SUMMARY:  As passed by the House and Senate and signed by the Governor.

Provides flexibility to school districts during these difficult economic times by suspending certain laws and requirements involving:

• expenditure controls related to funds earned for direct instructional costs, media center costs, staff and professional development costs, and additional days of instruction
• provides for system average maximum class sizes in grades K-8
• provides for blanket waivers or variances of class size requirements
  • Editor's note:  On May 24, 2010, the State Board of Education granted an exemption of all statutory and regulatory class size maximums for the 2010-2011 school year. Local school districts will be required to submit a local board resolution to the Georgia Department of Education before class size maximums may exceed the current requirements. The board resolution must be approved at a local board meeting to ensure that all stakeholders are informed about the school district's decision regarding increases in class size.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Expenditure controls related to funds earned for direct instructional costs, media center costs, staff and professional development costs, and additional days of instruction suspended until June 30, 2013
  • No penalities shall be applied to local systems not in compliance with the expenditure controls provisions listed above.
  • School systems shall report to DOE its budgets and expenditures of the funds.
• Establishes the system average maximum class size as the same as the maximum individual class size for each program; the maximum number of students who may be taught by a teacher in an instructional period shall not exceed the system average maximum class size for the program by more than two students.
• Authorizes the State Board to provide a blanket waiver or variance of class size provisions of the law for a specified school year in the event that a "condition of financial exigency occurs as determined by the state board." Financial exigency is defined as circumstances which cause a shortfall in state appropriations and local revenue for operation of local school systems as compared with projected expenditures over the same period and such shortfall would have a material adverse effect on the operation of public schools (see note above).

POINTS TO CONSIDER:

• Restores decisions in the code sections listed from state authority to local boards.
• Allows board to move funding between more categories.
• Suspension of the code sections related to expenditure controls would end on July 1, 2013.  The class size blanket waiver adopted by the State Board is for the 2010-11 school year only.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2010.