Title 20, Title 20

(1) To secure the payment of principal of and interest on oil and natural gas revenue bonds, the trustees of a school district, by resolution or indenture of trust, may provide that oil and natural gas revenue bonds are secured by a first lien on the oil and natural gas productio…

(1) If a school district issues oil and natural gas revenue bonds, the school district shall establish and maintain an oil and natural gas revenue bond debt service reserve account, to which there must be deposited or transferred an amount from bond proceeds or oil and natural ga…

(1) The trustees of a district or the management board of a cooperative employing personnel who are members of the teachers' retirement system or the public employees' retirement system, who are covered by unemployment insurance, or who are covered by any federal social security …

(1) The trustees of any district may establish a building reserve fund to budget for and expend funds for any of the purposes set forth in this section. Appropriate subfunds must be created to ensure separate tracking of the expenditure of funds from voted and nonvoted levies and…

(1) Whenever an annual building reserve authorization to budget is available to a district, the trustees shall include the authorized amount in the building reserve fund of the final budget. The county superintendent shall report the amount as the building reserve fund levy requi…

(1) The trustees of a district may establish an extracurricular fund for the purposes of receiving and expending money collected for pupil extracurricular functions. All extracurricular money of a pupil organization of the school must be deposited and expended by check from a ban…

(1) The trustees of a district that will not operate a school during the ensuing school fiscal year shall establish a nonoperating fund on the first day of the school fiscal year. In establishing the nonoperating fund, the trustees shall cause the transfer of the end-of-the-year …

(1) The trustees of any district that does not operate a school or will not operate a school during the ensuing school fiscal year shall adopt a nonoperating school district budget in accordance with the school budgeting provisions of this title. The nonoperating budget must cont…

(1) The trustees of a district receiving money from local, state, federal, or other sources provided in 20-5-324, other than money under the provisions of impact aid, as provided in 20 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., or federal money designated for deposit in a specific fund of the distric…

(1) The trustees of a district shall establish or credit the building fund whenever the district: (a) issues and sells bonds under the school district bonding provisions of this title for purposes other than refunding bonds of the district; (b) receives federal money for the expr…

(1) The trustees of any district that provides pupil or teacher housing in district-owned buildings under a lease or rental agreement with pupils or teachers or receives money under the provision of 20-6-607 may establish a lease or rental agreement fund. All money received from …

The trustees of any district offering a state reimbursed traffic education program shall establish a traffic education fund under the provisions of 20-7-507. Such fund shall be a nonbudgeted fund and shall be financially administered under the provisions of this title for a nonbu…

The trustees of any district serving as a prime agency under an interlocal cooperative agreement shall establish an interlocal cooperative fund under the provisions of 20-9-703 for the financial administration of the interlocal cooperative agreement. Such fund shall be a nonbudge…

(1) The trustees of a school district may establish a compensated absence liability fund for the purpose of paying: (a) any accumulated amount of sick leave that a nonteaching or administrative school district employee is entitled to upon termination of employment with the distri…

(1) The trustees of a district that receives federal funds under the provisions of impact aid, as provided in 20 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., shall establish an impact aid fund. Money received under the provisions of 20 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., must be deposited with the county treasurer t…

(1) The trustees of a school district may establish a litigation reserve fund only when litigation that is pending against the district could result in an award against the district. (2) At the end of each school fiscal year, the trustees of a district may transfer money from the…

(1) There is a school facility and technology account in the state special revenue fund provided for in 17-2-102. The purpose of the account is to provide funding for the following in priority order: (a) school technology purposes as provided in subsection (3); (b) contingent on …

(1) The purpose of school major maintenance aid as provided in this section is to support school facility projects, including the payment of principal and interest on obligations issued pursuant to 20-9-471 for school facility projects, that support a basic system of free quality…

(1) The trustees of a district may establish a technology acquisition and depreciation fund for school district expenditures incurred for: (a) the purchase, rental, repair, and maintenance of technological equipment, including computers and computer network access; (b) cloud comp…

(1) There is a Montana Indian language preservation program. The program is established to support efforts of Montana tribes to preserve and perpetuate Indian languages in the form of spoken, written, sung, or signed language and to help meet the state's educational goal of prese…

(1) The trustees of a district may establish a school flexibility fund and may use the fund, in their discretion, for school district expenditures incurred for: (a) technological equipment enhancements and expansions considered by the trustees to support enhanced educational prog…

(Temporary) Statewide average per-pupil spending. (1) The superintendent of public instruction shall calculate the per-pupil average of total public school expenditures in Montana for the second most recently completed school fiscal year by August 1 of the ensuing school fiscal y…

The public school fund must be maintained by the state treasurer as a fund in the permanent fund type, and the principal amount of the fund is irreducible and permanent. The following money must be credited to the fund as an addition to the irreducible and permanent principal amo…

(1) The transfer of farm mortgage lands, made by Chapter 250, Laws of 1953, shall be deemed to have vested title in such lands in the state of Montana in trust for the state public school fund. (2) All contracts, certificates of purchase, deeds, and conveyances executed by the st…

(1) The governor and the superintendent of public instruction are authorized on behalf of the state of Montana to request and accept money that is or will be made available under any act of congress of the United States or otherwise for purposes of public school building construc…

(1) The trustees of a district may accept gifts, legacies, and devises, subject to the conditions imposed by the deed of the donor or the will of the testator or without any conditions imposed. Unless otherwise specified by the donor, devisor, or testator, when a district receive…

(1) The trustees of a rural school district may negotiate with a real estate developer or subdivision developer in the school district to voluntarily contribute an impact payment to the district's building fund. The maximum amount of the payment that the trustees may accept must …

(1) As used in 20-9-621, 20-9-622, and this section, "distributable revenue" means, except for that portion of revenue described in 20-9-516(2)(a) and 77-1-109, 95% of all revenue from the management of school trust lands and the permanent fund, including timber sale proceeds, le…

(1) The public school fund provided for in Article X, section 2, of the Montana constitution consists of the permanent fund, which consists of the permanent corpus fund. (2) The permanent fund must be invested for the purpose of generating future income for distribution to public…

(1) There is a guarantee account in the state special revenue fund. The guarantee account is intended to: (a) stabilize the long-term growth of the permanent fund; and (b) maintain a constant and increasing distributable revenue stream. All realized capital gains and all distribu…

(1) The natural resource development K-12 school facilities payment replaces the former natural resource development K-12 funding payment as a means to provide local property tax relief by supporting school district facility needs. (2) The legislature intends the natural resource…

(1) (a) The office of public instruction shall provide a coal-fired generating unit closure mitigation block grant to each school district with a fiscal year 2017 taxable valuation that includes a coal-fired generating unit with a generating capacity that is greater than or equal…

For the purposes of an interlocal cooperative agreement, the prime agency shall be the district or other public agency vested with the financial administration of the interlocal cooperative agreement under the terms of such agreement and the cooperating agency shall be any distri…

Any district contracting with other districts or other public agencies to establish an interlocal cooperative agreement under the provisions of Title 7, chapter 11, part 1, shall be subject to the provisions of 20-9-701, 20-9-703, and 20-9-704 for the purposes of the financial ad…

(1) When the prime agency is a district, it is authorized and required to establish a nonbudgeted interlocal cooperative fund for the purpose of the financial administration of the interlocal cooperative agreement. All revenues received, including federal, state, or other types o…

(1) When a district is the cooperating agency, it shall transfer its financial support under the interlocal cooperative contract to the prime agency by district warrant. (2) The financial support may be provided from any fund maintained by the district. Any such fund utilized for…

(1) The trustees of any district adjacent to another state may enter into a contract with a school district in such adjoining state to provide for the joint erection, operation, and maintenance of school facilities for both districts upon such terms and conditions as may be mutua…

(1) As used in this section, "postsecondary institution" means a unit of the Montana university system, a public community college, or a tribal college. (2) A school district may enter into an interlocal agreement pursuant to Title 7, chapter 11, with a postsecondary institution …

(1) The trustees of a school district may enter into an interlocal cooperative agreement for the ensuing school fiscal year under the provisions of Title 7, chapter 11, part 1, with the Montana youth challenge program or with a Montana job corps program accredited by the northwes…

This part governs a school district's entitlement to state equalization apportionment funds for any school year during which the school district is unable to conduct the minimum aggregate hours by grade required by 20-1-301 by reason of one or more unforeseen emergencies. The pro…

As used in this part, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following definitions apply: (1) "Declaration of emergency" means a declaration by a board of trustees that an unforeseen emergency has occurred in the district. (2) "Reasonable effort" means the rescheduli…

(1) Except as provided in 20-9-806, for each hour short of the minimum number of aggregate hours required by law that a school district fails to conduct by reason of one or more unforeseen emergencies, the superintendent of public instruction shall reduce the BASE aid of the dist…

(1) (a) Except as provided in subsection (2), if a school is closed by reason of an unforeseen emergency that results in a declaration of emergency by the board of trustees, the trustees may later adopt a resolution that a reasonable effort has been made to reschedule the pupil-i…

As used in this title, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following definitions apply: (1) "Bus route" means a route approved by the board of trustees of a school district and by the county transportation committee. (2) "Eligible transportee" means a public schoo…

(1) A school bus may be operated by the district or other public agency for the conveyance of pupils or may be privately operated by a carrier to provide such conveyance of pupils under contract with a district or other public agency. (2) Every school bus shall bear on the front …

A driver of a school bus is qualified to drive a school bus if the driver: (1) is not less than 18 years of age; (2) is of good moral character; (3) (a) is the holder of a commercial driver's license to operate a school bus designed to carry more than 10 passengers; or (b) is the…