LEGISLATIVE SERVICES AGENCY
OFFICE OF FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS
200 W. Washington St., Suite 301
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 233-0696
iga.in.gov
FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
LS 6975 NOTE PREPARED: Jan 8, 2024
BILL NUMBER: SB 270 BILL AMENDED:
SUBJECT: Various Education Matters.
FIRST AUTHOR: Sen. Rogers BILL STATUS: As Introduced
FIRST SPONSOR:
FUNDS AFFECTED:XGENERAL IMPACT: State & Local
DEDICATED
XFEDERAL
Summary of Legislation: Educational Improvement Task Force: This bill establishes the Educational
Improvement Task Force to study the following:
(1) Solutions to improve consistently academically failing schools.
(2) Ways to address the lack of parental involvement.
(3) Chronic absenteeism.
Department of Education: The bill requires the Department of Education (DOE) to:
(1) Study or contract with a third party to study; and
(2) Submit a report regarding;
the feasibility of a community bus system serving two or more public schools located in the same
metropolitan area to transport each student to the school of the student's choice.
This bill requires the DOE to study:
(1) Creating a clearinghouse for each region of Indiana; and
(2) Selecting a single nonprofit organization to design, operate, and maintain all the regional
clearinghouses.
Charter School Financial Reporting: The bill provides that an organizer that operates more than one charter
school may:
(1) File a single school financial report; and
(2) File a single form for any state or federal funding program;
for all the charter schools operated by the organizer.
SB 270 1 Sale or Lease of School Buildings: This bill establishes limitations regarding the lease of school property.
The bill amends the enrollment threshold regarding when a school building is considered underutilized. It
makes changes regarding requiring (instead of allowing) a school building to be closed or made available
for lease or purchase. The bill provides that school corporations that meet certain requirements regarding
sharing operating referendum tax levy and school safety referendum tax levy revenue are not subject to the
transfer of vacant school building provisions. It exempts school corporations that have had a designation as
a distressed political subdivision within the previous three years from the transfer of vacant school building
provisions. It also establishes additional requirements regarding notice, determinations, and appeals under
the transfer of vacant school building provisions. This bill amends requirements with regard to:
(1) Bringing a civil action to enforce a final order to make a covered school building available for
purchase or lease;
(2) The time frame for which a school building must be used; and
(3) Transferring a school building back to a school corporation.
The bill also provides that, if a school corporation transfers a covered school building in violation of the
transfer of vacant school building provisions, the transfer is void and allows for a court action with the award
of attorney's fees.
Curricular Materials: This bill provides that the requirement to provide curricular materials at no cost does
not prohibit assessing and collecting a fee for supplies and materials.
Office of Administrative Law Proceedings: The bill provides that the Office of Administrative Law
Proceedings has jurisdiction over hearing officers authorized to conduct hearings required by the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Seizure Training: This bill specifies that training in the recognition of the signs and symptoms of seizures
must be provided to certain school personnel.
Operating Tax Referendum: The bill provides that all school corporations who adopt a resolution for an
operating referendum tax levy after May 10, 2024, must share revenue received from the levy with certain
charter schools (instead of requiring only school corporations located in Lake County, Marion County, St.
Joseph County, and Vanderburgh County).
Commission for Higher Education: This bill requires the Commission for Higher Education to:
(1) Study and make recommendations; and
(2) Submit a report;
regarding allowing Ivy Tech Community College to award bachelor's degrees and Vincennes University to
offer additional programs that lead to a bachelor's degree.
The bill makes conforming changes.
Effective Date: Upon passage; May 4, 2023 (retroactive); May 10, 2024; July 1, 2024.
Explanation of State Expenditures: Independent Hearing Officers: Beginning in FY 2025, the Office of
Administrative Law Proceedings (OALP) will assume jurisdiction over hearing officers who are authorized
to conduct hearings under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Director of
Special Education will be required to oversee the training of hearing officers and establish guidelines. OALP
and DOE are also required to enter into a memorandum of understanding regarding the transition to hearing
officers employed by OALP. The bill’s requirements represent an additional workload [and/or expenditure]
SB 270 2 for these agencies outside of their agency’s routine administrative functions, and existing staffing and
resource levels, if currently being used to capacity, may be insufficient for full implementation. The
additional funds and resources required could be supplied through existing staff and resources currently
being used in another program, with new appropriations, or with IDEA funds that have been distributed to
the state of Indiana. Ultimately, the source of funds and resources required to satisfy the requirements of this
bill will depend on legislative and administrative actions.
Department of Education (DOE): Provisions in the bill allowing certain charter schools to prepare a single
consolidated Form 9 will reduce the workload for DOE related to reviewing the Form 9. This workload
decrease will be offset by the following provisions:
(1) DOE is required to prepare a report by FY 2026 concerning the feasibility of a community bus
system serving two or more public schools. DOE may contract with a third party to study the topic,
but the cost of the study may not exceed $50,000.
(2) DOE in consultation with the Department of Workforce Development and the Commission for
Higher Education (CHE), is required to prepare a report by October 31, 2024 regarding the creation
of regional clearinghouses where information and standardized forms can be shared. Potential
nonprofit organizations who can design, operate, and maintain the regional clearinghouses will also
be studied.
(3) DOE is required to ensure that cardiopulmonary resuscitation training currently required for
teachers must also include training covering certain seizure-related topics.
(4) DOE will be required to provide data and projections on the number of students who have legal
settlement within a given school corporation but attend a charter school for every operating
referendum resolution adopted after May 10, 2024. DOE is already required to do that for each
operating referendum adopted in Lake, Marion, St. Joseph, and Vanderburgh counties.
Educational Improvement Task Force: This bill establishes the seven-member Educational Improvement
Task Force consisting of six legislators and one representative from the DOE. The task force is to operate
under the policies governing study committees adopted by the Legislative Council. Legislative Council
resolutions in the past have established budgets for interim study committees in the amount of $13,500 per
interim for committees with fewer than 16 members.
The task force is to submit a report of recommendations to the Legislative Council by October 31, 2024,
regarding solutions to improve consistently failing schools, ways to address the lack of parental involvement,
and chronic absenteeism. The bill requires the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) to provide staff to support
the task force. This provision will increase the LSA workload.
CHE: The bill requires CHE to study and make recommendations on whether:
(1) Ivy Tech Community College should be allowed to award bachelor’s degrees; and
(2) Vincennes University should be allowed to offer additional programs that lead to a bachelor’s
degree.
CHE will submit a report with the study’s findings by October 31, 2024. The bill’s requirements are within
the agency’s routine administrative functions and should be able to be implemented with no additional
appropriations, assuming near customary agency staffing and resource levels.
Sale or Lease of School Buildings: The bill’s impact on the number of buildings available for sale or lease
for $1 is unknown, but if the number of available buildings increases then future expenditures for state
educational institutions (SEIs) may decrease. [SEIs receive state funding through General Fund
appropriations.] Provisions in the bill also allow buildings to be leased to the Indiana School for the Blind
SB 270 3 and Visually Impaired (ISBVI), and the Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD).This would have an
undeterminable impact on ISBVI and ISD expenditures dependent on the cost difference to lease the building
relative to what the schools would have had to pay if not for the bill’s provisions.
Additional Information -
Sale or Lease of School Buildings: Current statute requires school corporations to make certain school
buildings available to be purchased or leased for $1 by an SEI or charter school. Certain schools are exempt
from this statute, including school corporations who share certain referendum revenue with charter schools.
This statute is retroactively amended under the bill and as of May 4, 2023, school corporations are only
eligible for this exemption if they proportionally distribute operating or school safety referendum funds with
local charter schools in a method prescribed via statute. The bill also requires all operating referendum
resolutions approved after May 10, 2024, to distribute referendum funds to local charter schools in this
manner, which would increase the number of school corporations exempt from this statute.
Other provisions in the bill will require school buildings considered underutilized to be made available for
sale or lease for $1 and provide additional exemptions for school corporations that:
(1) Have been designated as a distressed political subdivision within the previous three years; or
(2) Wish to lease a school building to ISBVI or ISD.
Explanation of State Revenues:
Explanation of Local Expenditures: Sale or Lease of School Buildings: School corporations that are
required to sell or lease a school building for $1 to an eligible entity due to this bill’s provisions will have
reduced costs associated with maintaining and operating a school building. These savings may be offset by
additional administrative costs to school corporations from compiling data to support their claims in an
appeals process in the event that a buildings status is disputed. The fiscal impact to school corporations is
ultimately dependent on local action.
Seizure Training: Certain school employees are required to have seizure training beginning in FY 2025. The
training developed by the Epilepsy Foundation is available at no cost. However, if schools were to decide
to acquire training from another entity, they would have to fund the cost, if any, out of their existing budget.
Charter Schools: Charter school organizers who operate more than one charter school will have a workload
decrease dependent on the extent that the bill’s provisions allow charter school organizers to consolidate
certain reporting requirements. Future charter school expenditures may also decrease if the bill’s provisions
increase the number buildings available to be purchased or leased for $1. Charter schools that elect to
participate in an operating referendum whose resolution was adopted after May 10, 2024, will experience
a minor offsetting workload increase to contribute a proportionate share of the costs to conduct the
referendum.
Explanation of Local Revenues: Operating Referendum Sharing: Under current law, revenue from an
operating or school safety referendum in Lake, Marion, St. Joseph, or Vanderburgh County for which a
resolution was adopted after May 10, 2023, must be proportionally shared with a charter school that
participated in the referendum and enrolled a student who lives in that school district. Virtual charter schools
and adult high schools are prohibited from receiving a distribution. The bill expands this requirement to all
operating referenda for which a resolution is adopted after May 10, 2024. The fiscal impact on charter
schools and school corporations will be dependent upon which school corporations pass or extend referenda
SB 270 4 in the future, ADM shifts between school corporations and charter schools, and the tax rates imposed.
Curricular Materials: This bill allows public schools to charge students a reasonable fee for supplies and
materials that are not curricular materials, and which supplement the instruction of a particular course of
study. This represents a potential revenue increase for public schools.
Sale or Lease of School Buildings: The bill’s impact on school corporations regarding the sale or lease of
certain school buildings is unknown. If the bill’s provisions require school corporations to sell or lease a
building for $1 to a charter school or SEI, the school will experience a revenue decrease dependent upon how
much the school would have otherwise received if it had sold or leased the building at a market rate.
However, provisions in the bill allow schools to lease a building to ISBVI or ISD which could offset any
revenue decrease dependent on how much the school leases the building for.
Additional Information -
Operating Referendum Sharing: Using student-level FY 2022 ADM data, LSA estimated what the bill's
impact would have been on existing school operating referenda revenue in 2022 if all the referenda levies
were shared as prescribed in the bill with all eligible charter schools. In 2022, the school corporations located
in a county other than Lake, Marion, St. Joseph or Vanderburgh received $192.2 M in school operating
referenda revenue. Under the bill, those school corporations would have distributed about $1.6 M to charter
schools.
State Agencies Affected: General Assembly; Department of Education; Department of Workforce
Development; Commission for Higher Education; Office of Administrative Law Proceedings; State
educational institutions.
Local Agencies Affected: Public schools.
Information Sources: Department of Education; LSA Education Database.
Fiscal Analyst: Kelan Fong, 317-232-9592; Austin Spears, 317-234-9454.
SB 270 5