EDUCATION – Amends existing law to revise provisions regarding student enrollment counts.
Summary
House Bill 846 amends Idaho Code section 33-1027, which governs how student enrollment counts are determined for public school districts and public charter schools. The bill keeps the existing framework for full-time equivalent (FTE) counting, including limits on how much enrollment a student may generate in a school year, special rules for kindergarten and summer/night school, and the requirement that districts and charters conduct official enrollment counts on four dates each school year.
The bill makes one substantive change and one technical correction. Substantively, it changes the rule for students with unexcused absences around the official count date: instead of allowing a district or charter to choose whether to count such a student, the bill requires that a student with 11 or more consecutive unexcused absences immediately before and including the count date not be counted as enrolled. It also adds a new provision stating that a student with unexcused absences for the first 10 consecutive days of the school year may not be counted until the student later attends, at which point the student may be counted from the date of attendance. The technical correction appears to clarify wording in the existing enrollment-count language.
The bill’s impact is on state funding and enrollment reporting rules for public schools and charter schools, because official enrollment counts are used to determine student membership and likely affect state apportionment calculations. It narrows when students may be included in enrollment totals, especially for students who do not attend at the start of the year or who are absent around count dates, and it directs the State Board of Education to continue rulemaking consistent with the revised statute.
The overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly supportive and noncontroversial. It passed the House 67-0 and the Senate 34-0, and there were no recorded committee transcripts or noted opposition in the provided materials. The unanimous votes suggest broad agreement that the bill is a routine administrative update to enrollment-count procedures rather than a major policy change.
The main point of contention, to the extent one exists, is the stricter treatment of students with unexcused absences, since the bill removes discretion and makes exclusion from the count mandatory in specified circumstances. That change could matter to districts and charter schools because it may reduce counted enrollment for students with poor attendance, but no formal opposition is reflected in the voting record provided.
Impact
This bill amends Idaho’s student enrollment counting statute, Idaho Code section 33-1027, affecting how school districts and public charter schools report full-time equivalent enrollment for state purposes. It changes the treatment of students with unexcused absences by requiring that certain students not be counted as enrolled on official count dates and by adding a rule for students absent during the first ten days of the school year. The measure likely affects state funding calculations, attendance reporting, and enrollment-based apportionment for public education entities.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been viewed as a technical and administrative education measure with broad bipartisan support. It passed both chambers unanimously, and there is no committee transcript indicating debate or controversy. The lack of dissent suggests general agreement with clarifying enrollment-count rules and tightening attendance-related counting standards.
Contention
The only notable area of potential contention is the bill’s stricter enrollment-count rule for students with unexcused absences. By changing the language from permissive to mandatory exclusion in certain cases, the bill reduces local discretion for districts and charter schools and may affect counted enrollment for students with attendance problems. However, no recorded opposition, amendments, or committee objections are included in the provided history.