Opinion ID: 1562623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The SFRA

Text: In December 2007, DOE published A Formula for Success: All Children, All Communities, which included the weights and costs for the 2008-2009 school year and set forth DOE's final version of its funding proposal. The SFRA generally incorporates that formula, and includes additional structural provisions to address the formula's timeliness and continued efficacy. The SFRA was passed by both houses of the Legislature on January 7, 2008, and signed by the Governor on January 13, 2008. In terms of 2008-2009 costs, the base amounts for each elementary, middle, and high school student are $9,649, $10,035, and $11,289, respectively. The cost for a full-time vocational student is $14,789. An at-risk weight is assigned on a sliding scale ranging from .47 to .57. According to DOE, the at-risk aid results in an additional $4,535 to $6,435 per student, depending on the concentration of at-risk students in that district. The LEP weight yields an additional $4,825 to $5,645 per pupil. The combined at-risk/LEP weight, allocated in the same way, generates an additional $5,741 to $7,846 per student. Special education students receive an excess dollar amount, $1,082 for speech-only special education pupils and $10,898 for other special education pupils. The SFRA also provides certain aid adjustments. Those adjustments enable districts to receive at least a two-percent increase in State aid for 2008-2009 as they become acclimated to the new formula and, at the same time, the SFRA limits one-year aid increases to ensure that districts anticipate and plan for optimal use of any significant aid increases. Further, former Abbott districts that have been spending less than their calculated adequacy amounts may be eligible for Education Adequacy Aid, which is designed to bring each to the spending level necessary to achieve the CCCS standards within three years. DOE claims that the provision of Education Adequacy Aid is an appropriate response to the likelihood that communities with a local tax levy far below their calculated fair share amount will be unable to meet their fair share without some form of state assistance. The SFRA also imposes a number of systemic requirements. The Governor must generate and present to the Legislature an Educational Adequacy Report every three years. The report must address recommendations for adjustments to: (1) the base per-pupil amount; (2) the per-pupil amounts for full-day preschool; (3) the weights for various special-needs populations; (4) cost coefficients for security aid and transportation aid; and (5) specific identified special education cost information. Unless the adjustments are rejected by the Legislature by November 30th of the reporting year, the SFRA makes them self-executing during the following school year. In addition, the Commissioner independently is required to study the special education census methodology by June 30, 2010, to determine whether adjustments to that formula are needed. The study must be completed by the time the local levy growth limitation provisions expire. See L. 2007, c. 62.