15-249.08. Results-based funding fund; distributions; requirements; reports

A. The results-based funding fund is established consisting of legislative appropriations. The department of education shall administer the fund. Monies in the fund are continuously appropriated.

B. The department of education shall distribute monies from the results-based funding fund to school districts and charter schools as follows:

1. Beginning in fiscal year 2017-2018:

(a) Each school operated by a school district or charter holder shall receive $225 from the fund per student count if the school meets both of the following criteria:

(i) At the time the test prescribed in item (ii) of this subdivision is administered, fewer than sixty percent of the pupils who are enrolled in the school meet the eligibility requirements established under the national school lunch and child nutrition acts (42 United States Code sections 1751 through 1785) for free or reduced-price lunches, or an equivalent measure recognized for participating in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program and other school programs dependent on a poverty measure, including the community eligibility provision for which free and reduced-price lunch data is not available.

(ii) In results achieved during the spring of 2016, the school performed in the top ten percent of all schools statewide as demonstrated by the average percentage of pupils who obtained a passing score on the mathematics portions of the statewide assessment and the percent of pupils who passed the language arts portions of the statewide assessment.

(b) Each school operated by a school district or charter holder shall receive $400 from the fund per student count if the school meets both of the following criteria:

(i) At the time that the test prescribed in item (ii) of this subdivision is administered, sixty percent or more of the pupils who are enrolled in the school meet the eligibility requirements established under the national school lunch and child nutrition acts (42 United States Code sections 1751 through 1785) for free or reduced-price lunches, or an equivalent measure recognized for participating in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program and other school programs dependent on a poverty measure, including the community eligibility provision for which free and reduced-price lunch data is not available.

(ii) In results achieved during the spring of 2016, the school performed in the top ten percent of schools pursuant to item (i) of this subdivision, as demonstrated by the average percentage of those pupils who obtained a passing score on the mathematics portions of the statewide assessment and the percent of pupils who passed the language arts portions of the statewide assessment.

(c) Each alternative high school that is subject to a specialized rating system and that in 2014 was assigned the equivalent of a letter grade designation of A pursuant to section 15-241 shall receive $400 from the fund per student count.

2. Beginning in fiscal year 2018-2019:

(a) Each school operated by a school district or charter holder shall receive $225 from the fund per student count if the school has a letter grade designation of A pursuant to section 15-241 from the prior fiscal year and fewer than sixty percent of the pupils who are enrolled in the school meet the eligibility requirements established under the national school lunch and child nutrition acts (42 United States Code sections 1751 through 1785) for free or reduced-price lunches, or an equivalent measure recognized for participating in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program and other school programs dependent on a poverty measure, including the community eligibility provision in which free and reduced-price lunch data is not available.

(b) Each school operated by a school district or charter holder shall receive $400 from the fund per student count if the school has a letter grade designation of A pursuant to section 15-241 from the prior fiscal year and sixty percent or more of the pupils who are enrolled in the school meet the eligibility requirements established under the national school lunch and child nutrition acts (42 United States Code sections 1751 through 1785) for free or reduced-price lunches, or an equivalent measure recognized for participating in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program and other school programs dependent on a poverty measure, including the community eligibility provision in which free and reduced-price lunch data is not available.

C. Any monies received from the results-based funding fund by a school district or charter holder shall be separately accounted for in the school district's or charter holder's annual financial report and shall not supplant monies budgeted or received from any other source that are generally provided to that school.

D. The majority of the monies received from the fund by a school district or charter holder shall be used at the school that earned the results for teacher salaries, to hire teachers, for school leader salaries, for classroom supplies and for other strategies to sustain outcomes for students at that school. A portion of the monies received from the fund by a school district or charter holder may be used for expanding and replicating that school site as a quality school model. For the purposes of this subsection, " expanding and replicating" means:

1. Providing for costs associated with adding seats and serving more students at the awarded school site, including students on a waiting list.

2. Mentoring school leaders and teachers from other sites to replicate the model and instructional practices that show results in closing the achievement gap.

3. Physically expanding the results-based funding model or strategies at another location to improve academic outcomes at that location and to accelerate academic growth.

E. Schools that are not results-based funded and that receive funding or support as described in subsection D, paragraphs 2 and 3 of this section are eligible to receive that funding or support for not more than three years.

F. On or before November 1 of each year, each school that received results-based funding in the prior fiscal year shall submit to the department of education a report that provides a brief description of how the dollars were allocated pursuant to subsections C and D of this section. Each school that is not results-based funded but that received funding pursuant to subsection E of this section shall submit a report to the department that specifically indicates the number of years the school has received that funding. On or before December 1 of each year, the department of education shall compile the reports from each local education agency and provide that information to the joint legislative budget committee, the governor's office of strategic planning and budgeting and the chairpersons of the education committees of the house of representatives and the senate, or their successor committees.

G. For the purposes of this section, only students who are eligible to be included in a school's student count shall be considered in determining that school's percentages of free or reduced-price lunch students or other poverty indicators.