subd. 3. Career and technical aid. Allows the commissioner to recalculate career and technical revenue for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to equitably distribute the full amount of the February 2020 forecasted appropriations to school districts, charter schools, and cooperatives. Prevents total state aid for from falling below the February 2020 forecast amounts. Requires aid payments to be prorated if they exceed the February 2020 forecast amounts. This is a base adjustment for fiscal year 2021.
Subd. 4. Nonpublic pupil transportation aid. Allows the commissioner to adjust fiscal year 2020 pupil transportation expenditures used to calculate fiscal year 2022 nonpublic pupil transportation aid to equitably distribute the full amount of the February 2020 forecasted appropriation to school districts. This is a base adjustment for fiscal year 2022.
Subd. 5. Interdistrict desegregation or integration transportation grants. Allows the commissioner to adjust fiscal year 2020 pupil transportation expenditures used to calculate fiscal year 2021 interdistrict desegregation and integration transportation aid to equitably distribute the full amount of the February 2020 forecasted appropriation to school districts. This is a base adjustment for fiscal year 2021.
Subd. 6. Adult basic education aid. Allows the commissioner to recalculate contact hour rates used in the calculation of adult basic education aid for the 2020-2021 school year to equitably distribute the full amount of the February 2020 forecasted appropriation to aid recipients. Prevents total state aid for from falling below the February 2020 forecast amounts. Requires aid payments to be prorated if they exceed the February 2020 forecast amounts. This is a base adjustment for fiscal year 2021.
Subd. 7. School employees; ensuring state revenue. Allows the commissioner to include counts and costs of services provided by personnel who were considered essential prior to March 13, 2020 in the revenue calculations for formulas adjusted under section 6.
Subd. 8. Literacy incentive aid. Allows the commissioner to exclude tests administered during the 2019-2020 school year from the calculation of literacy incentive aid for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023. Allows the commissioner to adjust the dollar amounts for proficiency and growth aids for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023 to ensure distribution of the full amount of the February 2020 forecasted appropriations. This is a base adjustment for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Subd. 9. School-age care revenue. Allows school-age care revenue to continue in the approved amounts for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Allows school-age care revenue to be eligible for certain fund transfers on or after March 18, 2020, in compliance with the fund transfer provisions in this article.
Subd. 10. Early childhood screening revenue. Allows early childhood screening revenue for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to be calculated using formula amounts set in statue for each age group and the 2018-2019 school year counts of children screened for each age group.
Subd. 11. Achievement and integration revenue. Allows a school district or charter school to carry forward unspent achievement and integration revenue for fiscal year 2020 into fiscal year 2021.
Subd. 12. Report. Requires the commissioner to notify school districts and charter schools of formula changes as soon as practicable. Requires the commissioner to report to the legislature on formula changes and distributional impacts by January 15, 2021.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment.
Section 7. Accounting. Allows expenses for programs in section 6 to continue being accounted for under the same UFARS codes as they would otherwise be charged for a regular instructional day.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment and is retroactive from the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. This section expires June 30, 2020.
Section 8. Fund transfers; fiscal years 2020 and 2021 only.
Subd. 1. Fund and account transfers allowed. Allows a school district, charter school, or cooperative unit to make certain operating fund transfers for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 only.
Subd. 2. No aid or levy effect. Allows a fund transfer under this section only if state aid and property tax levies do not increase as a result of the transfer. Limits fund transfers to operating funds only.
Subd. 3. Board approval required; reporting; audit trail. Provides effective dates for fund transfers under this section. Requires school board approval to occur before the reporting deadline for the appropriate fiscal year. Requires accounting records of the fund transfer. Allows for auditor review of the fund transfer accounting records. Prohibits a fund transfer from interfering with federal funding requirements or interfering with equitable delivery of distance learning.
Subd. 4. Commissioner’s guidance. Requires the commissioner to provide guidance on fund transfers.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment and retroactive from March 18, 2020.
Section 9. Revenue restrictions; fiscal years 2020 and 2021 only. Allows after-school enrichment revenue to be eligible for certain fund transfers on or after March 18, 2020, in compliance with the fund transfer provisions in this article.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment.
Section 10. Cash flow adjustment; fiscal year 2021 only. Allows a school district to apply for modified cash flow payments for fiscal year 2021 only if the district is unable to make a required debt service payment due to a delay in receiving anticipated property tax revenue. Allows the commissioner to specify the form and manner of application and adjust state aid cash flow payments to districts that apply.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective the day following final enactment.
Article 4
State Agency COVID-19 Emergency Powers
Section 1. Commissioner of Education and Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board.
- Directs the commissioner to waive the statewide assessment requirements, including the requirement allowing a student to take a college entrance exam in school on a regular school day.
- Allows the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board to issue a one-year conditional tier 3 license to an otherwise qualified candidate that was unable to take and pass the required licensure exams due to a COVID-19 related disruption. The renewal fee is waived for the licensee.
- Extends, by six months, the completion of calendar year 2020 licensure renewal requirements for licenses issued by the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board.
Effective Date. Paragraph (a) expires June 30, 2020. Paragraph (b) expires October 31, 2020.
Section 2. Reporting; right of action.
- Prohibits a court from construing anything in this article as creating a right of action for a student, parent, teacher license applicant, or any other individual or entity to enforce the provisions.
- Directs the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board to report to the legislature on all the conditional tier 3 licenses issued.
Article 5
Miscellaneous Corrections
Section 1. [120B.126] Construction and skilled trades counseling. Includes language requiring the commissioner of education to collaborate with the commissioner of labor and industry on construction and skilled trades career counseling.
Section 2. Referendum allowance limit. Updates the years and language for the referendum allowance limit. Removes obsolete language.
Section 3. Referendum aid guarantee. Updates the language for the referendum aid guarantee.
Section 4. Department. Adds a base for the Department of Education for fiscal year 2024.
Section 5. Appropriations; Minnesota State Academies. Adds a base for the Minnesota State Academies for fiscal year 2024.
Section 6. Appropriations; Perpich Center for Arts Education. Adds a base for the Perpich Center for Arts Education for fiscal year 2024.
Article 6
Forecast Adjustments
Adjusts forecasted program appropriations for the February 2020 forecast.
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