SS/SB 538 - This act modifies provisions relating to state funding for education. FREE AND REDUCED LUNCH PUPIL COUNT: If school districts are eligible to participate in the USDA Community Eligibility Option and choose to participate, the calculation used to determine free and reduced lunch pupil count will change. For those districts, free and reduced lunch pupil count will be the percentage of free and reduced lunch students calculated as eligible on the last Wednesday in January of the most recent school year, as described in the act, multiplied by the district's average daily attendance figure. This provision is identical to a provision contained in SCS/HCS/HB 1689 (2014) and SB 825 (2014). (163.011) LOCAL EFFORT CALCULATION: Currently, the calculation of local effort uses a school district's assessed valuation figure from 2004. This act provides that when a change in a school district's boundary lines occurs, as described in the act, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must adjust the affected district's local effort calculation based on the land area adjustments from the boundary line change using 2004 assessed valuation data. This provision is identical to a provision contained in SCS/HCS/HB 1689 (2014) and SB 825 (2014) and is substantially similar to a provision contained in CCS/HCS/SCS/SBs 493, 485, 495, 516, 534, 545, 595, 616 & 624 (2014). (163.011) PERFORMANCE DISTRICTS: Currently, any district that has met all of the performance standards and indicators in the Missouri School Improvement Program is considered a performance district for purposes of calculating state aid. This act changes how school districts become performance districts beginning in fiscal year 2019. Beginning at that time, performance districts must not exceed twenty-five percent of all school districts. This provision is identical to a provision contained in SCS/HCS/HB 1689 (2014). (163.011) STATE ADEQUACY TARGET: Current law allows the state adequacy target to be adjusted to accommodate available appropriations beginning on July 1, 2012, which was the completion date of the phase-in of the formula. This adjustment method is modified so that it is used to adjust state aid payments to formula districts when the formula appropriation is insufficient to fully fund all districts. In addition, obsolete language that governed the adjustment of the state adequacy target during the phase-in of the formula is repealed. These provisions are identical to provisions contained in SCS/HCS/HB 1689 (2014). (163.011 & 163.031) MODIFICATION OF PAYMENTS TO DISTRICTS PAID ON THE FORMULA: This act requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education adjust the state adequacy target to accommodate the appropriation level if the amount of funding appropriated for the foundation formula is not sufficient to fully fund all school districts. Payments to hold-harmless districts must not be modified. This provision is identical to a provision contained in SCS/HCS/HB 1689 (2014). (163.031) EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: This act would allow a school district or a charter school that has declared itself as a local educational agency that operates an early childhood education program to receive state funding through the foundation formula for students between the ages of three and five who are eligible for free and reduced lunch. The district or charter school must provide full-day kindergarten and meet standards established by the State Board of Education. This act would become effective in the school year after the school year in which the foundation formula is fully funded and would remain in effect in any succeeding year. This act does not require school attendance beyond what is required under the state's compulsory attendance law and does not change or modify the state's kindergarten attendance age statutes. This section is identical to SCS/SB 133 (2013), and is similar to SB 132 (2013), HB 1714 (2014), HB 1957 (2014), HB 1958 (2014), a provision in HB 1294 (2014), a provision contained in SCS/HCS/HB 1689 (2014) and a provision contained in HB 2194 (2014). (Section 163.018) This act contains a delayed effective date of July 1, 2015. MICHAEL RUFF