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Senate committee reviews H.955: new preK reporting, fee limits on tuition students and expanded transportation and reserve-fund rules
Summary
The Senate Education Committee reviewed H.955, which would require districts to report hours of prekindergarten instruction to AOE, bar schools that receive tuition from charging students extra fees beyond district-paid tuition, direct AOE rulemaking on small/sparse schools and intradistrict budgeting, and order a state report on transportation costs and options.
St. James, legislative counsel, told the Senate Education Committee that H.955 adds a tuition reporting requirement to the prekindergarten statute and expands data collection to show how many hours each publicly funded preK child actually receives. “A district of residents shall also report annually to AOE the number of hours of preK education received by each preK child for whom it has provided prekindergarten education or whose behalf is paid tuition pursuant to this section,” St. James said, describing the new subsection to 16 BSA §829.
The bill would also require school districts to collect waiting-category information for tuition students and to attach agency-developed student-profile forms to residency and tuition-funding requests. St. James said the agency will develop the form in consultation with school business officials and make it available in paper and electronic formats.
H.955 would prohibit any school eligible to receive tuition from charging a tuition student fees beyond the amount paid by the sending district, and it would bar a public school that receives tuition students from charging any student fees above the tuition amount. Committee members asked whether costs commonly described as trip or activity “expenses” would be swept into a statutory ban on “fees,” and counsel said the term is not defined in current law and sponsors should clarify the intent.
The bill includes multiple rulemaking tasks for the Agency of Education: the state board (or AOE unless extended by ELCAR) must adopt criteria by March 31, 2027, to identify schools “small by necessity” or “sparse by necessity” and to set intradistrict budgeting standards intended to ensure substantially equal educational opportunities across a district. H.955 also amends earlier legislation to require AOE to publish recommended reserve-fund account standards (minimum/maximum balances, acceptable use conditions and replenishment practices) developed with BASBO, superintendents and school boards.
On school transportation, the bill orders a comprehensive written report to the education, transportation and money committees due Dec. 1 that documents how students currently get to school, whether vehicles are owned or leased, per-mile and per-district transportation costs, bus driver pay and benefits, costs tied to CTE, McKinney‑Vento obligations, extraordinary special-education transport, and recommendations on distance radii, safe-walking-route definitions, regionalized models (SEESAW), and funding approaches (weighted categorical grants vs. per‑mile reimbursement).
The committee also voted to raise the voter-approval threshold for union school district study-committee budgets from $50,000 to $500,000.
St. James closed the H.955 overview by noting that many provisions will be contingent on the foundation formula’s effective date and that some language mirrors Act 73 with clarified administrative responsibility and effective dates. “That is all I am responsible for in H.955,” St. James said. The committee indicated it will continue line-by-line markup and ask sponsors and AOE staff to return for technical questions about implementation.
The committee did not take a final vote on H.955 during this session; additional briefings and markups were scheduled.
