An Act To Adjust Funding Forwarded from School Districts to Charter Schools
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 0889
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: BENNETT
Amends: 20-A MRSA §2413

Legislative Document 
No. 889 
H.P. 616 
House of Representatives, March 5, 2013 
An Act To Adjust Funding Forwarded from School Districts to 
Charter Schools 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative BENNETT of Kennebunk.  (BY REQUEST) 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  20-A MRSA §2413, sub-§2, ¶A, as amended by PL 2011, c. 679, §2, is 
further amended to read: 
A.  For each public charter school student, the school administrative unit in which the 
student resides must forward 50% of the per-pupil allocation to the public charter 
school attended by the student as follows. 
(1)  The per-pupil allocation amount is the EPS per-pupil rate for the school 
administrative unit in which the student resides, as calculated pursuant to section 
15676, based on the student’s grade level and adjusted as appropriate for 
economic disadvantage and limited English proficiency pursuant to section 
15675, subsections 1 and 2.  Debt service and capital outlays may not be included 
in the calculation of these per-pupil allocations.  The department shall adopt rules 
governing how to calculate these per-pupil allocations, including those for career 
and technical education programs, targeted funds for assessment technology and 
kindergarten to grade 2 programs. 
(2)  For students attending public charter schools, the school administrative unit 
of residence shall forward the per-pupil allocations described in subparagraph (1) 
directly to the public charter school attended.  These per-pupil allocations must 
be forwarded to each public charter school on a quarterly basis, as follows.  For 
each fiscal year, allocations must be made in quarterly payments on September 
1st, December 1st, March 1st and June 1st.  The September payment must be 
based on the number of students enrolled or anticipated to be enrolled in the 
public charter school at the opening of school for that school year, which may not 
exceed the maximum enrollment approved in the charter contract for that year 
unless a waiver is obtained from the authorizer.  In February of the school year, if 
the number of students is higher or lower than the number of students at the 
beginning of the school year, adjustments must be made in the June payment, 
with 50% 25% of the annual per-pupil allocation added for additional students or 
subtracted if the total number of students is lower. 
(3)  For transportation expenses, the average per-pupil expense in each school 
administrative unit of residence must be calculated and an amount equal to a 
proportion, up to but not more than 100% 50%, of that per-pupil allocation 
amount must be forwarded to the public charter school attended on the same 
basis as the per-pupil allocations for operating funds.  The percentage of that per-
pupil expense must be determined by the authorizer of the public charter school 
and must be based on the cost of transportation services provided by the public 
charter school to the student. 
(4)  The department shall pay to the public charter school any additional 
allocation assigned to the public charter school for gifted and talented students 
pursuant to section 15681-A, subsection 5 in the year in which the allocation is 
assigned. 
A school administrative unit is not required to send funds to a public charter school 
for a student enrolled in the public charter school's preschool or prekindergarten 
program if the school administrative unit of the student's residence does not offer that 
program to its own residents nor is a school administrative unit required to send funds 
to a public charter school for a student who, in the year prior to first enrolling in the 
public charter school, was either a homeschooled student or enrolled in a private 
school and therefore not included in a public school's EPS pupil count in this State. 
SUMMARY 
This bill reduces the amount a school administrative unit in which a student who 
attends a public charter school resides must forward to that public charter school from 
100% of the per-pupil allocation to 50% of the per-pupil allocation. It also provides that a 
school administrative unit is not required to send funds to a public charter school for 
certain students who were not enrolled in a public school before enrolling in a public 
charter school.