Bill Text: NH HB771 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relative to funding for open enrollment schools.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 5-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-25 - Minority Committee Report: Inexpedient to Legislate [HB771 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2025-HB771-Introduced.html
HB 771-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2025 SESSION
25-0788
07/02
HOUSE BILL 771-FN
AN ACT relative to funding for open enrollment schools.
SPONSORS: Rep. Peternel, Carr. 6; Rep. Ladd, Graf. 5; Rep. Terry, Belk. 7; Rep. Verville, Rock. 2; Sen. Rochefort, Dist 1
COMMITTEE: Education Funding
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ANALYSIS
This bill:
I. Changes how funding for open enrollment schools is sent and received.
II. Requires school districts to establish a line item in their operating budgets that reflects expenditures for open enrollment tuition costs.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
25-0788
07/02
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Five
AN ACT relative to funding for open enrollment schools.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Education; Open Enrollment Schools; Definitions. Amend RSA 194-D:1, I to read as follows:
I. "Open enrollment public school", [or] "open enrollment school", or "open enrollment program" means any public school which, in addition to providing educational services to pupils residing within its attendance area or district, chooses to accept pupils from other attendance areas within its district and from outside its district.
2 Education; Open Enrollment Schools; Funding. Amend RSA 194-D:5 to read as follows:
194-D:5 Funding.
I. There shall be no tuition charge for any pupil attending an open enrollment school located in that pupil's resident district. For an open enrollment school authorized by a receiving [the] school district, the pupil's sending [resident] district shall pay the receiving district [to such school] an amount equal to not less than 80 percent of the sending [that] district's average cost per pupil as determined by the department of education using the most recent available data as reported by the sending district to the department.
II. In accordance with current department of education standards, the funding and educational decision-making process for children with disabilities attending a chartered public or open enrollment school shall be the responsibility of the school district and shall retain all current options available to the parent and to the school district.
[III. Any federal or other funding available in any year to a sending district shall, to the extent and in a manner acceptable to the funding source, be directed to an open enrollment school in a receiving district on an eligible per pupil basis.]
III. [IV.] The commissioner of the department of education shall apply for all federal funding available to open enrollment schools [under the No Child Left Behind Act, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,] or other federal [source] sources of funds. The commissioner shall expend any such funds received in a manner acceptable to the funding source.
IV. [V.] A sending district may provide funds, services, equipment, materials, or personnel to an open enrollment school, in addition to the amounts specified in this section in accordance with the policies of the sending school district.
V. [VI.] An open enrollment school may accept pupils at tuition rates at less than the amounts established by this chapter.
VI. [VII.] An open enrollment school may receive financial aid, private gifts, grants, or revenue as if it were a school district.
3 Education; Open Enrollment Schools; Budgets. Amend RSA 194-D:6 to read as follows:
194-D:6 Budgets. Each school district shall establish a line item in their operating budget, on an annual basis, reflecting estimated expenditures for open enrollment school tuition [That portion of a school district's estimated expenditures on open enrollment school tuition shall be shown as a separate line item in a school district's budget].
4 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
25-0788
1/11/25
HB 771-FN- FISCAL NOTE
AS INTRODUCED
AN ACT relative to funding for open enrollment schools.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Office of Legislative Budget Assistant is unable to complete a fiscal note for this bill as it is awaiting information from the Department of Education. The Department was contacted on 1/2/25 for a fiscal note worksheet. When completed, the fiscal note will be forwarded to the House Clerk's Office.
AGENCIES CONTACTED:
Department of Education
