| Representative Rogers' letter |
February 8, 2012 His Excellency Deval Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth RE: Recommendation for Mandate Funding; $11.3 Million to cover transportation of certain homeless students Dear Mr. Governor, Mr. Speaker, and Madame President: State Auditor Suzanne Bump yesterday determined that the State Plan to implement the federal McKinney-Vento Act relating to educational opportunities for homeless students imposes unfunded state mandates on local cities and towns. The federal act provides that a homeless student living in temporary housing in a “host community” outside of the city or town where the family lived prior to becoming homeless (the community of origin) may choose to remain enrolled in the community of origin schools. Most significantly, the State Plan requires school systems throughout Massachusetts to continually fund school transportation and school services for some homeless students after they relocate to other communities. This requirement is in contrast to the general rule whereby school districts are not responsible for students who move outside of district boundaries. Because the State McKinney-Vento Plan is a voluntary agreement between the Commonwealth and the federal government, Auditor Bump determined that the requirements are unfunded state mandates subject to the Local Mandate Law, M.G.L. c. 29, §27C. Under the Local Mandate Law, state laws or rules that impose new costs upon cities, towns, and school districts must either be fully funded by the Commonwealth or subject to local acceptance. Local participation under the state McKinney-Vento Plan, however, is mandatory and not subject to local acceptance. Accordingly, the projected and unfunded cost to Walpole in the current fiscal year alone is $52,000. Some 33 other school districts will be forced to spend more than $100,000 to meet this requirement. Data supplied by the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) indicates that the fiscal 2011 impact of this transportation mandate on local governments statewide approached $10.4 million. Because the state McKinney-Vento Plan is not subject to local acceptance, Auditor Bump concluded that the state should be obligated to fund the related school and transportation costs. To do otherwise would be unfair to the more than 200 cities and towns adversely affected by the state’s adoption of the federal act. I respectfully request full funding of $11.3 million in the next FY12 supplemental budget to cover the mandated cost for the current fiscal year as well as similar reimbursements in all future budgets. Sincerely, |