(a) Within two weeks after the end of the 20-school-day period ending the fourth Friday in October, each district shall transmit a report to the department that, under regulations adopted by the department, reports its ADM for that count period and other student count information that will aid the department in making a determination of its state aid under the public school funding program. For centralized correspondence study, the October report shall be based on the period from July 1 through the fourth Friday in October. The department may make necessary corrections in the report submitted and shall notify the district of changes made. The commissioner shall notify the governor of additional appropriations the commissioner estimates to be necessary to fully finance the public school funding program for the current fiscal year.
(b) Upon written request and for good cause shown, the commissioner may permit a district to use a 20-school-day count period other than the period set out in (a) of this section. However, a count period approved under this subsection must be 20 consecutive school days unless one or more alternate count periods are necessary to permit a district to implement flexible scheduling that meets the district's needs and goals without jeopardizing the state aid for which the district would ordinarily be eligible under this chapter.