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: Feb 5, 2024
BILL NUMBER: SB 270 BILL AMENDED: Feb 5, 2024
SUBJECT: Various Education Matters.
FIRST AUTHOR: Sen. Rogers BILL STATUS: 2
nd
Reading - 1
st
House
FIRST SPONSOR:
FUNDS AFFECTED:XGENERAL IMPACT: State & Local
DEDICATED
FEDERAL
Summary of Legislation: (Amended) Department of Education: The bill requires the Department of
Education (DOE) to study:
(1) Creating clearinghouses for each region of Indiana; and
(2) Selecting an organization to design, operate, and maintain all the regional clearinghouses.
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 provides that no resolution, referenda, or distributed revenue
prior to May 10, 2023, are effective to provide exemption from 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.
SB 270 1 Seizure Training: This bill specifies that training in the recognition of the signs and symptoms of seizures
must be provided to certain school personnel.
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 urges the Legislative Council to assign certain topics during the 2024 legislative interim.
It makes conforming changes.
Effective Date: Upon passage; May 4, 2023 (retroactive); May 10, 2024; July 1, 2024.
Explanation of State Expenditures: (Revised) Department of Education (DOE): The following provisions
represent a workload increase for DOE that should be able to be implemented with no additional
appropriations, assuming near customary agency staffing and resource levels:
(1) DOE, in consultation with the Department of Workforce Development, the Commission for
Higher Education (CHE), and other community stakeholders, is required to prepare a report by
October 31, 2024 regarding the creation of, and reporting requirements for, regional clearinghouses.
Potential nonprofit organizations who can design, operate, and maintain the regional clearinghouses
will also be studied.
(2) DOE is required to ensure that cardiopulmonary resuscitation training currently required for
teachers must also include training covering certain seizure-related topics.
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
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.
(Revised) Study Topic: The Legislative Council could assign the topic of studying the charter school
authorization process to an existing interim study committee or establish a new interim study committee to
study this topic during the next interim. Interim study committees operate on budgets established by the
Legislative Council based on committee size. 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 and $17,500 for committees with 16 members or more. If the Legislative Council were to assign
SB 270 2 this topic to an existing committee and the committee were to have any extra meetings to address this topic,
there would be additional expenditures for legislator per diem and travel reimbursement for the committee
members. Any additional expenditures must be within the committee’s budget.
Additional Information - (Revised) 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
referendum funds and, if applicable, school safety referendum funds, with local charter schools in a method
prescribed via 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.
(Revised) Charter Schools: To the extent that provisions in this bill increase the number of buildings
available to be leased or purchased by charter schools for $1, this bill could decrease the future expenditures
of a charter school if it wanted to purchase or lease a school building.
Explanation of Local Revenues: 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.
State Agencies Affected: General Assembly; Department of Education; Department of Workforce
Development; Commission for Higher Education; State educational institutions.
Local Agencies Affected: Public schools.
Information Sources: Department of Education; LSA Education Database.
SB 270 3 Fiscal Analyst: Kelan Fong, 317-232-9592; Austin Spears, 317-234-9454.
SB 270 4