S.F. No. 3225 Summary

• Adds transportation costs for foster students, homeless students, and highly mobile students to the definition of special education transportation services eligible for full state funding under Minnesota's education finance system.

• Includes the additional cost of transporting students in shelter care facilities, homeless students to their school of origin in another district, and formerly homeless students returning to their school of origin through the end of the academic year as eligible special education transportation expenses.

• Creates a new "Special education homeless pupil aid" funding category for fiscal year 2024 and later, calculated as the difference between current year and fiscal year 2016 transportation costs for these student populations.

• Modifies the special education aid calculation formulas in Minnesota Statutes 125A.76 to incorporate the new homeless pupil aid as a component of total special education aid beginning in fiscal year 2024.

• Appropriates unspecified amounts from the general fund to the Department of Education for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to fund the additional special education aid provisions.