Additional K-12 funding; early childhood, some HHS also included

Education in Minnesota will get a $43 million boost in funding for the fiscal year 2025, with much of the new spending going to increasing student literacy in Minnesota.

Sponsored by Rep. Cheryl Youakim (DFL-Hopkins) and Sen. Mary Kunesh (DFL-New Brighton), a new law increases education spending by more than $43 million in fiscal year 2025.

In addition to K-12 provisions, language related to children and families and health and human services are in the law that takes effect July 1, 2024, unless otherwise noted.

HF5237*/SF5252/CH115

READ Act

The bulk of the new one-time spending — $37.22 million in fiscal year 2025 — is directed to the Minnesota Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act.

According to the Department of Education, “The goal of the Minnesota READ Act is to have every child reading at or above grade level every year, beginning in kindergarten, and to support multilingual learners and students receiving special education services in achieving their individualized reading goals.”

The total breaks down as:

• $31.37 million to complete teacher training;

• $4 million for professional development (effective May 20, 2024);

• $1 million to develop supplemental culturally responsive materials for approved curricula;

• $375,000 for the regional literacy networks to develop training for paraprofessionals and volunteers;

• $375,000 for the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota to develop training for paraprofessionals and volunteers; and

• $100,000 for a Read Act Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing Working Group that is charged to “make recommendations on literacy training, screeners, and curriculum for students who cannot fully access sound-based approaches such as phonics.” (Art. 3, Secs. 1-2, 6, 8).

The law also expands uses of literacy incentive aid to include employing an intervention specialist, screeners, and stipends for teachers completing training required under the Read Act; and modifies distribution of 2024 appropriation for curriculum and intervention materials and requires funding to be distributed as aid to districts at the greater of $2,000 or $39.91 times the number of students served (Art. 3, Secs. 3-5).

Voluntary pre-kindergarten

Effective May 20, 2025, the law increases the number of voluntary prekindergarten and school readiness plus seats from 7,160 to 12,360 for fiscal year 2025. It also increases funding in fiscal year 2025 in across many education areas to pay the costs attributable to additional voluntary prekindergarten seats.

The increase was funded with $50 million in a 2023 law and a repealer makes those funds available on July 1, 2024, for implementation of the expansion.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2026: scholarship payments for early care and learning programs are to be made prior to or at the beginning of the delivery of services, rather than after services have been provided; and a process must be implemented for transferring scholarship awards between programs when initiated by a scholarship recipient. (Art. 11, Secs. 1-2, 7)

Educational excellence

Per the law, the Department of Education will be required to adopt statewide standards in health education; beginning in fiscal year 2026, the maximum Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools support grant will be capped at $500,000 and start-up grant for a new applicant or a technical and assistance grant cannot exceed $50,000; and student eligibility standards for members of the Minnesota Youth Council will change from between the ages of 13 and 19 to students in grades 8 through 12.

Effective Jan. 1, 2025, a school board or a charter school will be permitted to adopt a model cardiac emergency response plan created by the department.

Until Aug. 1, 2026, a school district will be permitted to publish official notices online and at the local public library if the community’s newspaper closes. If a qualified newspaper begins operation before then, the exemption shall not apply if “the qualified newspaper's legal rate is not more than ten percent above the rate charged by the school district's previous official newspaper and the qualified newspaper provides some coverage of the activities of the school district that is publishing the notice.”

A task force is established to “analyze how public schools use English learner revenue at the site level and administrative level, consider how microcredentials or other certifications may be used to improve collaboration between teachers working with English learners, and make recommendations on how English learner revenue can be used more effectively to help students become proficient in English and participate meaningfully and equally in education programs.”

Effective May 20, 2024, a pilot program is established in 12 Minnesota school districts to support developing and implementing innovative strategies to improve student attendance, and help policymakers determine how to effectively support district efforts to improve student attendance and engagement. The pilot program is effective for the 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 school years, and a report is due the Legislature Dec. 31, 2024; July 1, 2025; July 1, 2026; and Sept 1, 2027.

Also effective May 20, 2024, a legislative study group is established to study issues related to student attendance and truancy. A final report is due Dec. 31, 2024.

Other fiscal year 2025 educational funding includes:

• almost $4.69 million for attendance pilot program aid;

• $2.76 million to the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board for information technology costs. The onetime appropriation can be spent over three years;

• $627,000 for rulemaking associated with the health education standards;

• $625,000 to the Minnesota Alliance with youth for the Promise Fellow program

• $375,000 for activities of the Minnesota Youth Council;

• a $250,000 grant to the St. Cloud School District for an emergency medical services education facility suitable for coursework in emergency medical services (effective May 20, 2024);

• $150,000 for the YMCA Youth in Government program and YMCA Center for Youth Voice program to support civic education;

• $117,000 for the English learner program task force; and

• $64,000 for the student attendance and truancy legislative study group.

Further, the law Increases equalization aid in fiscal year 2025 in the local optional revenue program, thereby reducing the local optional levy to offset other statewide increases in market value levies attributable to additional voluntary prekindergarten seats authorized in the law. It also, effective for revenue in fiscal year 2025 and later, modifies the compensatory education revenue program and extends the statewide compensatory revenue hold harmless beyond fiscal year 2027; and Includes a district’s area learning center transportation aid in the calculation of the pupil transportation adjustment. (Art. 1, Secs. 8, 13, 15, 19-22; Art. 2, Secs. 1-7, 10-11, 13, 19-22; Art. 10, Sec. 5)

Teachers

Effective May 20, 2024, a school district or charter school that alters its calendar due to a weather event, public health emergency, or any other circumstance, is required to pay full wages and benefits to all school employees for their scheduled work hours if that day is counted as an instructional day. Employees may be allowed to work from home to the extent practicable.

To benefit students looking to become teachers, a student teaching stipend pilot program is crated at seven public and one private postsecondary institution. Requires each qualifying postsecondary institution to provide a stipend to each student teacher placed in a Minnesota public school for a 12-week student teaching experience. Stipend income does not count toward a recipients’ definition of income for purposes of eligibility for certain income assistance programs. A final report is due to the Legislature by July 1, 2025.

A Teacher and Paraprofessional Compensation Working Group is established, effective May 20, 2024, to advise the Legislature on strategies and recommendations to provide competitive compensation to teachers and paraprofessionals in Minnesota elementary, middle, and secondary schools. A report is due by Feb. 14, 2025.

For the 2024-25 school year, the annual required minimum hours of training for paraprofessionals from is reduced from eight to six hours, and schools must pay the training and testing fees.

The Department of Education and Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board must work with school administrators and groups representing paraprofessionals, to examine and revise the test cut scores and competency grid used to qualify paraprofessionals.

Effective May 20, 2024, tribal contract schools can apply for a teacher preparation program grant that meets the requirements to establish a Grow Your Own pathway for adults to obtain their first professional teaching license. A tribal contract school can also participate in the special education teacher pipeline program.

Other fiscal year 2025 provisions in the law include:

• $6,54 million for paid student teacher pilot program;

• $1.03 million for grants to the four intermediate school districts for their special education registered apprenticeship program;

• $1 million for the aspiring teachers of color scholarship program;

• $150,000 for the Teacher and Paraprofessional Compensation Working Group. (Art. 5, Secs. 1, 4-9, 11, 19-24)

New positions

The Office of the Inspector General, established and funded by the 2023 Legislature, is statutorily charged with protecting the integrity of the department and the state by detecting and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in department programs. Its statutory charges were significantly beefed up this year.

The inspector general must report directly to the commissioner.

Per the law, “For the purpose of an investigation, the inspector general or a designee may administer oaths and affirmations, subpoena witnesses, compel attendance, take evidence, and issue subpoenas duces tecum to require the production of books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, agreements, financial records, or other documents or records relevant to the investigation.”

An employee who discloses information to the office about fraud, waste, or abuse in department programs is protected under the state’s whistleblower statute. (Art. 10, Secs. 1-2)

A state school librarian position is added at the Department of Education effective July 1, 2024, to, in part, “provide advice and guidance in academic standards development and statewide library data collection from district and charter schools, and related activities … (and) support district and charter schools on issues of intellectual freedom, media and digital literacy, and growing lifelong readers.” Beginning in fiscal year 2026, $130,000 from the amount appropriated for school library aid will fund the position; (Art. 9, Secs. 2, 6; Art. 10, Sec. 3)

Child protection and welfare

Each county shall establish a multidisciplinary local child mortality review team and shall participate in local critical incident reviews that are based on safety science principles to support a culture of learning.

A child mortality review panel is to be established by the Department of Human Services to review critical incidents attributed to child maltreatment. Its purpose is to identify systemic changes to improve child safety and well-being and recommend modifications in statute, rule, policy, and procedure.

Effective July 1, 2025, the chief justice is permitted to establish a Supreme Court Council on Child Protection to “develop a comprehensive blueprint for improvement that addresses all aspects of the child protection system, including prevention and early intervention.” A final report is due the Legislature and governor by Jan. 15, 2026. The law appropriates $1 million to establish the council.

Effective May 20, 2024, “the commissioner of children, youth, and families must review current child maltreatment reporting processes and systems in various states and evaluate the costs and benefits of each reviewed state's system. … The commissioner must develop recommendations on implementing a statewide child abuse and neglect reporting system in Minnesota and outline the benefits, challenges, and costs of such a transition.” A report is due the Legislature by June 1, 2025. The review will be conducted with a $200,000 fiscal year 2025 appropriation. (Art. 12, Secs. 27, 30-31; Art. 22, Sec. 2)

Housing and Homelessness

The law requires the state to identify emergency shelter needs for transgender adults experiencing homelessness, conduct a site analysis, and develop a shelter plan. Propel Nonprofits, who will perform the study for $150,000, must submit a report by March 1, 2025.

The Wilder Foundation is provided $150,000 to study “the statewide numbers and unique needs of pregnant and parenting youth experiencing homelessness; and best practices in supporting pregnant and parenting homeless youth within programming, emergency shelter, and housing settings.” A report is due the Department of Human Services by Dec. 31, 2025. (Art. 14, Sec. 1; Art. 22, Sec. 2)

Child care

A licensed child care center or a licensed family child care program can adopt an immunization policy that prohibits a child over 2 months of age from enrolling in or remaining enrolled in the center or program if the child is not immunized and is not exempt from immunization.

Provisions in this article include a requirement that the Department of Children, Youth and Families implement a new weighted risk system that creates a tiered enforcement framework for all child care centers and providers to reflect the level of risk a violation poses to children. Once that system is in place, the current child care “fix-it tickets” would expire.

First aid and CPR training requirements for people who work in licensed family child care settings are also modified.

A licensed child care center can provide water to children in reusable water bottles or reusable cups if the water bottle or cup is taken home to be cleaned and sanitized each day it is used.

The name of a person who reports suspected fraudulent activity in the child care assistance program must be kept confidential. The subject of the report may compel disclosure of the reporter’s name only in specified circumstances.

Effective Oct. 1, 2024, staff in certified, license-exempt child care centers must complete first aid and CPR training within 90 days after the first date of direct contact with a child.

The Department of Human Services must develop a continuous license process for family child foster care licenses. (Art. 15, Secs. 1-3; Art. 18, Sec. 6; Art. 19, Secs. 5, 14, 24, 29)

Parents with disabilities

Effective Aug. 1, 2024, a court cannot deny a prospective adoptive parent the ability to proceed with an adoption due to the prospective parent's disability; nor can a petition be filed alleging that a child needs protection or services on the basis of a parent's disability.

Additionally, a court should not deny a parent parenting time with their children because a parent has a disability unless the parent has specific behaviors that would endanger the health or safety of the child. The parent should be given an opportunity to use supportive services to alleviate concerns. (Art. 18, Secs. 24-25, 32, 47)

More policy in the law

• effective May 20, 2024, psychotherapy for crisis is included as an eligible for medical assistance when the recipient needs an immediate response due to specific mental illness symptoms;

• a task force is created to examine the distribution of earnings from the permanent school fund. It is funded with $64,000. A report is due to the Legislature by Jan. 15, 2026; and

• elimination of a requirement that Minnesota Management and Budget prepare an annual report outlining the federal fiscal effects that could occur if the state were to opt out of federal education accountability standard requirements;

• an intergovernmental advisory committee is established to provide advice, consultation, and recommendations to the Department of Children, Youth and Families on the planning, design, administration, funding, and evaluation of services to children, youth, and families;

• makes technical and conforming changes to the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act , and modifies definitions, requirements for appointment of counsel, and child placement case procedures involving American Indian children; and

• an adoption disclosure must include a statement regarding the right of an adopted person to request and obtain a copy of the person’s original birth record and the right of the birth parent to file a contact preference form with the state registrar. (Art. 7, Sec. 3; Art. 10, Secs. 4, 6-7; Art. 16, Sec. 2; Art. 17, Secs. 1-56)

Children and families appropriations

The law makes a number of appropriations in fiscal year 2025 to various agencies for purposes related to children and families, some of which include:

• $9.66 million for information technology improvements to the outdated Social Services Information System used by more than 6,000 workers around the state each day to track and manage child welfare case work;

• $3.39 million for emergency services grants;

• $2.39 million for Minnesota's regional food banks contracted with for the purposes

of the emergency food assistance program;

• $2 million for the Minnesota food shelf program;

• $1.13 million for the child care improvement grant program;

• $1 million for the American Indian food sovereignty funding program;

• $550,000 for the supporting relative caregiver grants program;

• $500,000 from the federal child care and development block grant for professional development for child care providers. (Art. 22, Sec. 2)

HF5237* / SF5252 / CH115