BILL NUMBER:  S329

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the education law, in relation to the definition of
"tuition" for children with handicapping conditions

 PURPOSE :

This legislation will ensure that special act school districts are
reimbursed for the costs of public expenses and that the tuition rates
are not affected because of these costs.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of the bill amends education law section 4401 (5) to clarify
that tuition includes the maintenance and administration of
instructional facilities. It also provides that tuition shall include
direct reimbursement of actual public expenses calculated annually
outside the total cost screens employed in the methodology that
determines tuition rates.

Section 2 is the effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

              

"Special Act School Districts" are public school districts created by
special action of the legislature for the purpose of providing
education and related services to students with disabilities-physical,
emotional and/or mental. Most are placed in residential settings
associated with these schools primarily by the family court, local
social service districts, the Office of Children and Family Services
and the Office of Mental Health, or in the case of Mt. Pleasant
Blythedale UFSD in Westchester County, patients are residents of the
adjacent children's hospital. Regular public school districts, based
on the recommendations of their Committees on Special Education, also
place students with disabilities in Special Act Schools for day or
residential services.

There are currently ten Special Act School Districts in New York
State. These schools serve some of the neediest students in our state.
Many of these students are placed in these schools as the last option
available in the continuum of services, as they have had frequent
encounters with the criminal justice, foster care and mental health
systems and confront serious personal and family challenges.  In the
case of Mt. Pleasant Bythedale UFSD, they are recovering from
life-threatening illnesses, surgeries or accidents.

Despite being public schools, the methodology to calculate tuition
rates for Special Act public schools is the same one that is employed
for nonpublic schools. This is significant since public schools,
including Special Acts, have additional public school expenses that
nonpublic schools do not. In addition, the methodology to calculate
tuition for Special Act public schools categorizes administrative and
facility costs (i.e., non-instructional personnel costs, insurance,
electric, gas and maintenance) as indirect costs, and only allows for
a maximum reimbursement of these costs based on a 30%:70% ratio of
indirect to direct costs. Direct costs include instructional salaries
and benefits and instructional materials and supplies. Indirect costs
that exceed the 30% ratio are not reimbursable. In addition, costs
that exceed the established "cost screens" (rates for expenses as
adjusted each year by the Regional Cost Index which includes the area
where the school is located and surrounding counties to the north and
south, irrespective of significant demographic differences such as
costs of living), used to control increases in direct and indirect
costs result in a decrease in the tuition rate. Accordingly, if
indirect costs exceed the 30% ratio, the costs that exceed the 30%
ratio are not included in the tuition rate and if direct and/or
indirect costs exceed the maximum allowable cost screen, the exceeded
amount is deducted from the tuition rate, thereby lowering the rate
even further.

Tuition rates are further impacted since they are based on
two-year-old expenses. At one time, tuition rates for Special Acts
fully covered these public school expenses. However, notwithstanding a
recent increase in the tuition rate, due to no rate increases for the
prior 4 years, these expenses are still not completely covered.

Finally, since 2007, nondiscretionary increases to public school
expenses, direct and indirect, as well as the cost of state mandates
including, but not limited to, data collection and analysis,
additional inspections and audits, APPR and student assessment
instruments and scoring, have resulted in tuition rate decreases for
all Special Act School Districts due to the methodology described
above. This has resulted in reductions in staff and services at many
schools. Moreover, many Special Act School Districts have needed to
borrow monies to pay for these public school expenses.

This bill will rectify this inequity by requiring the reimbursement of
actual public school expenses and ensuring that these costs do not
continue to impact the tuition rate. This bill will also help to
ensure that our neediest students are provided with the resources they
sorely need for their education and other necessary services.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2016: S.6855 - Referred to Education

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

To be determined.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.