HB 22-1202 Summary

• Creates a new at-risk student measure in the public school funding formula beginning in the 2023-24 budget year to identify students facing below-average academic outcomes due to socioeconomic disadvantage or poverty.

• Establishes a working group convened by the Commissioner of Education by August 15, 2022, to design and implement the new measure, replacing the previous at-risk measure used in 2022-23.

• The new at-risk measure includes a district's identified student percentage (students certified for free school meals based on benefit receipt) supplemented by direct certification through Medicaid and Children's Basic Health Plan programs, plus student needs weighted by at least five neighborhood socioeconomic-status factors linked to census block groups.

• Working group membership includes representatives from education departments, school finance directors, superintendents, principals, social workers, child welfare liaisons, charter schools, educators, school boards, parents, nutrition providers, rural districts, and poverty advocacy organizations.

• Commissioner must submit a report by January 31, 2023, to legislative committees detailing implementation findings, recommendations, financial modeling results, and estimated impact on total program funding costs; appropriates $163,338 for the 2022-23 fiscal year and repeals the measure July 1, 2025.