R277. Education, Administration.
R277-421. Out-of-State Tuition Reimbursement.
R277-421-1. Authority and Purpose.
(1) This rule is authorized by:
(a) Utah Constitution Article X, Section 3, which vests general control and supervision over public education in the Board;
(b) Subsection 53E-3-401(4), which allows the Board to make rules to execute the Board's duties and responsibilities under the Utah Constitution and state law; and
(c) Section 53G-6-305, which outlines when a school district may pay out-of-state tuition for a resident student to attend a school district out-of-state.
(2) The purpose of this rule is to establish procedures for:
(a) obtaining Board approval for reimbursement of out-of-state tuition expenses;
(b) calculating reimbursement costs; and
(c) recording out-of-state students in district records.
R277-421-2. Definitions.
(1) "ADM" means average daily membership.
(2) "Minimum school program" or "MSP" means the same as that term is defined in Section 53F-2-102.
(3) "NESS" means the Necessarily Existent Small Schools Fund.
(4) "Utah eTranscript and Records Exchange" or "UTREx" means a system that allows individual detailed student records to be exchanged electronically between public education districts and the Superintendent, and allows electronic transcripts to be sent to any post-secondary institution, private or public, in-state or out-of-state, that participates in the e-transcript service.
(5) "WPU" means the weighted pupil unit.
R277-421-3. Review of Out-of-State Tuition Agreements.
(1) A district shall submit to the Superintendent an agreement to pay tuition to an out-of-state district in accordance with Subsection 53G-6-305(1) by June 30.
(2) A district requesting reimbursement for excess tuition costs under Subsection 53G-6-305(3) shall submit a request to the Superintendent by June 30 including:
(a) an estimate of ADM for out-of-state students for the upcoming school year; and
(b) an estimate of tuition payment amounts for the upcoming school year.
(3)(a) The Superintendent shall review a request submitted under Subsection (2) no later than August 30.
(b) The Superintendent may deny a request submitted under Subsection (2) if there are insufficient funds to cover the reimbursement.
R277-421-4. Calculation of Out-of-State Tuition Reimbursement.
(1) The Superintendent shall calculate out-of-state reimbursement to a district by subtracting state funds that are calculated based on the WPU generated by an out-of-state resident student's ADM from the total tuition payment per student:
(a) Kindergarten WPU;
(b) Grade 1-12 WPU;
(c) Professional Staff Costs;
(d) NESS;
(e) District Administrative Costs;
(f) Class-Size Reduction;
(g) Flexible Allocation;
(h) Gifted and Talented program;
(i) K-3 Reading Improvement program;
(j) Voted and Board Local Levy Guarantee programs; and
(k) Applicable Special Education programs.
(2) A district shall not include out-of-state tuition payments in any other MSP formula.
(3) The Superintendent may include in a calculation under Subsection (1) mileage costs reimbursed by a district to parents for transporting students to the nearest bus stop in accordance with Section R277-600-7.
(4) The Superintendent shall reserve the estimated funds identified by a district under Subsection R277-421-3(2)(a) from the new year NESS appropriation, and pay Board-authorized reimbursement payments from reserved funds.
R277-421-5. Recording Student Membership for Out-of-State Students.
(1) A district shall record student membership for students receiving out-of-state tuition reimbursement in accordance with District enrollment and membership policies.
(2) A district shall report students in UTREx for whom they are paying out-of-state tuition using codes identified by the Superintendent.
(3) A district shall report ADM for students attending school out-of-state pursuant to a tuition agreement under Section 53G-6-305 in the same manner as the district calculates ADM for students attending the district's schools.
