Iowa Code
Chapter 257 - FINANCING SCHOOL PROGRAMS
Section 257.11 - Supplementary weighting plan.

257.11 Supplementary weighting plan.
1. Regular curriculum. Pupils in a regular curriculum attending all their classes in the district in which they reside, taught by teachers employed by that district, and having administrators employed by that district, are assigned a weighting of one.
2. District-to-district sharing.
a. In order to provide additional funds for school districts which send their resident pupils to another school district, which jointly employ and share the services of teachers under section 280.15, or which use the services of a teacher employed by another school district, a supplementary weighting plan for determining enrollment is adopted.
b. If the school budget review committee certifies to the department of management that the shared classes or teachers would otherwise not be implemented without the assignment of additional weighting, pupils attending classes in another school district, attending classes taught by a teacher who is employed jointly under section 280.15, or attending classes taught by a teacher who is employed by another school district are assigned a weighting of forty-eight hundredths of the percentage of the pupil’s school day during which the pupil attends classes in another district, attends classes taught by a teacher who is jointly employed under section 280.15, or attends classes taught by a teacher who is employed by another school district.
c. Pupils attending class for all or a substantial portion of a school day pursuant to a whole grade sharing agreement executed under sections 282.10 through 282.12 shall be eligible for supplementary weighting pursuant to this subsection. A school district which executes a whole grade sharing agreement and which adopts a resolution jointly with other affected boards to study the question of undergoing a reorganization or dissolution to take effect on or before July 1, 2024, shall receive a weighting of one-tenth of the percentage of the pupil’s school day during which the pupil attends classes in another district, attends classes taught by a teacher who is jointly employed under section 280.15, or attends classes taught by a teacher who is employed by another school district. A district shall be eligible for supplementary weighting pursuant to this paragraph for a maximum of three years. Receipt of supplementary weighting for a second and third year shall be conditioned upon submission of information resulting from the study to the school budget review committee indicating progress toward the objective of reorganization on or before July 1, 2024.
d. A school district which hosts a regional academy shall be eligible to assign its resident students attending classes at the academy a weighting of one-tenth of the percentage of the student’s school day during which the student attends classes at the regional academy. The maximum amount of additional weighting for which a school district hosting a regional academy shall be eligible is an amount corresponding to thirty additional students. The minimum amount of additional weighting for which a school district establishing a regional academy shall be eligible is an amount corresponding to fifteen additional students if the academy provides both advanced-level courses and career and technical courses.
3. District-to-community college sharing and concurrent enrollment programs.
a. In order to provide additional funds for school districts which send their resident high school pupils to a community college for college-level classes, a supplementary weighting plan for determining enrollment is adopted.
b. If the school budget review committee certifies to the department of management that the class would not otherwise be implemented without the assignment of additional weighting, pupils attending a community college-offered class or attending a class taught by a community college-employed instructor are assigned a weighting of the percentage of the pupil’s school day during which the pupil attends class in the community college or attends a class taught by a community college-employed instructor times seventy hundredths for career and technical courses or fifty hundredths for liberal arts and sciences courses. The following requirements shall be met for the purposes of assigning an additional weighting for classes offered through a sharing agreement between a school district and community college. The class must be:
(1) Supplementing, not supplanting, high school courses required to be offered pursuant to section 256.11, subsection 5.
(2) Included in the community college catalog or an amendment or addendum to the catalog.
(3) Open to all registered community college students, not just high school students. The class may be offered in a high school attendance center.
(4) For college credit and the credit must apply toward an associate of arts or associate of science degree, or toward an associate of applied arts or associate of applied science degree, or toward completion of a college diploma program.
(5) Taught by an instructor employed or contracted by a community college who meets the requirements of section 261E.3, subsection 2.
(6) Taught utilizing the community college course syllabus.
(7) Taught in such a manner as to result in student work and student assessment which meet college-level expectations.
c. Notwithstanding paragraph “b”, subparagraph (1), a school district that otherwise meets the requirements of this subsection may enter into a sharing agreement with a community college under which the community college may offer, or provide a community college-employed instructor to teach, one of the science or one of the mathematics units in accordance with section 256.11, subsection 5, and one or more units in only one of the six career and technical education service areas in accordance with section 256.11, subsection 5, paragraph “h”. Pupils enrolled in a unit in accordance with this paragraph shall be assigned additional weighting in accordance with this subsection if the number of pupils enrolled in such a unit exceeds five and the school district’s total enrollment does not exceed six hundred pupils. A school district that enters into a sharing agreement with a community college under this paragraph to provide a unit of science or mathematics in accordance with section 256.11, subsection 5, paragraph “a”, “d”, or “e”, shall be deemed to have met the requirement that the school district offer and teach such a unit under the educational standards of section 256.11, subsection 5, paragraph “a”, “d”, or “e”. However, the provisions of this paragraph “c” relating to a sharing agreement for a unit of science or mathematics are applicable only if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The school district has made every reasonable and good faith effort to employ a teacher licensed under chapter 272 for the science or mathematics unit, as applicable, and is unable to employ such a teacher. For purposes of this paragraph “c”, “good faith effort” means the same as defined in section 279.19A, subsection 9.
(2) Enrollment for the unit exceeds five pupils.
(3) The unit is offered during the regular school day.
(4) The unit is made accessible by the school district to all eligible pupils.
4. At-risk programs and alternative schools.
a. In order to provide additional funding to school districts for programs serving at-risk pupils, alternative program and alternative school pupils in secondary schools, and pupils identified as potential dropouts or returning dropouts as defined in section 257.39, a supplementary weighting plan for such pupils is adopted. A supplementary weighting of forty-eight ten-thousandths per pupil shall be assigned to the percentage of pupils in a school district enrolled in grades one through six, as reported by the school district on the basic educational data survey for the base year, who are eligible for free and reduced price meals under the federal National School Lunch Act and the federal Child Nutrition Act of 1966, 42 U.S.C. §1751-1785, multiplied by the budget enrollment in the school district; and a supplementary weighting of one hundred fifty-six one-hundred-thousandths per pupil shall be assigned to pupils included in the budget enrollment of the school district. Amounts received as supplementary weighting under this subsection shall be utilized by a school district to develop or maintain at-risk pupils’ programs, alternative programs and alternative school programs, and returning dropout and dropout prevention programs approved pursuant to section 257.40.
b. Notwithstanding paragraph “a”, a school district which received supplementary weighting for an alternative high school program for the school budget year beginning July 1, 1999, shall receive an amount of supplementary weighting for the next three school budget years as follows:
(1) For the budget year beginning July 1, 2000, the greater of the amount of supplementary weighting determined pursuant to paragraph “a”, or sixty-five percent of the amount received for the budget year beginning July 1, 1999.
(2) For the budget year beginning July 1, 2001, the greater of the amount of supplementary weighting determined pursuant to paragraph “a”, or forty percent of the amount received for the budget year beginning July 1, 1999.
(3) For the budget year beginning July 1, 2002, and succeeding budget years, the amount of supplementary weighting determined pursuant to paragraph “a”.
c. If a school district receives an amount pursuant to paragraph “b” which exceeds the amount the district would otherwise have received pursuant to paragraph “a”, the department of management shall annually determine the amount of the excess that would have been state aid and the amount that would have been property tax if the school district had generated that amount pursuant to paragraph “a”, and shall include the amounts in the state aid payments and property tax levies of school districts. The department of management shall recalculate the supplementary weighting amount received each year to reflect the amount of the reduction in funding from one budget year to the next pursuant to paragraph “b”, subparagraphs (1) through (3). It is the intent of the general assembly that when weights are recalculated under this subsection, the total amounts generated by each weight shall be approximately equal.
d. Amounts that a school district receives as supplementary weighting pursuant to this subsection or as a modified supplemental amount received under section 257.41 may be used in the budget year for purposes of providing district-wide, building-wide, or grade-specific at-risk and dropout prevention programming targeted to pupils who are not deemed at risk.
e. Notwithstanding paragraph “d” and section 282.24, if a pupil has been determined by the school district to be likely to inflict self-harm or likely to harm another pupil and all of the following apply, the school district may use amounts received pursuant to paragraph “a” to pay the instructional costs necessary to address the pupil’s behavior during instructional time when those services are not otherwise provided to pupils who do not require special education and the costs exceed the costs of instruction of pupils in a regular curriculum:
(1) The pupil does not require special education.
(2) The pupil is not in a court-ordered placement under chapter 232 under the care and custody of the department of human services or juvenile court services.
(3) The pupil is not in the state training school pursuant to a court order entered under chapter 232 under the care and custody of the department of human services.
(4) The pupil is not placed in a facility licensed under chapter 135B, 135C, or 135H.
5. Shared operational functions — increased student opportunities — budget years beginning in 2014 through 2024.
a. (1) In order to provide additional funding to increase student opportunities and redirect more resources to student programming for school districts that share operational functions, a district that shares with a political subdivision one or more operational functions of a curriculum director, master social worker, independent social worker, work-based learning coordinator, special education director, mental health professional who holds a statement of recognition issued by the board of educational examiners, or school counselor, or one or more operational functions in the areas of superintendent management, business management, human resources, transportation, or operation and maintenance for at least twenty percent of the school year shall be assigned a supplementary weighting for each shared operational function. A school district that shares an operational function in the area of superintendent management shall be assigned a supplementary weighting of eight pupils for the function. A school district that shares an operational function in the area of business management, human resources, transportation, or operation and maintenance shall be assigned a supplementary weighting of five pupils for the function. A school district that shares the operational functions of a curriculum director; a master social worker or an independent social worker licensed under chapters 147 and 154C; a work-based learning coordinator; a special education director; a mental health professional who holds a statement of recognition issued by the board of educational examiners; or a school counselor shall be assigned a supplementary weighting of three pupils for the function. The additional weighting shall be assigned for each discrete operational function shared. However, a school district may receive the additional weighting under this subsection for sharing the services of an individual with a political subdivision even if the type of operational function performed by the individual for the school district and the type of operational function performed by the individual for the political subdivision are not the same operational function, so long as both operational functions are eligible for weighting under this subsection. In such case, the school district shall be assigned the additional weighting for the type of operational function that the individual performs for the school district, and the school district shall not receive additional weighting for any other function performed by the individual. The operational function sharing arrangement does not need to be a newly implemented sharing arrangement to receive supplementary weighting under this subsection.
(2) For the purposes of this paragraph “a”:
(a) “Political subdivision” means a city, township, county, school corporation, merged area, area education agency, institution governed by the state board of regents, or any other governmental subdivision.
(b) “Work-based learning coordinator” means an appropriately trained individual responsible for facilitating authentic, engaging work-based learning experiences for learners and educators in partnership with employers and others to enhance learning by connecting the content and skills that are necessary for future careers.
b. (1) Notwithstanding paragraph “a”, subparagraph (1), each operational function assigned a supplementary weighting of five pupils under paragraph “a”, subparagraph (1), shall instead be assigned a supplementary weighting of four pupils for the school budget years beginning July 1, 2022, July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph “a”, subparagraph (1), each operational function assigned a supplementary weighting of three pupils under paragraph “a”, subparagraph (1), shall instead be assigned a supplementary weighting of two pupils for the school budget years beginning July 1, 2022, July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024.
c. School districts that share operational functions with other school districts are not required to be contiguous school districts. If two or more districts sharing operational functions are not contiguous to each other, the districts separating those districts are not required to be a party to the operational functions sharing arrangement.
d. Supplementary weighting pursuant to this subsection shall be available to a school district during the period commencing with the budget year beginning July 1, 2014, through the budget year beginning July 1, 2024. The maximum amount of additional weighting for which a school district shall be eligible in a budget year is twenty-one additional pupils. Criteria for determining the qualification of operational functions for supplementary weighting shall be determined by the department by rule, through consideration of increased student opportunities.
e. Supplementary weighting pursuant to this subsection shall be available to an area education agency during the period commencing with the budget year beginning July 1, 2014, through the budget year beginning July 1, 2024. The minimum amount of additional funding for which an area education agency shall be eligible in a budget year is thirty thousand dollars, and the maximum amount of additional funding for which an area education agency shall be eligible is two hundred thousand dollars. The department of management shall annually set a weighting for each area education agency to generate the approved operational sharing expense using the area education agency’s special education cost per pupil amount and foundation level. Criteria for determining the qualification of operational functions for supplementary weighting shall be determined by the department by rule, through consideration of increased student opportunities.
f. This subsection is repealed effective July 1, 2025.
6. Shared classes delivered over the Iowa communications network.
a. A school district that provides a virtual class to a pupil in another school district and the school district receiving that virtual class for a pupil shall each receive a supplemental weighting of one-twentieth of the percentage of the pupil’s school day during which the pupil attends the virtual class.
b. Fifty percent of the funding the school district providing the virtual class receives as a result of this subsection shall be reserved as additional pay for the virtual classroom instructor. If an instructor’s contract provides additional pay for teaching a virtual class, the instructor shall receive the greater amount of either the amount provided for in this paragraph or the amount provided for in the instructor’s contract.
c. A school district receiving a virtual class for a pupil from a community college, which class meets the sharing agreement requirements in subsection 3, shall receive a supplemental funding weighting of one-twentieth of the percentage of the pupil’s school day during which the pupil attends the virtual class.
d. For the purposes of this subsection, “virtual class” means either of the following:
(1) A class provided by a school district to a pupil in another school district via the Iowa communications network’s video services.
(2) A class provided by a community college to a pupil in a school district via the Iowa communications network’s video services.
7. District to community college innovative sharing project. A school district that collaborates with a community college to provide pupils enrolled in the school district’s high school with a class that uses an activities-based, project-based, and problem-based learning approach that is offered through a partnership with a nationally recognized provider of rigorous and innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum for schools, which provider is exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, is eligible to assign its resident pupils attending the class an additional weighting of the percentage of the pupil’s school day during which the pupil attends a class described in this subsection times seventy hundredths. To qualify for additional weighting, the class must supplement, not supplant, high school courses required to be offered pursuant to section 256.11, subsection 5.
8. Pupils ineligible. A pupil eligible for the weighting plan provided in section 256B.9 is not eligible for supplementary weighting pursuant to this section unless it is determined that the course generating the supplemental weighting has no relationship to the pupil’s disability. A pupil attending an alternative program or an at-risk pupils’ program, including alternative high school programs, is not eligible for supplementary weighting under subsection 2.
9. Shared classes and curriculum standards. A school district shall ensure that any course made available to a student through any sharing agreement between the school district and a community college or any other entity providing course programming pursuant to this section to students enrolled in the school district meets the expectations contained in the core curriculum adopted pursuant to section 256.7, subsection 26. The school district shall ensure that any course that has the capacity to generate college credit shall be equivalent to college-level work.
10. School finance appropriations report. The department of education shall annually prepare a report regarding school finance provisions or programs receiving a standing appropriation, including supplementary weighting programs. The report shall provide information regarding amounts received or accessed by school districts pursuant to the provisions or programs, whether the amounts received represent an increase or decrease over amounts received during the previous budget year and the percentage increase or decrease, conclusions regarding the adequacy of amounts received by school districts and whether the amounts received are equitable between school districts based upon input from the school districts and analysis by the department, and the rationale for current trends being observed by the department and projections regarding possible trends in the future. The report shall be submitted to the general assembly by January 1 each year, and copies of the report shall be forwarded to the chairpersons and members of the committee on education in the senate and in the house of representatives.
89 Acts, ch 135, §11; 90 Acts, ch 1190, §7; 93 Acts, ch 180, §96; 95 Acts, ch 111, §1; 95 Acts, ch 209, §13; 2000 Acts, ch 1198, §1, 6; 2001 Acts, ch 126, §5, 6; 2002 Acts, ch 1047, §3, 4, 20; 2002 Acts, ch 1140, §8; 2003 Acts, ch 179, §111; 2003 Acts, ch 180, §11; 2005 Acts, ch 19, §38; 2007 Acts, ch 130, §2 – 4; 2007 Acts, ch 214, §20, 44; 2008 Acts, ch 1032, §43; 2008 Acts, ch 1181, §48, 49; 2008 Acts, ch 1191, §157; 2009 Acts, ch 41, §247; 2009 Acts, ch 133, §100; 2010 Acts, ch 1016, §7; 2012 Acts, ch 1119, §37; 2013 Acts, ch 65, §1; 2013 Acts, ch 88, §5, 6; 2013 Acts, ch 140, §20; 2014 Acts, ch 1017, §2, 3; 2014 Acts, ch 1035, §1 – 3; 2015 Acts, ch 140, §37, 38, 58, 59; 2017 Acts, ch 153, §4, 7, 8; 2018 Acts, ch 1119, §12; 2018 Acts, ch 1166, §1 – 5; 2019 Acts, ch 100, §6; 2019 Acts, ch 101, §2; 2019 Acts, ch 164, §1, 2, 6; 2020 Acts, ch 1062, §94; 2021 Acts, ch 139, §24 – 26; 2021 Acts, ch 170, §15
Referred to in §11.6, 256.17, 257.6, 257.11A, 257.38, 257.40, 257.41, 261E.2, 261E.3, 261E.6, 261E.8, 261E.9, 261E.10, 261E.11, 279.50A, 280.13A, 282.7, 282.27, 423F.3, 709.15
2018 amendments to subsection 5 apply to school budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2018, subject to the school budget limitations of subsection 5;
2018 Acts, ch 1166, §5
2019 amendment to subsection 3, paragraph b, unnumbered paragraph 1, applies to certifications by the school budget review committee occurring before, on, or after July 1, 2019, for school budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2019;
2019 Acts, ch 164, §6
2021 amendment to subsection 5, paragraph a, relating to work-based learning coordinators and special education directors, and subsection 5, paragraph b, applies to school budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2021, subject to the school budget year limitations of subsection 5; 2021 Acts, ch 139, §26
See Code editor’s note on simple harmonization at the beginning of this Code volume
Subsection 5 amended

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