Division II advances technical education budget items; Department of Education seeks PSAT funding and clarifies charter and VLACS rules

House Finance Division II heard multiple Department of Education briefings and approved several technical HB 2 sections affecting charter funding, virtual learning academy payments, and special‑education aid. Department officials also requested additional funding and statutory language to add a tenth‑grade assessment (PSAT) to the state’s assessment suite and to codify some assessment‑related technical cleanups.

Charter funding and VLACS payments: The committee accepted HB 2 language clarifying how the department will calculate and pay charter‑school funding. Department staff proposed using the October 1 enrollment count (the statewide ADM anchor date) for the December payment cycle rather than requiring separate October and November counts from charter operators. The department argued the change eliminates a redundant November count and does not affect year‑end true‑ups: “Any difference between October 1 and November 1 would be accounted for in the final payment,” a department official said. The committee asked staff to coordinate technical drafting so the change supersedes the earlier, similar HB 2 language; staff said they would fold the amendment into the tracking sheet and proceed.

VLACS and college access: The department also explained longstanding VLACS (Virtual Learning Academy Charter School) payment rules that are based on course completion rather than full‑time attendance. Officials asked the committee to accept clarifying language that codifies that practice; the committee approved the charter‑funding technical sections (121–122 on HB 2 page 55) by unanimous show‑of‑hands.

Tenth‑grade assessment (PSAT) request: Department officials described a prioritized need: funding up to $1.5 million to support a statewide tenth‑grade assessment, likely the PSAT, run through the state assessment contract so the state could measure high‑school growth (year‑to‑year) and provide statewide PSAT access to more students. The department said many New Hampshire high schools already use PSAT locally, and adding a state‑funded tenth‑grade assessment would “give us an additional year of assessment” for growth calculations. The committee discussed vendor choice and the tradeoff between naming a specific vendor in statute (College Board/SAT/PSAT) versus descriptive statutory criteria that would allow the department to choose the comparable nationally norm‑referenced instrument (for example, ACT's counterpart) without locking the state into a named product. Multiple members asked staff to draft both options for committee consideration; the committee did not adopt funding at this session and requested draft statutory language to review.

Special education and catastrophic aid technical cleanups: Department staff proposed replacing an “estimated cost per pupil” metric with the most current state average expenditure per pupil in the catastrophic special‑education aid calculation, describing the estimated metric as an outmoded practice and explaining that the more current actual figure would be available in December and better aligned to actual costs. They also proposed a number of technical clarifications — including aligning agency references and allowing the department to use a Legislative Budget Assistant audit in lieu of a separate statutorily required audit when applicable — and asked the committee to carry or draft those technical changes into HB 2 or future amendments.

Civics/naturalization assessment portal: The department asked the committee to require the state’s civics/naturalization assessment be administered and reported through the department’s assessment portal so the agency can collect results consistently and publish the annual report required by law. The committee indicated support for consolidating reporting through a single portal.

Budget estimates and charter growth: Committee members asked the department to reconcile charter enrollment projections with the adequacy estimates used for traditional public districts because charter growth affects district ADM and adequacy funding; the department said its statewide enrollment decline estimates already account for multiple pathways (including charter growth) but agreed to double‑check assumptions and provide reconciled numbers.

Several HB 2 sections were approved during the session (technical charter funding language and other clarifications), while the department’s $1.5 million prioritized request for a tenth‑grade assessment was discussed and left for further drafting and consideration. Staff agreed to draft both a vendor‑naming option and a descriptive alternative for committee review ahead of the division’s final HB 2 recommendation.