Schools that have switched to virtual learning will continue to be fully funded, even though the fall student count date will not be pushed back.
The Indiana State Board of Education decided Wednesday to go ahead with the average daily membership count scheduled for September 18. But any student attending school virtually who attended in-person in February will be funded at 100 percent, rather than the usual 85-percent for virtual students. Students who attended virtually in February and are still attending virtually on September 18 will continue to be funded at 85 percent.
Governor Holcomb and legislative leaders had asked the board to delay the count, to keep funding levels the same until the General Assembly had a chance to take action. But the State Board of Education noted in a press release that the governor allows agency heads to modify rules during the public health emergency, and ultimately, the board directed its executive director, Brian Murphy, to make the change.
Holcomb expressed satisfaction with the outcome during Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing. “I’ve said from the very beginning that I’m fully committed to schools getting full-funded for students who would normally be in the physical classroom but are attending virtually at the moment this fall, due to the pandemic,” the governor said. “And that’s exactly the resolution that the State Board of Education reached.”
Murphy also explained that a big reason why existing virtual schools will continue to be funded at only 85 percent is that they were already set up for virtual learning. “Those programs are built-out, versus a traditional public school that is trying to build out programs that they’re not typically used to doing in the general sense because they teach face-to-face instruction,” Murphy said.
Public schools are funded based on the number of students they have. Murphy said the practice of funding virtual students at 85 percent is set by state statute.
