HF3857

Purpose

• This bill aims to change education finance by increasing student support personnel aid and updating how that aid is calculated and distributed. It would amend Minnesota statutes to adjust funding rules for districts, charter schools, and cooperative units, and to set new limits and requirements for how the aid is reserved and spent.

What the bill changes and seeks to accomplish

• Increases and clarifies how much funding districts and charter schools can receive for student support personnel (people who help students beyond regular teachers).
• Establishes specific calculation rules for the initial aid, including minimum floor amounts.
• Adds rules about reserving some aid in a fund balance and limits on how large that fund balance can be.
• Sets rules for cooperative arrangements where a district is part of an intermediate district or other cooperative unit, including how aid is shared if a district belongs to more than one cooperative unit.
• Aligns aid with ceilings based on actual expenditures, not just theoretical entitlement.

Main provisions and how aid is calculated

• Initial aid for independent or special school districts:
  • The initial student support personnel aid equals the greater of:
  • The student support personnel allowance times the district’s current-year adjusted pupil units, or
  • $40,000.
• Initial aid for charter schools:
  • The initial aid equals the greater of:
  • The student support personnel allowance times the charter school’s current-year adjusted pupil units, or
  • $20,000.
• Fund balance requirement:
  • The aid must be set aside in a fund balance, and starting in fiscal year 2025, the fund balance may not exceed the greater of the prior year’s aid entitlement or the prior year’s fund balance.
• Cooperative student support personnel aid (for independent or special districts that are members of an intermediate district or other cooperative unit):
  • The aid equals the greater of:
  • The cooperative student support allowance times the district’s current-year adjusted pupil units, or
  • $40,000.
  • If a district belongs to more than one cooperative unit, the revenue must be allocated among those cooperative units.
  • The aid under this provision must not exceed actual expenditures.
• Key financial parameters (how much each component is set to when the bill is in effect):
  • The student support personnel allowance is defined for several fiscal years, indicating a phased increase over time.
  • The cooperative student support allowance is defined for fiscal year 2025 and then increased for 2026 and later years.
  • Specific numeric values are set in the bill text to guide these calculations across fiscal years.

Significant changes to existing law

• Creates and modifies the framework for how student support personnel aid is calculated and distributed to independent, special, and charter schools, as well as cooperative units.
• Introduces minimum aid floors ($40,000 for districts, $20,000 for charters) and sets caps based on fund balance and actual expenditures.
• Adds explicit rules for allocating aid when districts are part of multiple cooperative units.
• Establishes bundled fiscal-year schedules for the student support personnel allowance and the cooperative allowance to guide funding levels in future years.

Notable terms and concepts in the bill

• student support personnel aid
• initial student support personnel aid
• cooperative student support personnel aid
• student support personnel allowance
• cooperative student support allowance
• independent school district
• special school district
• charter school
• adjusted pupil units
• fund balance
• aid entitlement
• actual expenditures
• intermediate school district
• cooperative unit

Relevant Terms - student support personnel aid - initial aid - cooperative student support personnel aid - student support personnel allowance - cooperative student support allowance - independent school district - special school district - charter school - adjusted pupil units - fund balance - aid entitlement - actual expenditures - intermediate school district - cooperative unit