Idaho swaps to attendance funding next school year
Education board to move away from K-12 enrollment funding, resulting in lower payouts
Funding for K-12 public schools in Idaho will be based on average daily attendance next school year — a return to the model used prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Idaho State Board of Education announced Wednesday it will temporarily extend enrollment-based funding through the current fiscal year, which ends in the summer once school is out.
The return to average daily attendance is expected to decrease public school funding statewide by more than $100 million for the 2023-24 school year. The board will discuss the issue further late this spring, according to a news release from the Idaho State Board of Education.
The switch to enrollment funding was made in 2020 to accommodate a decrease in daily attendance caused by COVID-19. Approximately 80% to 85% of enrolled K-12 students are attending school on any given day compared to about 95% before the pandemic, according to the news release.
The board made attempts to make the funding model permanent, but the Idaho Legislature refused to make the change.
Area educators have expressed their preference for enrollment-based funding, since they have to prepare to serve all enrolled students even if they don’t attend school on a given day.
“If I have 30 kids in a math class I need 30 desks, 30 pencils, 30 calculators,” Kamiah School District Superintendent Benjamin Merrill told the Tribune in December 2021. “It doesn’t matter if 27 kids come. I still have to spend the money. It’s not just paying for the kids who came on Monday.”
The state board wrapped up its two-day meeting at the University of Idaho campus in Moscow on Wednesday. The board also approved Boise State University’s request to construct a new six-story student residence hall to house 450 freshman students, which is expected to cost $70 million. It also approved Idaho State University’s master plan for expansion of its 22-acre health sciences campus in Meridian.
