Sept. 18 was looming large on school administrators’ calendars this year. The date for the fall enrollment count is always important – it determines the amount of per-student tuition support Indiana schools receive to pay teacher salaries, buy instructional materials and more. This year, with a Statehouse threat to cut funding by 15% for students attending online classes, it was particularly worrisome.
But the Indiana State Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to allow schools to use last February’s Average Daily Membership count if operating online this fall.
It’s a different approach than was suggested by Gov. Eric Holcomb, who had proposed delaying the student count date, but it gets the job done. It protects brick-and-mortar schools from the prospect of losing millions of dollars for providing online instruction because of the coronavirus. Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, had raised that prospect, seemingly as pressure for schools to return to in-person instruction.
He pointed out that state law limits funding for online students at 85% of the tuition support total. That’s as it should be for schools created as online-only programs; their costs are limited almost entirely to teacher salaries. But traditional schools offering virtual instruction – in some cases because their county health departments recommend that – shouldn’t be held to that standard.
The board’s decision means local school districts will receive full funding, even for those students studying online. Phil Downs, superintendent of Southwest Allen County Schools, said his district would have lost about $1.5 million in funding this fall if the 20% of students attending virtual classes had been counted at the lower rate.
The state’s board action is only a temporary fix, however. In their next session, lawmakers will have to address the current funding law.
“We do have to remember that this solution isn’t a permanent one,” Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, told the Associated Press. “But for now, it’s suitable to help us navigate through the winter until February.”
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