SCHOOL AID SUPPLEMENTAL                                                                                                                                 S.B. 216 (S-2):

                                                                                                                                                                                                      SUMMARY OF BILL

REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE

Senate Bill 216 (Substitute S-2 as reported)

Sponsor:   Senator Jim Stamas

Committee:   Appropriations

Date Completed:   4-30-21

CONTENT

The bill would amend the State School Aid Act to provide fiscal year 2020-2021 supplemental Federal appropriations as follows:

 --       $86,777,000 from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funding for emergency assistance to nonpublic schools as provided in Federal law (Sec 11o).

 --       $840,677,500 for the remaining Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) II funding distributed to districts based on their Title I, Part A allocations as provided in Federal law, bringing the total to $1,490,677,500 (Sec. 11r(4)).

 --       $5,548,500 for the remaining ESSER II administrative funding to the Department of Education, bringing the total to $8,281,500 (Sec. 11r(8)).

 --       $10,000,000 from GEER funding to provide payments to parents for summer school programming costs (Sec. 23d); payments to parents would be up to $250 for each child enrolled in summer programming ($50 for enrollment and up to $200 for expenses).

The bill also would amend Section 23b, which provides funding for summer school, before- and after-school, and other programs. For the most part, the bill would extend various dates in the section by one month, including when an application for funding must be submitted, when the Department must make grant payments, and when districts receiving funding must submit actual enrollment numbers. Amendments to this section also include allowing students to enroll in programming offered by any district (not just their resident district), allowing districts to use local assessments to make determinations of children with greatest need (in addition to benchmark assessment data), removing requirements that a summer school program be eight weeks in duration and that it be in-person, and requiring the summer school program to provide at least 30 hours of research-based or innovative learning.

Finally, the bill would amend Section 11r(5) to allow a district to receive State equalization funding even if the district was unable to provide at least 20 hours per week of in-person instruction due to public health orders closing schools to protect public health.

MCL 388.1611 et al.

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would increase Gross appropriations by $943,003,000, all of which would be Federally funded. State spending from State resources and State payments to locals would remain at current year-to-date levels.