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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Nava

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/06/2007

2/10/2007 HB

SHORT TITLE Transportation of Pre-K Students to School

SB 72

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

*None

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

*See Fiscal Implications

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY07

FY08

FY09 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

*$0.1

*$0.1

*$0.1 Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

*See Fiscal Implications

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Attorney General’s Office (AGO)

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 72 provides for the transportation of pre-kindergarten students to public schools and

private providers.

The bill also provides for the transportation of students participating in kindergarten plus.

Senate Bill 72 – Page

2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

Although the bill does not contain a specific appropriation, an analysis conducted by LESC

indicates the need for approximately $450 thousand for the pre-kindergarten portion and $337

thousand for transporting kindergarten plus students. These amounts are included in the LESC

recommendation for transportation costs in FY08.

Expenditure estimates for the FY07 implementation of pre-K allocate transportation funding for

students from the program cost appropriation for both PED and CYFD. It is anticipated that

these costs will continue to be built into the overall program cost for both departments, although

specific proposed expenditures have not been provided by the executive for FY08.

The bill provides for the transportation costs incurred by an eligible provider for children

enrolled in programs approved by CYFD to be reimbursed from the CYFD pre-kindergarten

fund.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

DFA notes that primary administrative requirements provided in SB 72 would fall to PED, with

secondary implications for CYFD. Each agency would have to employ staff time and agency

resources not specifically funded in order to meet some of the mandates of the bill. The

apparently most labor-intensive, administrative activity required in the bill would be to review all

school district, charter school and private-provider budget requests to ensure compliance with

transportation budget provisions of SB 72 if enacted. No cost estimates are available to calculate

the amount of staff time required by these budget and program oversight activities.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The Legislature may wish to consider the following:

Until such time as the pre-kindergarten program is fully rolled-out, the transportation of students

in both departments remains as part of the program cost.

PA/csd