HB543 Alabama 2011 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Steve HurstRepresentative

Republican

Co-Sponsors

Randy DavisJamie IsonJim McClendonJim Barton

Session

Regular Session 2011

Title

Public schools, K-12 instructional days, 180 instructional days or hourly equivalent for Foundation Program, local board of education with approval of State Superintendent of Education authorized to make up cancelled instructional days by adjusting the hours of actual instruction, flexibility for local boards of education in establishing school calendar by instructional hours and date parameters, Flexible School Calendar Act, Sec. 16-13-231 am'd.

Description

This bill establishes the Flexible School Calendar Act of 2011.

Under existing law, to receive the maximum benefits from the Foundation Program Fund, local boards of education are required to provide a minimum school term of at least 180 days.

This bill would allow a local board of education, upon approval of the State Superintendent of Education, to make up cancelled instructional days due to weather or other extenuating circumstances by adjusting the hours of actual instruction.

This bill would allow a local board of education, upon approval of the State Superintendent of Education, to establish a local calendar providing 180 full instructional days, or the hourly equivalent thereof, per school year for the computation of Foundation Program Fund benefits, and would establish parameters for when academic instruction may begin and end in the public elementary and secondary schools of the state.

Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose.

The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment. However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment.

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Subjects

Education