Boost Aid for Small Cities

Section 1. Legislative intent: It is the responsibility of the legislature under article XI of the constitution of the state of New York to establish and maintain a system that will provide all children an opportunity to receive a meaningful high school education. As a result of trial in State Supreme Court of Maisto, et al. v State of New York it is clear that resources sufficient to offer that education in eight small city school districts, known as the Maisto Districts, are not being provided to those districts under current education law. Therefore, it is the intention of the legislature to amend certain provisions of the education law to ensure that the necessary funding is available in those districts to help them provide all their children an opportunity to receive a meaningful high school education and to maintain healthy vibrant educational communities that underpin a thriving state economy.

§ 2. This legislation shall be known and may be cited as "the Maisto District successful schools act".

§ 3. Paragraph ff of subdivision 1 of section 3602 of the education law, as added by section 25 of part A of chapter 58 of the laws of 2011, is amended to read as follows:

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD05724-01-7

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ff. "Preliminary growth amount" shall mean the difference between the statewide total, excluding the apportionments computed pursuant to subdivisions four, other than such apportionments for Maisto Districts, and seventeen of section thirty-six hundred two of the education law, of the apportionments due and owing during the current school year, commencing with the two thousand twelve--two thousand thirteen school year, to school districts and boards of cooperative educational services from the general support for public schools as computed based on an electronic data file used to produce the school aid computer listing produced by the commissioner in support of the enacted budget for the current year, less the statewide total of such apportionments, excluding the apportionments computed pursuant to subdivisions four, other than such apportionments for Maisto Districts, and seventeen of section thirty-six hundred two of the education law, due and owing during the base school year to school districts and boards of cooperative educational services from the general support for public schools as computed based on an electronic data file used to produce the school aid computer listing produced by the commissioner in support of the enacted budget for the current year.

§ 4. Subdivision 1 of section 3602 of the education law is amended by adding two new paragraphs hh and ii to read as follows:

hh. "New York state association of small city school districts" shall mean the association of districts in cities with populations fewer than one hundred twenty-five thousand persons in the most recent census.

ii. "Maisto Districts" shall mean the small city school districts of Jamestown, Kingston, Mount Vernon, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Port Jervis, Poughkeepsie and Utica.

§ 5. Subdivision 18 of section 3602 of the education law, as added by section 37 of part A of chapter 58 of the laws of 2011, is amended to read as follows:

18. Allocable growth amount apportionment. Such amount shall be apportioned for a school year pursuant to a chapter of the laws of New York enacted for the state fiscal year in which such school year commences, and shall be allocated to purposes including but not limited to competitive grant awards made pursuant to subdivisions five and six of section thirty-six hundred forty-one of this article, the foundation aid phasein amount or other foundation aid increase allocated pursuant to subdivision four of this section and the gap elimination adjustment restoration amount apportioned pursuant to subdivision seventeen of this section. In the event that a chapter of the laws of New York enacted for the state fiscal year in which such school year commences is not enacted, the allocations in support of subdivisions five and six of section thirty-six hundred forty-one of this article shall equal the allocations in support of such awards in the base year, and the apportionments pursuant to subdivisions four and seventeen of this section for the current year shall equal the apportionments for such subdivisions four and seventeen for the base year except that the apportionments of the foundation aid phase-in amount for the Maisto Districts and Maisto District credit recovery aid shall be the amount computed in the current year.

§ 6. The opening paragraph, subparagraph 1 of paragraph a, and clause (ii) of subparagraph 2 of paragraph b of subdivision 4 of section 3602 of the education law, as amended by section 7 of part A of chapter 54 of the laws of 2016, are amended to read as follows:

In addition to any other apportionment pursuant to this chapter, a school district, other than a special act school district as defined in

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subdivision eight of section four thousand one of this chapter, shall be eligible for total foundation aid equal to the product of total aidable foundation pupil units multiplied by the district's selected foundation aid, which shall be the greater of five hundred dollars ($500) or foundation formula aid, provided, however that for the two thousand seven-- two thousand eight through two thousand eight--two thousand nine school years, no school district shall receive total foundation aid in excess of the sum of the total foundation aid base for aid payable in the two thousand seven--two thousand eight school year computed pursuant to subparagraph (i) of paragraph j of subdivision one of this section, plus the phase-in foundation increase computed pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision, and provided further that for the two thousand twelve- -two thousand thirteen school year, no school district shall receive total foundation aid in excess of the sum of the total foundation aid base for aid payable in the two thousand eleven--two thousand twelve school year computed pursuant to subparagraph (ii) of paragraph j of subdivision one of this section, plus the phase-in foundation increase computed pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision, and provided further that for the two thousand thirteen--two thousand fourteen school year and thereafter, no school district shall receive total foundation aid in excess of the sum of the total foundation aid base computed pursuant to subparagraph (ii) of paragraph j of subdivision one of this section, plus the phase-in foundation increase computed pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision, and provided further that for the two thousand sixteen--two thousand seventeen school year, no eligible school districts shall receive total foundation aid in excess of the sum of the total foundation aid base computed pursuant to subparagraph (ii) of paragraph j of subdivision one of this section plus the sum of (A) the phase-in foundation increase, (B) the executive foundation increase with a minimum increase pursuant to paragraph b-2 of this subdivision, and (C) an amount equal to "COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AID" in the computer listing produced by the commissioner in support of the executive budget request for the two thousand sixteen--two thousand seventeen school year and entitled "BT161-7", where (1) "eligible school district" shall be defined as a district with (a) an unrestricted aid increase of less than seven percent (0.07) and (b) a three year average free and reduced price lunch percent greater than fifteen percent (0.15), and (2) "unrestricted aid increase" shall mean the quotient arrived at when dividing (a) the sum of the executive foundation aid increase plus the gap elimination adjustment for the base year, by (b) the difference of foundation aid for the base year less the gap elimination adjustment for the base year, and (3) "executive foundation increase" shall mean the difference of (a) the amounts set forth for each school district as "FOUNDATION AID" under the heading "2016-17 ESTIMATED AIDS" in the school aid computer listing produced by the commissioner in support of the executive budget request for the two thousand sixteen--two thousand seventeen school year and entitled "BT161-7" less (b) the amounts set forth for each school district as "FOUNDATION AID" under the heading "2015-16 BASE YEAR AIDS" in such computer listing and provided further that total foundation aid shall not be less than the product of the total foundation aid base computed pursuant to paragraph j of subdivision one of this section and the due-minimum percent which shall be, for the two thousand twelve--two thousand thirteen school year, one hundred and six-tenths percent (1.006) and for the two thousand thirteen--two thousand fourteen school year for city school districts of those cities having populations in excess of one hundred twenty-five thousand and less than one million

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inhabitants one hundred and one and one hundred and seventy-six thousandths percent (1.01176), and for all other districts one hundred and three-tenths percent (1.003), and for the two thousand fourteen--two thousand fifteen school year one hundred and eighty-five hundredths percent (1.0085), and for the two thousand fifteen--two thousand sixteen school year, one hundred thirty-seven hundredths percent (1.0037), subject to allocation pursuant to the provisions of subdivision eighteen of this section and any provisions of a chapter of the laws of New York as described therein, nor more than the product of such total foundation aid base and one hundred fifteen percent, provided, however, that for the two thousand sixteen--two thousand seventeen school year such maximum shall be no more than the sum of (i) the product of such total foundation aid base and one hundred fifteen percent plus (ii) the executive foundation increase and plus (iii) "COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AID" in the computer listing produced by the commissioner in support of the executive budget request for the two thousand sixteen--two thousand seventeen school year and entitled "BT161-7", except for Maisto Districts which shall be one hundred twenty-five percent, and provided further that for the two thousand nine--two thousand ten through two thousand eleven--two thousand twelve school years, each school district shall receive total foundation aid in an amount equal to the amount apportioned to such school district for the two thousand eight--two thousand nine school year pursuant to this subdivision. Total aidable foundation pupil units shall be calculated pursuant to paragraph g of subdivision two of this section. For the purposes of calculating aid pursuant to this subdivision, aid for the city school district of the city of New York shall be calculated on a citywide basis.

(1) The foundation amount shall reflect the average per pupil cost of general education instruction in successful school districts, as determined by a statistical analysis of the costs of special education and general education in successful school districts, provided that the foundation amount shall be adjusted annually to reflect the percentage increase in the consumer price index as computed pursuant to section two thousand twenty-two of this chapter, provided that for the two thousand eight--two thousand nine school year, for the purpose of such adjustment, the percentage increase in the consumer price index shall be deemed to be two and nine-tenths percent (0.029), and provided further that the foundation amount for the two thousand seven--two thousand eight school year shall be five thousand two hundred fifty-eight dollars, and provided further that for the two thousand seven--two thousand eight through two thousand sixteen--two thousand seventeen school years, and for the Maisto Districts for the two thousand eighteen--two thousand nineteen through two thousand twenty-one--two thousand twentytwo school years, the foundation amount shall be further adjusted by the phase-in foundation percent established pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision.

(ii) Phase-in foundation increase factor. For the two thousand eleven--two thousand twelve school year, the phase-in foundation increase factor shall equal thirty-seven and one-half percent (0.375) and the phase-in due minimum percent shall equal nineteen and forty-one hundredths percent (0.1941), for the two thousand twelve--two thousand thirteen school year the phase-in foundation increase factor shall equal one and seven-tenths percent (0.017), for the two thousand thirteen--two thousand fourteen school year the phase-in foundation increase factor shall equal (1) for a city school district in a city having a population of one million or more, five and twenty-three hundredths percent

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