Arizona Laws 15-915. Correction of state aid or budget limit errors; definition
A. If the superintendent of public instruction determines that the calculation of state aid for a school district or charter school or the calculation of the school district’s or charter school’s budget limits within the previous three years did not conform with statutory requirements, the superintendent shall require correction of the errors as follows:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 15-915
- Average daily membership: means the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students, minus withdrawals, of each school day through the first one hundred days or two hundred days in session, as applicable, for the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
- Budget year: means the fiscal year for which the school district is budgeting and that immediately follows the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
- Charter school: means a public school established by contract with 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 pursuant to article 8 of this chapter to provide learning that will improve pupil achievement. See Arizona Laws 15-101
- Current year: means the fiscal year in which a school district is operating. See Arizona Laws 15-901
- Governing board: means a body organized for the government and management of the schools within a school district or a county school superintendent in the conduct of an accommodation school. See Arizona Laws 15-101
- Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- School district: means a political subdivision of this state with geographic boundaries organized for the purpose of the administration, support and maintenance of the public schools or an accommodation school. See Arizona Laws 15-101
- Subject: means a division or field of organized knowledge, such as English or mathematics, or a selection from an organized body of knowledge for a course or teaching unit, such as the English novel or elementary algebra. See Arizona Laws 15-101
1. Corrections may be made in the current year or in the budget year, except that in case of hardship to the school district, the superintendent may approve corrections partly in one year and partly in the year after that year.
2. Errors in the calculation of state aid shall be corrected by increasing or decreasing the state aid to the school district or charter school in the year or years in which the correction is made.
3. Errors in the calculation of the school district’s or charter school’s budget limits shall be corrected at a public hearing by requiring the governing board to reduce or by allowing it to increase its budget by the amount of the correction to be made that year. Overbudgeting errors corrected as provided in this paragraph are exempt from section 15-905, subsections L and M. Not later than three days after the hearing and correction, the budget as revised shall be submitted electronically to the superintendent of public instruction. This paragraph does not require a decrease in state aid that is not otherwise required by paragraph 2 of this subsection.
B. Subject to the review by the joint legislative budget committee, the superintendent of public instruction shall adjust state aid for a school district in the current year if the governing board of a school district requests the recalculation of state aid for a prior year due to a change in assessed valuation that occurred as the result of any of the following:
1. A court judgment in accordance with section 42-16213.
2. A decision by a county board of equalization in accordance with section 42-16108.
3. A decision by the state board of equalization in accordance with section 42-16162.
4. The correction of a property tax error pursuant to Title 42, Chapter 16, Article 6.
C. Notwithstanding subsection A of this section, a school district or charter school may not make upward revisions to its average daily membership counts for a particular school year after June 30 of the subsequent school year.
D. For the purposes of this section, "state aid":
1. For school districts, means state aid as determined in section 15-971 and additional state aid as determined in section 15-972.
2. For charter schools, means state aid as determined in section 15-185.