Task force reviews LegalMax and the school funding "weightings" that drive Kansas foundation aid

The Special Education and Related Services Funding Task Force on Monday received a technical briefing on LegalMax and the set of statutory "weightings" used to calculate Kansas state foundation aid, with staff and education officials laying out how each weighting is computed and asking the panel for direction on additional data the legislature might request.

Task force members were shown how the Kansas State Department of Education's LegalMax spreadsheets combine base aid and total weighted full-time-equivalent (FTE) enrollment to produce each district's foundation aid. KLRD fiscal analyst Jennifer Light told the panel that base aid for fiscal year 2024 is adjusted by the three-year average change in the CPI-U Midwest and that the LegalMax file is a "living document" that is revised after district audits are completed.

The discussion matters because the weightings — statutory multipliers or formulas added to a district's regular FTE — increase state aid when districts serve students or operate programs that typically cost more. KLRD staff and KSDE advisers emphasized that a single student can generate FTE in multiple weightings (for example, an at-risk student who also receives special education and CTE services), so total weighted FTE commonly exceeds headcount.

KLRD and KSDE staff walked the task force through the major weightings the committee said it will study further: at-risk and high-density at-risk, bilingual, special education (flagged for a deep follow-up meeting), career and technical education (CTE), transportation, low- and high-enrollment adjustments, ancillary school facilities, and the…