Arkansas Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Stacy Smith (right) discusses draft rules with state board of education members during a work session in Little Rock on March 6, 2024. | Arkansas Advocate photo by Antoinette Grajeda
By ANTOINETTE GRAJEDA | Arkansas Advocate
The Arkansas State Board of Education approved Thursday an emergency rule to implement new legislation governing the creation of newly formed smaller school districts.
During April’s session, lawmakers approved legislation outlining the process for providing funding and separating assets when a school district detaches from a district it was previously consolidated with to form an isolated district.
Stacy Smith, Deputy Commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education, told the board the emergency rule expands access to funding that has been provided to districts after they are consolidated or annexed.
Under the change, the funding would also be available to a district that lost territory due to a detachment.
The emergency rule is effective for four months, Smith said.
The districts had been consolidated with neighboring ones under a 2003 law that was enacted in response to a decade-long school funding case.
The board also released a permanent version of the rule for a 30-day public comment period. Feedback will inform any revisions to the proposed rule, which will require final approval from the education board and review by the Arkansas Legislative Council before taking effect.
Under the recently approved legislation, all personal property located in a resulting isolated school district that is the property of the existing district at the time of an election approving the detachment shall be transferred to the isolated district.
An isolated district also assumes all the debt of the existing district if the debt is related to the real property transferred to the isolated district.
The legislation also requires the existing district to transfer to the isolated district 90% of the per-student funding awarded by the state for each student who attended the isolated school.
The state will provide public schools $8,037 per student for the 2026-2027 year. Lawmakers will resume their work next week on a biennial process to determine how much per-student funding should be provided for the 2027-2028 and 2028-2029 academic years to provide an adequate education to Arkansas students.
The legislation outlining the isolated district funding process was added to the appropriation bill for the education department’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Details about providing comments on the proposed rule will be posted to the education department’s website.
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