RELATING TO EDUCATION -- THE EDUCATION EQUITY AND PROPERTY TAX, RELIEF ACT
Summary
H7454 amends Rhode Island’s Education Equity and Property Tax Relief Act to change how the state’s foundation education aid formula identifies and funds high-need students. The bill keeps the existing core instruction component of the formula, which is based on statewide per-pupil spending data and district enrollment, and it retains the current additional weights for students in poverty and multilingual learners. The principal substantive change is that, beginning with the FY 2027 calculation, a student’s enrollment in Medicaid would be used as part of the student success factor for identifying students who qualify for the poverty-related weight in the aid formula.
The bill also preserves and expands the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s reporting and implementation duties related to the formula. It requires the department to continue estimating foundation aid costs, update enrollment figures, report on multilingual learner funding, and develop alternative methods for identifying low-income students through state-administered programs. It further directs the department to coordinate with other state entities on data matching, produce an estimate using expanded Medicaid-based direct certification, and report on high-cost special education data consistency. The act takes effect upon passage, but the Medicaid-based change is scheduled to begin with FY 2027 calculations.
Impact
The bill would amend § 16-7.2-3 of the General Laws, which governs the permanent foundation education aid formula, by adding Medicaid enrollment as a data point used in the student success factor beginning in FY 2027. This would affect how the state calculates aid for districts serving higher numbers of economically disadvantaged students and could alter state aid distributions, district planning, and the underlying data systems used to determine eligibility. It also reinforces and expands reporting obligations for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and related agencies regarding poverty measurement, direct certification, multilingual learner funding, and special education data quality.
Sentiment
The bill appears generally supportive of increasing equity in school funding by improving the identification of high-need students and potentially capturing more eligible children through Medicaid data. The bill text and caption frame the change as a technical but meaningful enhancement to the foundation aid formula rather than a broad policy overhaul. No committee transcript or recorded vote information is available, so there is no documented opposition or support beyond the bill’s stated purpose.
Contention
The main point of potential contention is the use of Medicaid enrollment as a proxy for poverty in the school funding formula. Supporters would likely view this as a more accurate and administratively workable way to identify students needing additional support, while critics could question data privacy, matching accuracy, or whether Medicaid participation is an appropriate measure of educational need. The bill also requires extensive interagency data sharing and reporting, which could raise implementation concerns for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Department of Human Services, and the Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System.
Amends the Education Equity and Property Tax Relief Act to set the regionalization bonus at 2% of the state's share of foundation education aid for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2025, and for each year thereafter.
Amends the term "extraordinary costs" for the purposes of excess costs associated with special education students. The new definition of extraordinary costs would be educational costs that are over 3 times the average statewide special education cost.
Provides that in local educational agencies when over 45% of the children have a family income that is at or below 185% of federal poverty guidelines then the student success factor will be 50% by the core instruction per-pupil amount.
Provides that in local educational agencies when over 45% of the children have a family income that is at or below 185% of federal poverty guidelines then the student success factor will be 50% by the core instruction per-pupil amount.
Requires a review by the department of elementary and secondary education of the formula components used to compute the aid needed to support high need students.
Requires a review by the department of elementary and secondary education of the formula components used to compute the aid needed to support high need students.