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Minutes for SB499 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Requiring a second student count for virtual school enrollment, increasing certain virtual school state aid amounts and providing for additional state aid for certain students who transfer to virtual schools.
Minutes Content for Mon, Feb 21, 2022
Chairperson Baumgardner opened the Hearing on SB499.
Tamera Lawrence, Revisor, gave an overview of the bill.(Attachment 1)
Proponent Testimony:
Joe Sailors, School Leader, Kansas Connections Academy (KCA), explained that KCA is a public virtual school program that enrolls approximately 1,500 students, serving students and families state-wide. KCA supports this legislation which seeks to increase the base funding, per pupil, from $5,000 to $5,600. Additional funding will allow for KCA to provide increased support services to students as they implement plans for dyslexic and struggling readers, including screenings and interventions for students. The additional funding would allow KCA to hire a reading interventionist to address the needs of students with dyslexia and other reading deficiencies.
There was no disruption in school KCA operations or learning during the pandemic as they continued to provide consistent and rigorous education with high student achievement.
KCA is a public virtual education program serving students and have the same costs with respect to salaries, benefits, staff development, curriculum, instructional support, and technology. One cost virtual schools have that traditional schools do not is state testing due to the need to rent labs, rental of laptops and other required technology, travel expenses for the proctor and onsite services while administering the test. Included with the testimony is a Fact Sheet (Attachment 2)
Cassandra Barton, Head of School, Insight School of Kansas and Kansas Virtual Academy, believes this bill makes a strong effort to provide support to the virtual programs to better serve students and actually funds virtual school pupils as intended by the Legislature several years ago. Full-time students would be funded at $5,600 and part-time virtual would be funded at $2,000.
In addition, SB499 provides a funding opportunity for students who enroll for spring semester. Currently no funds are received for any students who enroll after the fall Count Date. The bill also provides additional funding for high school students who are considered at-risk of not graduating with their 4 year cohorts upon enrollment at the virtual school.
Operating with the same level of funding for seven school years has been a challenge. During the pandemic, enrollment numbers rose. Today enrollment is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.(Attachment 3)
Opponent Testimony:
Mark Tallman, Associate Executive Director, Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), states this bill has 3 major components.
First, it moves funding for virtual schools to a fall and spring count system. KASB has no position on the first provision.
The second provision raises the per pupil funding for virtual students age 19 and under. This provision seems to make sense.
The third provision would provide additional funding for students who transfer from a non-virtual school to a virtual school in another district. KASB opposes this provision for several reasons. It is not appropriate to reduce funding for districts based on individual student measures that cannot be solely controlled by the district. A student may be behind in credits prior to entering the non-virtual school or because of actions by the student or circumstances such as health issues. The same is true for failing courses. The virtual school is not required to correct any of these deficiencies. (Attachment 4)
Opponent Written Testimony:
Deena Horst and Ben Jones, Legislative Liaisons, Kansas State Board of Education.(Attachment 5)
The Chair closed the hearing on SB499.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 1, 2022, 1:30 pm in room 144-S.
