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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, First Regular Session
juvenile detention centers; education programs
Purpose
Prohibits an accommodation school from counting a child as being in attendance on a day that the child is counted as being in attendance in a juvenile detention center education program (juvenile education program). Requires a county that operates a juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school to distinguish between services provided to students through the juvenile education program and other students who are enrolled in the accommodation school in each report, financial record and budget request.
Background
A county may operate a juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school. If the county chooses not to operate the juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school, the county school superintendent may establish a detention center education fund to provide financial support to the juvenile education program. Each county's detention center education fund consists of a base amount and a variable amount, which are funded with state General Fund (state GF) monies and subject to appropriation. The base amount is equal to the amount prescribed for the prior year, adjusted for inflation, and the variable amount is determined according to a prescribed formula, based on the number of days in the prior fiscal year that each child who had been in the detention center for more than 48 hours received an instructional education program of at least 240 minutes. A school district may not count a child as being in attendance in that school district on a day that the child is counted for the purposes of determining the variable amount (A.R.S. § 15-913).
An accommodation school is a school that: 1) operates through the county board of supervisors and the county school superintendent to serve a military reservation or territory that is not included within the boundaries of a school district; 2) is established to serve a military reservation, the boundaries of which are coterminous with the boundaries of the military reservation on which the school is located; or 3) provides educational services to homeless children or alternative education programs as prescribed. Accommodation schools must compute a revenue control limit, a district support level and a district additional assistance allocation limit for each fiscal year of operation. If a county operated a juvenile education program through an accommodation school in the year before the county begins to operate a juvenile education program not under the accommodation school, the county must reduce the student count of the accommodation school by the student count attributable to the juvenile education program for the first year of operation (A.R.S. §§ 15-101 and 15-909).
If prohibiting an accommodation school from counting a child as in attendance on a day that the child is being counted in attendance in a juvenile education program alters the variable amount calculation for a juvenile education program or the average daily membership calculation for an accommodation school, there may be a fiscal impact to the state GF.
Provisions
1. Prohibits an accommodation school from counting a child as being in attendance in the accommodation school on a day that the child is counted in attendance in the juvenile education program.
2. Requires, if a county operates the county's juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school, the county to distinguish between services provided to students through the juvenile education program and other students who are enrolled in the accommodation school in each report, financial record and budget.
3. Removes the stipulation that a county may establish a detention center education fund to provide financial support for the juvenile education center only if the county chooses not to operate a juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school.
4. Removes the requirement, for a county that previously operated a juvenile education program through an accommodation school, to reduce the student count of the accommodation school by the student count attributable to the juvenile education program for the first year of operation not under the accommodation school.
5. Makes technical changes.
6. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 3, 2025
MH/SDR/ci