STRICT DISCIPLINE ACADEMIES - H.B. 4241 (S-2): FLOOR ANALYSIS
House Bill 4241 (Substitute S-2)
Sponsor: Representative Gerald Van Woerkom
House Committee: Education
Senate Committee: Education
CONTENT
The bill would create the "Safe Schools and Communities Act" within the Revised School Code to provide for the establishment of strict discipline academies. Enrollment would be limited pupils placed in an academy by a court or by the Family Independence Agency or a county juvenile facility under the direction of a court; pupils who had been expelled for possessing a weapon or committing arson or criminal sexual conduct at school; pupils expelled for assaulting a school employee; and other expelled pupils referred to an academy by their school and placed there by their parents or legal guardians.
One or more people or an entity could apply to an authorizing body for a contract to organize and operate a strict discipline academy. If a school board denied an application, the applicant could petition the board to place the question on the ballot. The petition would have to be signed by at least 15% of the total number of school electors of the district.
An academy's authorizing body could be the board of a K-12 school district, an intermediate school board, the governing body of a State public university, or the board of a community college. The authorizing body would be responsible for overseeing the academy's compliance with the contract and all applicable law. The authorizing body would be the academy's fiscal agent, would receive a State school aid payment for the academy, and would have to forward the payment to the academy. The authorizing body could charge a fee of up to 3% of the total school aid received by the academy. An academy could not charge tuition.
The bill is tie-barred to Senate Bills 183 and 206 and House Bill 4240, which would allow teachers to suspend a pupil for one day for threatening school safety; require the expulsion of pupils who assaulted a school employee; and require schools, law enforcement agencies, and others to enter into a memorandum of understanding for reporting school safety incidents.
MCL 380.1311 et al. - Legislative Analyst: S. Lowe
FISCAL IMPACT
The Department of Education would likely incur the cost of 1.0 FTE dedicated solely to compiling and distributing information on alternative education programs, and for providing technical assistance to entities interested in developing alternative education programs. An estimate of the cost of the employee and services would be $80,000.
This bill would allow strict discipline academies to enroll court-placed pupils, Family Independence Agency-placed pupils, or expelled pupils. This bill would not affect State costs with respect to educating these types of pupils because the State School Aid Act already allocates funds to cover these costs. This bill simply would create an alternative for the education of these pupils in a strict discipline academy.
Date Completed: 5-7-99 - Fiscal Analyst: K. Summers-Coty
floor\hb4241 - Analysis available @ http://www.michiganlegislature.org
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.