Arizona HB 2576: appropriation; St. Michael's chapter house

Bill Text

HB2576 - 572R - I Ver 

 REFERENCE TITLE: school funding; inflation adjustment

 State of Arizona

 House of Representatives

 Fifty-seventh Legislature

 Second Regular Session

 2026

 HB 2576

 Introduced by 

 Representatives 
 Gutierrez: Abeytia, Austin, Blattman, Cavero, Connolly, Contreras P, Crews, 
 De Los Santos, Garcia, Liguori, Mathis, Simacek, Stahl Hamilton, Travers, 
 Villegas

AN 
ACT

amending sections 15-185 and 15-961, 
Arizona Revised Statutes; relating to school finance.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 15-185, Arizona Revised 
Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE15-185. Charter schools; financing; civil penalties; transportation; 
definition

A. A school district is not financially responsible 
for any charter school that is sponsored by the state board of education, the 
state board for charter schools, a university under the jurisdiction of the 
Arizona board of regents, a community college district or a group of community 
college districts.

B. Financial provisions for a charter school that is 
sponsored by the state board of education, the state board for charter schools, 
a university, a community college district or a group of community college 
districts are as follows:

1. The charter school shall calculate a base support 
level as prescribed in section 15-943, except that:

(a) Section 15-941 does not apply to these 
charter schools.

(b) The small school weights prescribed in section 
15-943, paragraph 1 apply if a charter holder holds one charter for one 
or more school sites and the average daily membership for the school sites are 
combined for the calculation of the small school weight. The small 
school weight shall not be applied individually to a charter holder if one or 
more of the following conditions exist and the combined average daily 
membership derived from the following conditions is greater than six hundred:

(i) The organizational structure or management 
agreement of the charter holder requires the charter holder or charter school 
to contract with a specific management company. 

(ii) The governing body of the charter holder has 
identical membership to another charter holder in this state.

(iii) The charter holder is a subsidiary of a 
corporation that has other subsidiaries that are charter holders in this state.

(iv) The charter holder holds more than one charter 
in this state. 

(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b) of this 
paragraph, for fiscal years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, the department 
of education shall reduce by thirty-three percent the amount provided by 
the small school weight for charter schools prescribed in subdivision (b) of 
this paragraph.

2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1 of this subsection, 
the student count shall be determined initially using an estimated student 
count based on actual registration of pupils before the beginning of the school 
year.� Notwithstanding section 15-1042, subsection F, student level data 
submitted to the department may be used to determine estimated student counts.� 
After the first forty days, one hundred days or two hundred days in session, as 
applicable, the charter school shall revise the student count to be equal to 
the actual average daily membership, as defined in section 15-901, of the 
charter school. Before the fortieth day, one hundredth day or two 
hundredth day in session, as applicable, the state board of education, the 
state board for charter schools, the sponsoring university, the sponsoring 
community college district or the sponsoring group of community college 
districts may require a charter school to report periodically regarding pupil 
enrollment and attendance, and the department of education may revise its 
computation of equalization assistance based on the report. A 
charter school shall revise its student count, base support level and charter 
additional assistance before May 15.� A charter school that overestimated its 
student count shall revise its budget before May 15. A charter 
school that underestimated its student count may revise its budget before May 
15.

3. A charter school may use section 15-855 for 
the purposes of this section. The charter school and the department 
of education shall prescribe procedures for determining average daily 
membership.

4. Equalization assistance for the charter school 
shall be determined by adding the amount of the base support level and charter 
additional assistance. The amount of the charter additional 
assistance is $2,131.90 per student count in preschool programs for children 
with disabilities, kindergarten programs and grades one through eight and 
$2,484.69 per student count in grades nine through twelve.� Beginning 
in fiscal year 2026-2027, the legislature shall increase the amount of 
charter additional assistance by at least two percent.� for fiscal year 
2027�2028 and each fiscal year thereafter, the legislature shall increas