School districts in the region seem to be in favor of a change by the Idaho State Board of Education to temporarily move to enrollment-based funding rather than average daily attendance.
The change was approved at a board meeting Wednesday, which extended a temporary change that was made last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The board will also present legislation during the 2022 legislative session to make the shift to enrollment-based funding permanent. Lewiston School District Superintendent Lance Hansen said the move was a welcomed change as well as the conversation of making the change permanent. Hansen said that regardless of attendance, the school still staffs and supplies classrooms for the total number of enrolled students.
The attendance-based funding creates a funding gap between smaller and larger districts, a concern also noted by Hansen. For example, 45 students missing a day in a district of 500 students would create a larger loss of funding than 45 students in a bigger district like Lewiston, which has more than 4,800 students. (Lewiston Tribune)
