| TO: | Honorable Rob Eissler, Chair, House Committee on Public 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 Introduced |
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. For the purpose of this estimate, it is assumed that the authorized attendance would be limited to no more than the same number of days or partial days of absence of an affected student. Based on this assumption, 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. If students were allowed to earn FSP-eligible attendance in the credit recovery program for more days or partial days than the total number of days of absence, there would be additional cost to the Foundation School Program for the expanded entitlement. To the extent that participation in the credit recovery portion of the optional flexible school day program limited the need to repeat coursework and/or grade levels, the provision 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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