| TO: | Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on Education |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1297 by Hochberg (Relating to optional flexible school day program courses offered by school districts to enable students to earn course credit under certain circumstances.), As Engrossed |
By amending the optional flexible school day program, the bill would allow students to make up absences that would otherwise result in the loss of course credit. Under the bill, funding would be limited to the attendance necessary for the student to recover credit. The attendance of an eligible student would marginally increase the average daily attendance (ADA) earned for that student but would not result in a per-student entitlement exceeding the 1.0 ADA value to which the student would have been eligible without absences. To the extent that participation in the credit recovery portion of the optional flexible school day program would limit the need for students to repeat coursework and/or grade levels, the program would represent a potential savings to the Foundation School Program over time. Assuming that the marginal increases in ADA resulting from program participation would be offset by a potential savings over time, no signficant fiscal implications are anticipated.
The bill would authorize the operation of credit recovery portions of the optional flexible school day program during the regular school year and during the summer. The bill would also remove current statutory language limiting the optional flexible school day program to grades 9-12. While these provisions may expand participation in the optional flexible school day program, no signficant fiscal implications would be expected since, as noted above, the program currently provides the same maximum per-student entitlement under the Foundation School Program as the traditional school program.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, JSp, JGM, JSc
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