Summary:

 Senate Bill 516 (SB 516), relating to public schools, requires school district and charter school financial monitoring. SB 516 requires the Public Education Department to synthesize school district and charter school financial monitoring data and publish an annual return on investment report for public education. SB 516 makes an appropriation. 

Legislation Overview:

 Senate Bill 516 requires school district and charter school financial monitoring.
SECTION 1 adds a new section of the Public School Code: SCHOOL DISTRICT AND CHARTER SCHOOL FINANCIAL MONITORING--STATEWIDE RETURN ON INVESTMENT REPORT FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION.-- 
A. Each local school board and governing body of a charter school shall adopt a financial monitoring system to collect and analyze record-level data for operational and programmatic expenditures and for student demographics, performance and outcomes. No later than June 30 after each school year, schools shall publish on their websites a financial monitoring report based on the data collected and analyzed and shall submit the data to the department. Schools may use a commercial data analytics service to meet the requirements of this subsection and include the contract price for such service in a budget. 
B. The department shall develop or adopt a process for synthesizing school district and charter school data collected pursuant to Subsection A to determine the effect of school spending on student achievement statewide. On or before October 1 of each year, the department shall publish and submit to the governor and the legislature a return on investment report that outlines how expenditures for public education correlate with student achievement. The return on investment report shall include recommendations for optimizing future spending for maximized improvement in student achievement.
SECTION 2 makes an appropriation of $10,000,000 from the General Fund to the Public Education Department (PED) for expenditure in Fiscal Year 2026 to cover the costs for the PED, local school boards and governing bodies of charter schools to comply with the provisions of Section 1. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of Fiscal Year 2026 shall revert to the General Fund.  

Amendments:

 Senate Bill 516 (SB 516) is amended by the Senate Education Committee as follows:
The title is amended to provide the Public Education Department (PED) more latitude in public school monitoring to change the language to read “allow” rather than require monitoring and to to require the PED to synthesize the financial data that is “available”.
SECTION 1 in SCHOOL DISTRICT AND CHARTER SCHOOL FINANCIAL MONITORING, Subsection A is amended to specify that a board or governing body “may” adopt a financial monitoring system” and provide that the data shall be published on their websites IF they adopt a financial monitoring system. Subsection A also is amended to allow a board or governing body to use a commercial data analytics service to “collect and analyze data in accordance with” this subsection. 
In Subsection B, “available” is inserted in regard to synthesizing data collected pursuant to Subsection A.