129th MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 1916		LR 2862(02)
	An Act To Increase High School Graduation Rates for Students Experiencing Homelessness or in Foster Care
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment " "
	Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
	Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
Potential State Mandate - Unfunded
State Mandates
	Required Activity				Unit Affected	Local Cost
	Requires a responsible school to provide every new student experiencing education disruption with an adult staff or volunteer mentor to facilitate the student's transition to the new school.				School	Moderate statewide
	Adds migrant students and immigrant students to the number of students to which a responsible school must:				School	Moderate statewide
	1) provide support for and assist in the completion and submission of an application for a Department of Education diploma if requested to do so;
	2) provide staff assistance to ensure the complete transfer of all records, grades, full and partial credits and all academic material;
	3) develop or update a school work recognition plan within 10 days of the school becoming aware of the student experiencing education disruption; and
	4) make individual educational materials such as curricula and assignments available within 5 days of the school becoming aware that the student is experiencing a period of absence due to education disruption.
	The required local activities in this bill may represent a state mandate pursuant to the Constitution of Maine. If the bill does require a local unit of government to expand or modify its activities so as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenue, the state mandate provisions of the Constitution of Maine require either: (1) General Fund appropriations be provided to fund at least 90% of any additional necessitated local costs of the mandate; or (2) a Mandate Preamble be added to the bill and two-thirds of the members of each House vote to exempt the mandate from the funding requirement. If the bill does represent a state mandate and neither one of these actions occurs, the local units of government will not be required to implement the mandated activities.
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	To the extent that volunteer mentors are available to facilitate the transition of a new student that is experiencing education disruption to the new school, the fiscal impact to the responsible school may be mitigated.  The impact to individual school administrative units will depend on the number of students experiencing education disruption due to migrancy or immigration attending the school.