Bill H.698 proposes significant updates to Vermont's education policies, primarily focusing on funding structures and regulations established in the 2025 Acts and Resolves No. 73. Key changes include the repeal of provisions that allowed receiving schools to charge additional fees to sending schools for high school students, the removal of class size minimums, and the reversion of unspent funds from the School District Voting Ward Working Group back to the General Fund. The bill also aims to amend the foundation formula to incorporate a secondary student weight and eliminate amendments to the property tax classification system. Additionally, it introduces new definitions related to pupil weighting, particularly for children with disabilities and English language proficiency levels, while emphasizing the need for the State Board of Education to initiate rulemaking to amend education quality standards and graduation requirements.

The bill establishes a new funding structure for children with disabilities, assigning specific weighting amounts based on the categorization of a child's disability, which replaces the previous system based on school size and enrollment. It mandates that a school district's weighted long-term membership cannot fall below 96.5% of the previous year's actual weighted long-term membership. Furthermore, the bill revises the educational opportunity payment calculation, shifting from a per pupil model to one based on weighted long-term membership multiplied by a base amount, with periodic updates every five years. It also includes various amendments and deletions related to education and taxation, such as the repeal of sections concerning tax classifications and class size minimums, and introduces new provisions for transportation reimbursement and inflationary measures for prekindergarten. Overall, H.698 aims to modernize and streamline educational policies while ensuring equitable funding mechanisms responsive to the needs of students and schools.

Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 16-823, 16-828, 16-4010), 16-4010, 32-5402