ARIZONA STATE SENATE
RESEARCH STAFF
TO: MEMBERS OF THE SENATE
EDUCATION COMMITTEE
DATE: February 10, 2025
SUBJECT: Strike everything amendment to S.B. 1213, relating to detention center education
programs
Purpose
Prohibits an accommodation school from counting a pupil as being in attendance on a day
that the pupil is counted as being a prisoner in a county jail education program or a student in a
juvenile detention center education program (juvenile education program). Determines that a
county may operate and fund, or operate but not fund, a county jail education program or a juvenile
education program through an existing accommodation school.
Background
Each county that operates a county jail must offer an education program to serve all
prisoners in the county jail who are younger than 21 years old and do not have a high school
diploma or a general equivalency diploma. Each county with a juvenile detention center must offer
a juvenile education program to serve all school-aged children in the juvenile detention center.
A county may operate a county jail education program or a juvenile education program
through an existing accommodation school. If a county chooses not to operate the county jail
education program or the juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school,
the county school superintendent may: 1) establish a county jail education fund to provide financial
support to the county jail education program; or 2) establish a detention center education fund
(juvenile education fund) to provide financial support to the juvenile education program. Each
county jail education fund and juvenile education fund consist of a base amount and a variable
amount, which are funded with state General Fund (state GF) monies and subject to appropriation.
The base amount is equal to the amount prescribed for the prior year, adjusted for inflation, and
the variable amount is determined according to a prescribed formula, based on the number of days
in the prior fiscal year that each pupil who had been in the county jail or detention center for more
than 48 hours received an instructional education program of at least 240 minutes. A school district
may not count a pupil as being in attendance in that school district on a day that, for the purposes
of determining the variable amount, the pupil is counted as: 1) a prisoner in a county jail education
program; or 2) a student in a juvenile education program (A.R.S. §§ 15-913 and 15-913.01).
An accommodation school is a school that: 1) operates through the county board of
supervisors and the county school superintendent to serve a military reservation or territory that is
not included within the boundaries of a school district; 2) is established to serve a military
reservation, the boundaries of which are coterminous with the boundaries of the military
reservation on which the school is located; or 3) provides educational services to homeless children
or alternative education programs as prescribed. Accommodation schools must compute a revenue
control limit, a district support level and a district additional assistance allocation limit for each
fiscal year of operation. If a county operated a county jail education program or a juvenile
education program through an accommodation school in the year before the county begins to
SAMUEL ROSENBERG
ASSISTANT RESEARCH ANALYST
MASON HOLLER
LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH ANALYST
EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Telephone: (602) 926-3171 STRIKER MEMO
S.B. 1213
Page 2
operate the county jail education program or juvenile education program not under the
accommodation school, the county must reduce the student count of the accommodation school by
the student count attributable to the county jail education program or juvenile education program
for the first year of operation (A.R.S. §§ 15-101 and 15-909).
If prohibiting an accommodation school from counting a pupil as in attendance on a day
that the pupil is being counted in attendance in a county jail education program or juvenile
education program alters the variable amount calculation for a juvenile education program or the
student count calculation for an accommodation school, there may be a fiscal impact to the state
GF.
Provisions
1. Prohibits an accommodation school from counting a pupil as being in attendance in an
accommodation school on a day that the pupil is counted:
a) as a prisoner in a county jail education program; or
b) in attendance in a juvenile education program.
2. Determines that a county may operate and fund, or operate but not fund, a county jail education
program or juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school.
3. Allows a county school superintendent in a county that operates but does not fund a county jail
education program or juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school
to establish a county jail education fund or detention center education fund to provide financial
support to the county jail education program or juvenile education program.
4. Allows a county school superintendent to administer a county jail education fund or a juvenile
education fund through an existing accommodation school.
5. Requires a county that previously funded, rather than operated, a county jail education program
or a juvenile education program through an existing accommodation school to reduce the
student count of the accommodation school by the student count attributable to the county jail
education program or juvenile education program for the first year of funding, rather than
operation, under the accommodation school.
6. Makes technical changes.
7. Becomes effective on the general effective date.