Full Text of HB4879 96th General Assembly
HB4879eng 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| AN ACT concerning education.
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| Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, | 3 |
| represented in the General Assembly:
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| Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section | 5 |
| 29-5 as follows: | 6 |
| (105 ILCS 5/29-5) (from Ch. 122, par. 29-5) | 7 |
| Sec. 29-5. Reimbursement by State for transportation. Any | 8 |
| school
district, maintaining a school, transporting resident | 9 |
| pupils to another
school district's vocational program, | 10 |
| offered through a joint agreement
approved by the State Board | 11 |
| of Education, as provided in Section
10-22.22 or transporting | 12 |
| its resident pupils to a school which meets the
standards for | 13 |
| recognition as established by the State Board of Education
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| which provides transportation meeting the standards of safety, | 15 |
| comfort,
convenience, efficiency and operation prescribed by | 16 |
| the State Board of
Education for resident pupils in | 17 |
| kindergarten or any of grades 1 through
12 who: (a) reside at | 18 |
| least 1 1/2 miles as measured by the customary route of
travel, | 19 |
| from the school attended; or (b) reside in areas where | 20 |
| conditions are
such that walking constitutes a hazard to the | 21 |
| safety of the child when
determined under Section 29-3; and (c) | 22 |
| are transported to the school attended
from pick-up points at | 23 |
| the beginning of the school day and back again at the
close of |
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| the school day or transported to and from their assigned | 2 |
| attendance
centers during the school day, shall be reimbursed | 3 |
| by the State as hereinafter
provided in this Section.
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| The State will pay the cost of transporting eligible pupils | 5 |
| less the
assessed valuation in a dual school district | 6 |
| maintaining secondary
grades 9 to 12 inclusive times a | 7 |
| qualifying rate of .05%; in elementary
school districts | 8 |
| maintaining grades K to 8 times a qualifying rate of
.06%; and | 9 |
| in unit districts maintaining grades K to 12, including | 10 |
| optional elementary unit districts and combined high school - | 11 |
| unit districts, times a qualifying
rate of .07%; provided that | 12 |
| for optional elementary unit districts and combined high school - | 13 |
| unit districts, assessed valuation for high school purposes, | 14 |
| as defined in Article 11E of this Code, must be used. To be | 15 |
| eligible to receive reimbursement in excess of 4/5
of the cost | 16 |
| to transport eligible pupils, a school district shall have a
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| Transportation Fund tax rate of at least .12%. If a school | 18 |
| district
does not have a .12% Transportation Fund tax rate, the | 19 |
| amount of its
claim in excess of 4/5 of the cost of | 20 |
| transporting pupils shall be
reduced by the sum arrived at by | 21 |
| subtracting the Transportation Fund tax
rate from .12% and | 22 |
| multiplying that amount by the districts equalized or
assessed | 23 |
| valuation, provided, that in no case shall said reduction
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| result in reimbursement of less than 4/5 of the cost to | 25 |
| transport
eligible pupils.
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| The minimum amount to be received by a district is $16 |
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| times the
number of eligible pupils transported.
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| When calculating the reimbursement for transportation | 3 |
| costs, the State Board of Education may not deduct the number | 4 |
| of pupils enrolled in early education programs from the number | 5 |
| of pupils eligible for reimbursement if the pupils enrolled in | 6 |
| the early education programs are transported at the same time | 7 |
| as other eligible pupils.
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| Any such district transporting resident pupils during the | 9 |
| school day
to an area vocational school or another school | 10 |
| district's vocational
program more than 1 1/2 miles from the | 11 |
| school attended, as provided in
Sections 10-22.20a and | 12 |
| 10-22.22, shall be reimbursed by the State for 4/5
of the cost | 13 |
| of transporting eligible pupils.
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| School day means that period of time which the pupil is | 15 |
| required to be
in attendance for instructional purposes.
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| If a pupil is at a location within the school district | 17 |
| other than his
residence for child care purposes at the time | 18 |
| for transportation to school,
that location may be considered | 19 |
| for purposes of determining the 1 1/2 miles
from the school | 20 |
| attended.
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| Claims for reimbursement that include children who attend | 22 |
| any school
other than a public school shall show the number of | 23 |
| such children
transported.
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| Claims for reimbursement under this Section shall not be | 25 |
| paid for the
transportation of pupils for whom transportation | 26 |
| costs are claimed for
payment under other Sections of this Act.
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| The allowable direct cost of transporting pupils for | 2 |
| regular, vocational,
and special education pupil | 3 |
| transportation shall be limited to the sum of
the cost of | 4 |
| physical examinations required for employment as a school bus
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| driver; the salaries of full or part-time drivers and school | 6 |
| bus maintenance
personnel; employee benefits excluding | 7 |
| Illinois municipal retirement
payments, social security | 8 |
| payments, unemployment insurance payments and
workers' | 9 |
| compensation insurance premiums; expenditures to independent
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| carriers who operate school buses; payments to other school | 11 |
| districts for
pupil transportation services; pre-approved | 12 |
| contractual expenditures for
computerized bus scheduling; the | 13 |
| cost of gasoline, oil, tires, and other
supplies necessary for | 14 |
| the operation of school buses; the cost of
converting buses' | 15 |
| gasoline engines to more fuel efficient engines or to
engines | 16 |
| which use alternative energy sources; the cost of travel to
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| meetings and workshops conducted by the regional | 18 |
| superintendent or the
State Superintendent of Education | 19 |
| pursuant to the standards established by
the Secretary of State | 20 |
| under Section 6-106 of the Illinois Vehicle Code to improve the | 21 |
| driving skills of
school bus drivers; the cost of maintenance | 22 |
| of school buses including parts
and materials used; | 23 |
| expenditures for leasing transportation vehicles,
except | 24 |
| interest and service charges; the cost of insurance and | 25 |
| licenses for
transportation vehicles; expenditures for the | 26 |
| rental of transportation
equipment; plus a depreciation |
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| allowance of 20% for 5 years for school
buses and vehicles | 2 |
| approved for transporting pupils to and from school and
a | 3 |
| depreciation allowance of 10% for 10 years for other | 4 |
| transportation
equipment so used.
Each school year, if a school | 5 |
| district has made expenditures to the
Regional Transportation | 6 |
| Authority or any of its service boards, a mass
transit | 7 |
| district, or an urban transportation district under an
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| intergovernmental agreement with the district to provide for | 9 |
| the
transportation of pupils and if the public transit carrier | 10 |
| received direct
payment for services or passes from a school | 11 |
| district within its service
area during the 2000-2001 school | 12 |
| year, then the allowable direct cost of
transporting pupils for | 13 |
| regular, vocational, and special education pupil
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| transportation shall also include the expenditures that the | 15 |
| district has
made to the public transit carrier.
In addition to | 16 |
| the above allowable costs school
districts shall also claim all | 17 |
| transportation supervisory salary costs,
including Illinois | 18 |
| municipal retirement payments, and all transportation
related | 19 |
| building and building maintenance costs without limitation.
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| Special education allowable costs shall also include | 21 |
| expenditures for the
salaries of attendants or aides for that | 22 |
| portion of the time they assist
special education pupils while | 23 |
| in transit and expenditures for parents and
public carriers for | 24 |
| transporting special education pupils when pre-approved
by the | 25 |
| State Superintendent of Education.
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| Indirect costs shall be included in the reimbursement claim |
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| for districts
which own and operate their own school buses. | 2 |
| Such indirect costs shall
include administrative costs, or any | 3 |
| costs attributable to transporting
pupils from their | 4 |
| attendance centers to another school building for
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| instructional purposes. No school district which owns and | 6 |
| operates its own
school buses may claim reimbursement for | 7 |
| indirect costs which exceed 5% of
the total allowable direct | 8 |
| costs for pupil transportation.
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| The State Board of Education shall prescribe uniform | 10 |
| regulations for
determining the above standards and shall | 11 |
| prescribe forms of cost
accounting and standards of determining | 12 |
| reasonable depreciation. Such
depreciation shall include the | 13 |
| cost of equipping school buses with the
safety features | 14 |
| required by law or by the rules, regulations and standards
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| promulgated by the State Board of Education, and the Department | 16 |
| of
Transportation for the safety and construction of school | 17 |
| buses provided,
however, any equipment cost reimbursed by the | 18 |
| Department of Transportation
for equipping school buses with | 19 |
| such safety equipment shall be deducted
from the allowable cost | 20 |
| in the computation of reimbursement under this
Section in the | 21 |
| same percentage as the cost of the equipment is depreciated.
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| On or before August 15, annually, the chief school | 23 |
| administrator for
the district shall certify to the State | 24 |
| Superintendent of Education the
district's claim for | 25 |
| reimbursement for the school year ending on June 30
next | 26 |
| preceding. The State Superintendent of Education shall check |
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| and
approve the claims and prepare the vouchers showing the | 2 |
| amounts due for
district reimbursement claims. Each fiscal | 3 |
| year, the State
Superintendent of Education shall prepare and | 4 |
| transmit the first 3
vouchers to the Comptroller on the 30th | 5 |
| day of September, December and
March, respectively, and the | 6 |
| final voucher, no later than June 20.
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| If the amount appropriated for transportation | 8 |
| reimbursement is insufficient
to fund total claims for any | 9 |
| fiscal year, the State Board of Education shall
reduce each | 10 |
| school district's allowable costs and flat grant amount
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| proportionately to make total adjusted claims equal the total | 12 |
| amount
appropriated.
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| For purposes of calculating claims for reimbursement under | 14 |
| this Section
for any school year beginning July 1, 1998, or | 15 |
| thereafter, the
equalized
assessed valuation for a school | 16 |
| district used to compute reimbursement
shall be computed in the | 17 |
| same manner as it is computed under paragraph (2) of
subsection | 18 |
| (G) of Section 18-8.05.
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| All reimbursements received from the State shall be | 20 |
| deposited into the
district's transportation fund or into the | 21 |
| fund from which the allowable
expenditures were made.
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| Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any school | 23 |
| district receiving
a payment under this Section or under | 24 |
| Section 14-7.02, 14-7.02b, or
14-13.01 of this Code may | 25 |
| classify all or a portion of the funds that it
receives in a | 26 |
| particular fiscal year or from general State aid pursuant to
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| Section 18-8.05 of this Code
as funds received in connection | 2 |
| with any funding program for which it is
entitled to receive | 3 |
| funds from the State in that fiscal year (including,
without | 4 |
| limitation, any funding program referenced in this Section),
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| regardless of the source or timing of the receipt. The district | 6 |
| may not
classify more funds as funds received in connection | 7 |
| with the funding
program than the district is entitled to | 8 |
| receive in that fiscal year for that
program. Any
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| classification by a district must be made by a resolution of | 10 |
| its board of
education. The resolution must identify the amount | 11 |
| of any payments or
general State aid to be classified under | 12 |
| this paragraph and must specify
the funding program to which | 13 |
| the funds are to be treated as received in
connection | 14 |
| therewith. This resolution is controlling as to the
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| classification of funds referenced therein. A certified copy of | 16 |
| the
resolution must be sent to the State Superintendent of | 17 |
| Education.
The resolution shall still take effect even though a | 18 |
| copy of the resolution has
not been sent to the State
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| Superintendent of Education in a timely manner.
No
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| classification under this paragraph by a district shall affect | 21 |
| the total amount
or timing of money the district is entitled to | 22 |
| receive under this Code.
No classification under this paragraph | 23 |
| by a district shall
in any way relieve the district from or | 24 |
| affect any
requirements that otherwise would apply with respect | 25 |
| to
that funding program, including any
accounting of funds by | 26 |
| source, reporting expenditures by
original source and purpose,
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| reporting requirements,
or requirements of providing services.
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| Any school district with a population of not more than | 3 |
| 500,000
must deposit all funds received under this Article into | 4 |
| the transportation
fund and use those funds for the provision | 5 |
| of transportation services.
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| (Source: P.A. 94-875, eff. 7-1-06; 95-903, eff. 8-25-08.)
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