§2007 Allotment Formula

Summary

The Secretary must write a rule that uses a formula to figure out the minimum money each Bureau-funded school needs each year. The formula must count how many eligible Indian students and total students the school has, special cost issues (like isolation, extra staff or transportation, food and housing, building repairs, dorm costs, longer teacher service, therapy programs, and costs for gifted students), the cost to give academic services equal to the State public schools, whether the money will let the school meet accreditation rules, and any other relevant factors. After the education standards from section 2002 are set, the Secretary must update the formula to cover the costs of those standards. By January 1, 2003, the Secretary had to review the formula and take action to increase counseling and therapeutic programs in off-reservation dormitories and other Bureau residential places, and make sure parents are notified and give consent for those programs. Federal funds for regular school operations must be split pro rata using that formula. Starting in fiscal year 2003 and every year after, the formula must be adjusted so that each 7th and 8th grade eligible student counts as 1.2 units, any school with fewer than 50 eligible students is treated as having 50 average daily attendance for small-school funding, residential services less than 9 months are counted when the school board and supervisor agree, each full-time gifted eligible student counts as 2.0 units, and each eligible student in a year-long Indian or Native language credit course counts as 0.25 units (after the school board certifies the curriculum and the appropriation Act sets aside funds so other schools are not reduced). From each school’s allotment, the local school board may reserve either $8,000 or, if larger, up to the lesser of $15,000 or 1 percent of the allotment for board activities. New board members must get 40 hours of training within their first year; this training is recommended (not required) for tribal governing bodies that act as school boards. The Secretary must set aside 1 percent of available funds each year for emergencies; those funds can only pay for education services or emergency repairs at a schoolsite, stay available without year limit until spent (but the total held across years cannot exceed 1 percent of the current year funds), and their use must be reported to Congress in the annual budget. Supplemental pay-raise appropriations must be distributed here. An “eligible Indian student” is one who (1) is a tribal member or at least one-fourth Indian blood descendant of a member of a tribe eligible for Bureau services, (2) lives on or near a reservation or qualifies for off-reservation dormitory attendance, and (3) is enrolled in a Bureau-funded school. Eligible Indian students (and certain others attending under specified rules) cannot be charged tuition. The Secretary may allow non-eligible students to attend if it won’t hurt the school’s program, the school board agrees, the student is a dependent of a Bureau, Indian Health Service, or tribal employee who lives on or near the school, or tuition is paid at no more than the nearby public district’s out-of-district rate and is added on top of the school’s allotment. Contract and grant schools may also admit non-eligible students and keep any tuition in addition to their funding. A school board may choose to keep up to 15 percent of its yearly allocation without fiscal year limits. For the Richfield, Utah dormitory, tuition for out-of-State Indian students who attend Sevier County high schools must be paid from these funds at no more than the weighted per-student amount, and no extra administrative funds are provided for those students.