Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 37 - EDUCATION (§§ 37-NEW-001 — 37-NEW01-004) › Chapter 151 - MISSISSIPPI ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADEQUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM ACT OF 1997 (§§ 37-151-1 — 37-151-215) › [MISSISSIPPI STUDENT FUNDING FORMULA] (§§ 37-151-200 — 37-151-215) › Section 37-151-207 - [Methodology for calculating local contributions and the state's share of funding for school districts and charter schools]

(1)
The net enrollment of a school district or charter school for use in the funding formula must be computed and currently maintained by the State Board of Education in accordance with the following:
(a)
Determination of school district net enrollment for use in the funding formula. Effective with fiscal year 2026, the State Department of Education shall determine the percentage change from the prior year of each school district's months two (2) and three (3) for the three (3) immediately preceding school years of the year for which funds are being appropriated.
(b)
Determination of charter school net enrollment for use in the funding formula. Effective with fiscal year 2026, the department shall base a charter school's net enrollment on the enrollment projections for the relevant year set forth over the term of the charter contract.
(c)
The net enrollment of a school district used for funding formula calculations, as determined in paragraph (a) of this subsection, must be reconciled with the school district's net enrollment using months two (2) and three (3) for the year for which total funding formula funds are being appropriated, and any necessary adjustments must be made to payments during the school district's following year of operation. Any necessary adjustment for a school district must be based on the state share of the per pupil amount in effect for the year for which actual net enrollment did not meet expectations and not any new amount appropriated for the year in which the adjustment will be made. Reconciliation of net enrollment for charter schools must be based on requirements set forth in Section
37-28-55
.
(2)
The net enrollment of a school district or charter school must include any student enrolled in a dual enrollment-dual credit program as defined and provided for in Section
37-15-38
. The State Department of Education shall make payments for dual enrollment-dual credit programs to the home school district or charter school in which the student is enrolled, in accordance with regulations promulgated by the State Board of Education. All state funding under the formula must cease upon completion of high school graduation requirements.
(3)
The State Board of Education shall promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the counting and reporting of student enrollment by school districts and charter schools to the department in a manner that enables the provisions of this act to be carried out. The rules and regulations must require school districts and charter schools to submit data that includes, at a minimum, numbers for the specific student populations that are subject to weighting under this act as well as the aggregate amount of students in enrollment when each calculation is made. For the first year of operation of a charter school, the State Board of Education shall use imputed student demographic data based on the traditional district in which the charter school is located to estimate student populations that are subject to weighting under this act.
(4)
The superintendent of each school district and the head of school of each charter school, as applicable, shall submit the data required by subsection (3) of this section with a signed affidavit attesting that the data submitted to the department is accurate to the best of the superintendent's knowledge, and any inaccuracies later discovered will be reported to the department. The State Board of Education shall be specifically authorized and empowered to withhold allocations from the total funding formula funds as provided in this act, to any school district or charter school for improperly or inaccurately reporting the student data required by this act.
Added by Laws, 2024, ch. 484, HB 4130,§ 5, eff. 7/1/2024.