1997 Minnesota Code
Chapters 120 - 129B Education Code: Prekindergarten - Grade 12
Chapter 124 Education Finance
Section 124.15 Reduction of aid for violation of law.

124.15 Reduction of aid for violation of law.

Subdivision 1. The amount of special state aids to which a district is entitled shall be the amount computed according to statutes. The annual state aid certificate made by the commissioner to the commissioner of finance shall show the amount of any reductions made.

Subd. 2. Whenever the board of the district authorizes or permits within the district violations of law by:

(1) employment in a public school of the district of a teacher who does not hold a valid teaching license or permit, or

(2) noncompliance with a mandatory rule of general application promulgated by the state board in accordance with statute in the absence of special circumstances making enforcement thereof inequitable, contrary to the best interest of, or imposing an extraordinary hardship on, the district affected, or

(3) continued performance by the district of a contract made for the rental of rooms or buildings for school purposes or for the rental of any facility owned or operated by or under the direction of any private organization, which contract has been disapproved where time for review of the determination of disapproval has expired and no proceeding for review is pending, or

(4) any practice which is a violation of sections 1 and 2 of article 13 of the Constitution of the state of Minnesota, or

(5) failure to provide reasonably for the school attendance to which a resident pupil is entitled under Minnesota Statutes, or

(6) noncompliance with state laws prohibiting discrimination because of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, status with regard to public assistance or disability, as defined in section 363.03,

the special state aid to which a district is otherwise entitled for any school year shall be reduced in the amount and upon the procedure provided in this section or, in the case of the violation stated in clause (1), upon the procedure provided in section 124.19, subdivision 3.

Subd. 2a. After consultation with the commissioner of human rights, the state board of education shall adopt rules in conformance with chapter 14 which direct school districts to file with the commissioner of children, families, and learning assurances of compliance with state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination and which specify the information required to be submitted in support of the assurances. The commissioner of children, families, and learning shall provide copies of the assurances and the supportive information to the commissioner of human rights. If, after reviewing the assurances and the supportive information it appears that one or more violations of the Minnesota human rights act are occurring in the district, the commissioner of human rights shall notify the commissioner of children, families, and learning of the violations, and the commissioner of children, families, and learning may then proceed pursuant to subdivision 3.

Subd. 3. When it appears that one or more of the violations enumerated is occurring in a district, the commissioner shall forthwith notify the board of that district in writing thereof. Such notice shall specify the violations, set a reasonable time within which the district shall correct the specified violations, describe the correction required, and advise that if the correction is not made within the time allowed, special state aids to the district will be reduced. The time allowed for correction may be extended by the commissioner if there is reasonable ground therefor.

Subd. 4. The board to which such notice is given may by a majority vote of the whole board decide to dispute that the specified violation exists or that the time allowed is reasonable or the correction specified is correct, or that the commissioner may reduce aids, in which case written notice of such decision shall be given the commissioner. If the commissioner, after such further investigation as the commissioner deems necessary, adheres to the previous notice, such board shall be entitled to a hearing by the state board, in which event a time and place shall be set therefor and notice be given by mail to the board of the district. The state board shall adopt rules governing the proceedings for hearings which shall be designed to give a full and fair hearing and permit interested parties an opportunity to produce evidence relating to the issues involved. Such rules may provide that any question of fact to be determined upon such review may be referred to one or more members of the board or to an employee of the state board acting as a referee to hear evidence and report to the state board the testimony taken. The state board, or any person designated to receive evidence upon a review under this act, shall have the same right to issue subpoenas and administer oaths and parties to the review shall have the same right to subpoenas issued as are accorded with respect to proceedings before the industrial commission. There shall be a stenographic record made of all testimony given and other proceedings during such hearing, and as far as practicable rules governing reception of evidence in courts shall obtain. The decision of the state board shall be in writing and the controlling facts upon which the decision is made shall be stated in sufficient detail to apprise the parties and the reviewing court the basis and reason of the decision. The decision shall be confined to whether or not the specified violations or any of them existed at the date of the commissioner's first notice, whether such violations as did exist were corrected within the time permitted, and whether such violations require reduction of the state aids under this section.

Subd. 5. Violation; aid reduction. If the violation specified is corrected within the time permitted, or if the commissioner on being notified of the district board's decision to dispute decides the violation does not exist, or if the state board decides after hearing no violation specified in the commissioner's notice existed at the time of it, or that any that existed were corrected within the time permitted, there shall be no reduction of state aids payable to the school district. Otherwise state aids payable to the district for the year in which the violation occurred shall be reduced as follows: The total amount of state aids to which the district may be entitled shall be reduced in the proportion that the period during which a specified violation continued, computed from the last day of the time permitted for correction, bears to the total number of days school is held in the district during the year in which a violation exists, multiplied by 60 percent of the basic revenue, as defined in section 124A.22, subdivision 2, of the district for that year.

Subd. 6. Reductions in aid under this section and section 124.19 shall be from general education aid. If there is not sufficient general education aid remaining to be paid for the school year in which the violation occurred, the reduction shall be from the other aids listed in section 124.155, subdivision 2, that are payable to the district for that year in the order in which the aids are listed in section 124.155, subdivision 2. If there is not a sufficient amount of state aids remaining payable to the district for the school year in which the violation occurred to permit the full amount of reduction required, that part of the required reduction not taken from that school year's aids will be taken from the state aids payable to the district for the next school year, and the reduction will be made from the various aids payable for the next year in the order above specified.

Subd. 7. Appeal. A decision of the state board under this section may be appealed in accordance with chapter 14.

Subd. 8. Any notice to be given the board of a district will be deemed given when a copy thereof is mailed, registered, to the superintendent of the district, if there is a superintendent, and to the clerk of the board of the district, unless it is shown that neither the superintendent nor the clerk in fact received such notice in the ordinary course of mail, in which event time for correction will be accordingly extended by the commissioner so that a reasonable time will be allowed from actual receipt of notice for correction. If notice is sent by the commissioner with respect to a violation which is continued by the district in a succeeding year, no separate notice for that violation for the succeeding year will be required. Proceedings initiated by such notice shall include any continuing violation notwithstanding that a part thereof occurs in a year different from that in which it started. The commissioner may require reasonable proof of the time that a violation ceased for the determination of the amount of aids to be withheld. Costs and disbursements of the review by the district court, exclusive of those incurred in the administrative proceedings, may be taxed against the losing party and in the event taxed against the state shall be paid from the appropriations made to the department for the payment of special state aids.

HIST: Ex1959 c 71 art 5 s 15; 1963 c 203 s 1; 1965 c 51 s 18; 1973 c 492 s 14; 1975 c 59 s 3; 1975 c 162 s 29; 1975 c 173 s 1-3; 1976 c 2 s 61,172; 1978 c 706 s 30; 1978 c 764 s 38,39; 1982 c 424 s 130; 1983 c 247 s 58; 1983 c 314 art 7 s 23; 1985 c 248 s 70; 1986 c 444; 1988 c 486 s 21,22; 1Sp1995 c 3 art 16 s 13