Nevada § 387.121 - Intent of Legislature to provide additional resources to Pupil-Centered Funding Plan to meet needs of certain categories of pupils and promote transparency and accountability in public education

§ 387.121. Intent of Legislature to provide additional resources to Pupil-Centered Funding Plan to meet needs of certain categories of pupils and promote transparency and accountability in public education

1. The Legislature declares that the proper objective of state financial aid to public

education is to ensure each Nevada child a reasonably equal educational opportunity. Recognizing wide local variations in wealth and costs per pupil, this State should

supplement local financial ability to whatever extent necessary in each school district

to provide programs of instruction in both compulsory and elective subjects that offer

full opportunity for every Nevada child to receive the benefit of the purposes for

which public schools are maintained. Therefore, the quintessence of the State's financial obligation for such programs

can be expressed by combining money raised pursuant to state law at the local level

with state money to provide a certain basic level of support to each pupil in this

State, adjusted to account for variation in the local costs to provide a reasonably

equal educational opportunity to pupils and for the costs of providing a reasonably

equal educational opportunity to pupils with certain additional educational needs. This formula is designated the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan. 2. It is the intent of the Legislature, commencing with Fiscal Year 2019-2020, to

promote transparency and accountability in state funding for public education by accounting

for all state financial aid to public schools and projected local financial aid to

public schools, both on a per pupil basis and on a per program basis, and expressing

the total per pupil amount of all such support. 3. It is the intent of the Legislature to accomplish the transition to the Pupil-Centered

Funding Plan without causing an unexpected loss of revenue to any school district,

charter school or university school for profoundly gifted pupils which may receive

less money on a per-pupil basis under the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan than the district,

charter school or university school for profoundly gifted pupils received during the

fiscal year ending on June 30, 2020. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 4, if a school district, charter school

or university school for profoundly gifted pupils would receive less money under the

Pupil-Centered Funding Plan than the district, charter school or university school

for profoundly gifted pupils received during the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2020,

it is the intent of the Legislature that the school district, charter school or university

school for profoundly gifted pupils instead receive a reasonably similar level of

funding on a per-pupil basis that the district, charter school or university school

for profoundly gifted pupils received during the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2020,

and be given the flexibility to reapportion money between its adjusted base per pupil

funding and weighted funding in a manner similar to the apportionment of such money

in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2020, to ensure that each pupil in the district,

charter school or university school for profoundly gifted pupils receives a reasonably

equal educational opportunity. When determining whether charter schools should receive a reasonably similar level

of funding on a per-pupil basis that charter schools received during the fiscal year

ending on June 30, 2020, it is the intent of the Legislature that all charter schools

should be considered as a whole rather than evaluated individually. 4. It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that no school district that receives

a modified allocation of money as described in subsection 3 receives less funding

in a school year than the school district received in the immediately preceding school

year unless the enrollment in the school district continues to decline for a period

of 2 years or more. In the event of such an enrollment decline, it is the intent of the Legislature

to determine an appropriate method to mitigate the effects of a continued decline

in enrollment, which may include, without limitation, appropriating money to the school

district as if the number of pupils enrolled in the district equaled the average number

of pupils enrolled in the district over a rolling 3-year period.